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270 chapter 7: school contexts
students attended such schools in Indonesia, Qatar, Romania, Morocco,
and Kuwait.
Students in schools where absenteeism was problematic generally had
lower average reading achievement than students in schools without problems
with absenteeism. Average achievement in schools where absenteeism was
not a problem was 510 points, compared to 499 points in schools where it
was a minor problem, 477 where it was a moderate problem, and 446 where
absenteeism was a serious problem.
The PIRLS 2006 Index of Principals’ Perception of School Climate
summarizes principals’ characterization of their school in terms of teachers’
job satisfaction, teachers’ expectations for student achievement, parental
support for student achievement, students’ regard for school property,
students’ desire to do well in school, and students’ regard for each other’s
welfare. An average was computed for each principal on a 5-point scale: very
low = 1, low = 2, medium = 3, high = 4, and very high = 5. Students whose
school principal had an average response greater than 3.67 were assigned to
the high level of the index, those where the average was below 2.33 to the low
level, and the remainder to the medium level.
Exhibit 7.12 presents the percentage of students in each country in
2006 at each level of the index, together with their average achievement. For
countries that participated in PIRLS 2001, the change in these percentages also
is presented, with an indication of statistical significance where appropriate.
In general, principals’ perceptions of school climate were positive, with more
than one third of students at the high level of the index, on average, across
countries, and almost all of the rest at the medium level. Only 1 percent of
students, on average, were at the low level of the index. There were, however,
considerable differences across participants in principals’ perception of school
climate. In Iceland, Scotland, New Zealand, the United States, England, and
the Canadian province of Alberta, 70 percent or more of students were at the
high level, whereas no more than 20 percent were at this level in South Africa,
Trinidad and Tobago, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, and less than
10 percent in Latvia, the Slovak Republic, and Moldova. Countries where the