This paper is a critical study of the theoretical foundations of the PISA reading test. To this it has tried to use as reference theory proposed by Paulo Freire in relation to reading, trying to offer a different approach to this type of international assessments, which are affecting the national educational politics. The research question focuses on determining the theoretical foundation of reading literacy in PISA and identify its main distances and tensions with the Freire theory. This study is speculative, the corpus of theory base is contrasted to highlight differences and tensions from a critical theory. The results showed significant differences and contradictions related to cognitive, representational codes, interpretive modes and especially a contrasting view of the reading subject.