PIRLS 2011: International Reading Literacy Study of Fourth-Grade Students

The United States participated in the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), a cross-sectional international assessment. It provides comparative data on the reading literacy of 12,726 fourth-grade students from 370 U.S. schools, with final weighted response rates of 96% for students and 85% for schools. The study used questionnaires and direct assessments to examine reading achievement, attitudes, and associated factors.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking national reading performance against international peers based on the comparative assessment scores.
• Analyzing the relationship between student attitudes toward reading and literacy outcomes using the survey questionnaire data.
• Modeling factors associated with the acquisition of reading literacy in fourth-grade students as described in the study.

Strengths

• Includes data from 12,726 fourth-grade students and 370 schools.
• Achieved high final weighted response rates: 96% for students and 85% for schools.
• Provides internationally comparable data on reading literacy and associated factors.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias, being limited to the U.S. in 2011.

Provenance

Source

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) program, likely via the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Collection Method

Data gathered via student questionnaires and direct assessments.

Time Range

2011

Geography

United States (with international comparative context)