Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2001

PIRLS 2001 (2000—2003)

PIRLS 2001 was the first in a five-year-cycle of assessment that measures trends in children’s reading literacy achievement and policy and practices related to literacy. PIRLS examines three aspects of reading literacy: processes of comprehension, purposes for reading, and reading literacy behavior and attitudes. The first two aspects form the basis of the written test of reading comprehension. The PIRLS framework calls on students to demonstrate their understanding of a wide variety of texts classified under two major purposes of reading: acquiring and using information and gaining literary experience. Within these purposes, students are asked to engage in a full repertoire of reading skills and strategies, including focusing on and retrieving specific information, making straightforward inferences, interpreting and integrating ideas, and examining or evaluating text features. The third aspect, behavior and attitudes, is addressed by the student questionnaire. This and the parent, teacher, and school questionnaires gather information about home and school factors associated with the development of reading literacy, as well as about the larger context in which children live and learn. In addition, the countries that participated in the 1991 IEA Reading Literacy Study had the option to administer the 1991 test again to provide trends in their students’ reading literacy achievement over the period 1991–2001.

The PIRLS 2001 data were collected in May–April (Northern Hemisphere) and October– November (Southern Hemisphere) 2001.

Target Population

The target grade was the upper of the two adjacent grades with the most nine-year-olds. In most participating countries this is Grade 4. At this grade level, formal reading instruction is generally completed and transition from learning to read to reading to learn is taking place.

Participating Educational Systems

Argentina, Belize, Bulgaria, Canada (Ontario and Québec), Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, United States.

Nine countries participated in the 1991–2001 Trends Study: Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, and United States.

Key Findings

Sweden was the top-performing country, followed by the Netherlands, England, and Bulgaria. Sweden and England had the highest achievement for literary purposes. In reading for informational purposes, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Bulgaria were the top performers. In all countries, Grade 4 girls had significantly higher average achievement than Grade 4 boys.
Students in all countries had generally positive attitudes toward reading, and students with the most positive attitudes had the highest average achievement. More girls than boys had positive attitudes in all countries. More girls than boys reported reading stories or novels weekly, while comparable percentages of girls and boys read weekly for information.
In every country, there was a positive relationship between reading achievement and early literacy activities (such as reading books, telling stories, playing word games, etc.) before starting school. In every country, Grade 4 students from homes with many children’s books had higher reading achievement than those from homes with few children’s books. Students with highest reading achievement had parents who liked reading.
According to school principals across the countries, reading was emphasized more than any other area of the primary-school curriculum. Internationally, on average, teachers reported spending seven hours per week on language instruction.
Reading was a regular classroom activity. Reading fiction was much more widespread than reading non-fiction. For the majority of students, daily instruction based on a textbook or reading series was accompanied by at least weekly exercises in workbooks or on worksheets. Teachers also reported asking students to identify the main idea, and to explain or support their understanding of what they had read. Better readers reported frequent independent reading and less frequent reading aloud.

Major Publications

Campbell, J.R., Kelly, D.L., Mullis, I.V.S., Martin, M.O., & Sainsbury, M. (2001).

Framework and Specifications for PIRLS Assessment 2001 (2nd ed.).