here - TIMSS and PIRLS Home - Boston College

chapter 5: school curriculum and organization for teaching reading
results. Exhibit 5.4 presents the principals’ reports for PIRLS 2006 together
with changes from PIRLS 2001. In Chinese Taipei, 94 percent of students were
in schools where principals reported that most children (more than 75%)
entered school with early literacy skills, and 86 percent were in such schools
in Hong Kong SAR. More than half were in such schools in England (56%),
Singapore (70%), Spain (56%), and the United States (65%). Iceland, Israel,
Latvia, Singapore, and the United States had a significant increase from 2001
in the percentage of students in this category.
On average internationally, however, 44 percent of the fourth-grade
students were in schools where relatively few children (less than 25%)
entered school with these literacy skills. In 10 countries, two thirds or
more of students were in schools where relatively few students beginning
school had these literacy skills. These countries included Austria, Belgium
(Flemish), Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, New Zealand, Scotland, the
Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. Three Canadian provinces were also in this
situation (Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec). As might be anticipated, principals
were not as positive about students’ early literacy skills as were students’
parents. Similarly, the principals agreed with parents about improvements
in early literacy skills, but the picture was slightly less positive. According
to school principals, the percentages of students in schools where relatively
few students begin school with literacy skills decreased between 2001 and
2006 in Bulgaria, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway,
Romania, and the Russian Federation.
161