IEA INSIDER 2025
IEA’s Sampling Unit: Tackling New Terrain BY SABINE MEINCK & TEAM Photo of the IEA Sampling team, June 2025 (missing from the frame is Sampling colleague Sabine Tieck)
The IEA Sampling Unit has been busier—and more visible—than ever. With a growing portfolio of studies, new methodological challenges, and research initiatives underway, the team has expanded both its expertise and impact.
PREPARING FOR PISA 2029 SAMPLE SELECTIONS Perhaps the most exciting news for the team this year was winning the bid for PISA Core C – Sampling. After nearly 30 years and nine PISA cycles, the OECD is transitioning to a new sampling contractor—and we are thrilled to take on this responsibility. With more than 100 participating countries, the project will require the full breadth of our experience and collaborative strength. SAMPLING VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS FOR ICCS 2027 ICCS 2027 introduced the eleventh year of schooling as a new target grade, with a specific focus on including students in vocational education. Given the diversity of vocational systems across countries, this presents a considerable challenge. Through close consultation with national teams, we aim to understand country-specific education pathways and design optimized sampling strategies for this important addition to ICCS. EXPANDING OUR PORTFOLIO TOWARD HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS (PIAAC) While most IEA studies focus on school-based assessments,
starting our work on the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) has taken us into new territory: household surveys. Unlike school-based assessments, household surveys like PIAAC introduce an additional layer of complexity, with individuals nested within households, and households within districts, cities, regions, and broader sampling frames. To respond to these new methodological challenges, the team has been actively expanding its expertise in designing representative, probability-based samples specifically tailored to the demands of household surveys. MAKING IT WORK WHERE IT’S HARDEST: LANA SAMPLING Another rewarding effort this year has been supporting the LaNA 2023 Linking Study (see page 26). Many participating countries had limited resources or were new to international assessments. We worked closely with national teams to develop flexible but reliable sampling strategies that met international standards. It was a first-of-its-kind effort—and a real success in demonstrating that meaningful data collection is possible even under tough conditions.
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