A new international study of reading literacy, International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy: Findings from the Progress In International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2001, was released today by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This report compares findings about U.S. fourth-grade reading literacy with those from the 34 other countries that participated in PIRLS.

"The results from this study indicate that U.S. fourth-graders performed well on many reading tasks, but there is room for improvement," said Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, director of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. "In the United States there are significant gaps in reading literacy achievement between racial/ethnic groups, between students in high poverty schools and other public schools, and also between girls and boys."

International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy provides information on a variety of reading topics, but with an emphasis on U.S. results: comparisons of average scores across the 35 countries on two reading subscales and a combined reading scale; and achievement broken out by sex internationally, and by race/ethnicity, by public and private schools, and by poverty levels of the school within the United States. The report also presents information on reading and instruction in the classroom and explores the reading habits of fourth-graders outside of school.

Key findings:

• U.S. fourth-graders outperform their counterparts in 23 of the 34 other countries participating in PIRLS, but they score lower than students in Sweden, the Netherlands and England.
• Fourth-grade girls outperform boys in reading literacy in every participating country, including the United States.
• Fourth-graders in U.S. public schools with the highest poverty levels score lower on reading literacy compared to their counterparts in schools with lower poverty levels.
• Almost all (95 percent) of U.S. fourth-graders attend schools with a curricular emphasis on reading. This is greater than the international average of 78 percent.
• Sixty-five percent of U.S. fourth-graders receive more than six hours of reading instruction per week, a higher percentage than the international average of 28 percent.

PIRLS is organized under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and is directed in the United States by NCES. The IEA is releasing a full report on the findings from the 35 countries with the International Study Center at Boston College.

For further information on International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy: Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001, please visit NCES' web site at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pirls. The PIRLS report can be ordered by calling toll-free 1-877-4ED-PUBS (1-877-433-7827), TTY/TTD 1-877-576-7734; e-mailing at customerservice@edpubs.org; or via the Internet at http://www.edpubs.org.

###

Top

Back to April 2003