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It has been a few years, but there’s nothing quite like PISA Day to remind you of everything that is wrong with PISA Day.

The latest scores came out this week, marking the 25th anniversary of the international school tests that have had an enormous – and still contested – influence on school policy across the globe.

The headline for Scotland is that scores were static, and either in line with or not too far above average despite a wider international pattern of decline.

But from the reaction, you would think that the UN Security Council had called for armed intervention to save Scottish children from the damage being done by their schools.

We saw embarrassing scenes in the Scottish Parliament with politicians – few if any of whom could engage in a meaningful discussion about international education trends – using PISA as an excuse to shout, scream, stamp their feet, and generally do anything but engage with the latest data in a meaningful and grown up way.

Out in the Badlands of social media the response has arguably been worse. As with so many other issues, PISA scores and the league tables they generate have been presented as incontrovertible evidence for any number of pre-existing assumptions: that Curriculum for Excellence is the root cause of Scotland’s long-term decline; that the SNP has failed Scotland’s children; that not enough pupils are........

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