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U.S. Position Slips on International Reading Assessment as Other Countries ImproveThe position of the United States on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), which documents trends in the reading ability of fourth-graders around the world, has declined since 2011, as fourth-graders in other countries around the world improved over the same period, according to Reading Achievement of U.S. Fourth-Grade Students in an International Context, a report on the results released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The average score for U.S. fourth-graders declined since 2011 but was not statistically different from the average for U.S. fourth-graders in 2001. "Our fourth graders declined both in terms of their average score, as well as in their standing relative to other education systems," said Peggy G. Carr, acting commissioner of NCES. "We see the same trend in the latest PIRLS results that we've been noticing for some time on other international assessments. Countries that were our peers have surpassed us while some that used to do worse than us are now our peers." In 2011, four education systems scored higher than the U.S. average reading score; in 2016, twelve education systems scored higher than the United States. Systems that scored similar to the U.S. in 2011 that scored higher than the United States in 2016 were Ireland, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), Chinese Taipei, and England (United Kingdom). Two education systems-Poland and Norway-scored below the United States in 2011 but scored higher than the U.S. in 2016. Two systems-Latvia and Moscow City (Russia)-did not participate in PIRLS in 2011 but did participate in 2016 and scored higher than the United States. Although 12 out of 58 participating education systems had higher average scores than the U.S., only seven systems had higher percentages of fourth-graders scoring at or above the internationalAdvanced benchmark, the highest achievement level for the assessment: Moscow City (Russia), Singapore, the Russian Federation, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), Ireland, Poland, and England (United Kingdom). "What stands out when you consider results across every year of this assessment is that we have a relatively high percentage of top performers. But the percentage of American students at that top level-Advanced-has not changed very much over time. Meanwhile, other countries seem to be doing a better job of moving students from lower levels of achievement to higher levels of achievement," Carr explained. Eighteen education systems had higher percentages of fourth-graders scoring at or above the international Low benchmark than the United States. The U.S. average score was higher than the averages for 30 education systems and not significantly different than the averages for 15 education systems. U.S. fourth-graders performed higher than the PIRLS international centerpoint score; the U.S. average score was 549 and the international centerpoint is set at 500. The United States was also one of 16 education systems around the world to participate in the first administration of ePIRLS, a new international assessment of online reading. ePIRLS is specifically designed to measure how well countries are preparing fourth-grade students to read, comprehend, and interpret information online. Fourth-graders in three education systems-Singapore, Norway, and Ireland-had average scores higher than the average score for U.S. fourth-graders. "As Americans, particularly younger Americans, rely increasingly on information from online sources, the ability to assess whether our students can navigate and comprehend online information-as well as evaluate the credibility of that information-is of paramount importance," Carr said. "U.S. fourth-graders scored well above the international average in online reading. Our students seem to do a better job comprehending material and navigating content when they're asked to do it online rather than on paper." To measure students' reading ability in an online environment, ePIRLS included tasks like identifying a specific webpage, filtering content on the webpage for the most relevant information, relating information across websites, and judging the credibility of information on the website. The U.S. average score on ePIRLS was higher than the averages for 10 education systems, lower than the averages for three education systems, and not measurably different than two education systems. The full report is available at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pirls/. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, is the statistical center of the U.S. Department of Education and the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.
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