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128 chapter 3: literacy-related activities in the home
disagreed a lot. Students in the medium category had parents reporting in
between these extremes.
Exhibit 3.10 presents the percentage of students in 2006 at each level of
the index for each country, together with average student achievement for
those students. International averages are shown at the foot of the column for
each level. Also shown is the change from 2001 in the percentage of students
at each level of the index for countries that participated in PIRLS 2001,
together with an indication of the statistical significance of the change.
Participants are ordered by the percentage of students in 2006 at the high
level of the index.
Parents generally reported very favorable attitudes toward reading, with
more than half the students (52%), on average, at the high level of the index
and 41 percent at the medium level. Just 7 percent were at the low level.
Countries with the greatest percentages of students with parents having
favorable attitudes toward reading included the Scandinavian countries
(Sweden, Norway, and Denmark) and Scotland, where 70 percent or more
of students were at the high level of the index. Countries where fewer parents
expressed favorable attitudes included Hong Kong SAR (one of the countries
with the highest average student reading achievement) and Indonesia, each
of which had less than 30 percent of students at the high level. In comparison
with 2001, seven participants showed an increase in the percentage of
students with parents holding favorable attitudes toward reading—the
Netherlands, Germany, Latvia, Macedonia, Lithuania, Moldova, and the
Canadian province of Quebec. On average internationally, students at the
high level of the index had higher average reading achievement (518 points)
than students at the medium (488 points) or low level (475 points).