A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to direct the Department of public instruction to administer the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development programme for international student ASSESSMENT in a sample of north carolina schools.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  Of the funds appropriated to the Department of Public Instruction for the 2015‑2016 fiscal year, the Department shall use necessary funds to join and participate in the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA is a triennial international survey assessing the skills and knowledge of 15‑year‑old students in reading, mathematics, and science to provide data about education systems worldwide. The Department shall administer PISA to an independent sample of students in the 15‑year‑old age group in approximately 50 schools in North Carolina during the fall semester of the 2015‑2016 school year.
SECTION 1.(b)  The Department of Public Instruction shall report to the 2016 Regular Session of the 2015 General Assembly on the results of the PISA triennial survey administered in accordance with this act within 30 days of receiving those results. The report shall include comparative data from other participating states and countries.
SECTION 2.  G.S. 115C‑174.11(c)(2) reads as rewritten:
"(2)	If the State Board of Education finds that additional testing in grades three through 12 is desirable to allow comparisons with national indicators and international indicators of student achievement, that testing shall be conducted with the smallest size sample of students necessary to assure valid comparisons with other states and countries."
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.