Why Access to Mathematics Matters and How it Can be Measured

This chapter discusses the importance of mathematics knowledge for acquiring numeracy skills and developing problem-solving abilities. It presents the concept of “opportunity to learn” and argues that measuring opportunity to learn is of critical importance for international comparisons of curricula and student performance. An overview of the data on opportunity to learn in PISA 2012 shows that education systems differ greatly in the degree to which students are exposed to mathematics concepts and also in the way mathematics problems are formulated and presented to students.