As of April 2025, NCES’s assurances of confidentiality protections for PISA 2025 have changed due to recent staffing changes at the Department of Education. NCES has removed the Foundations of Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Title III, Part B, Confidential Information Protection (“CIPSEA”) as a confidentiality assurance. However, confidentiality assurances under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA) remain in effect. NCES will consider restoring CIPSEA protections for future PISA collections as appropriate.
By law, no person may use any individually identifiable information collected as part of PISA 2025 for any purpose other than research, statistics, or evaluation; make any publication whereby the data furnished by any particular person for PISA 2025 can be identified; or permit any unauthorized individual to examine individual data (20 U.S.C. § 9573). Violation of these restrictions is a felony, punishable by imprisonment of up to 5 years and/or a fine of up to $250,000.
