PIRLS and ePIRLS Results

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Table 3. Cut scores of fourth-grade students at the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles in PIRLS overall reading average scale scores, by education system: 2016
Education system	10th Percentile Cut score	10th ↑↓	10th s.e.	25th Percentile Cut score	25th ↑↓	25th s.e.	75th Percentile Cut score	75th ↑↓	75th s.e.	90th Percentile Cut score	90th ↑↓	90th s.e.
Australia	432	|	5.5	494	|	3.9	603	|	2.7	644	|	2.7
Austria1	454	|	4.8	500	|	2.9	586	↓	2.2	620	↓	2.4
Azerbaijan	353	↓	9.1	422	↓	5.4	533	↓	2.9	572	↓	2.6
Bahrain	313	↓	3.8	381	↓	3.6	515	↓	2.7	567	↓	3.1
Belgium (Flemish)-BEL	446	|	3.6	486	↓	2.6	567	↓	2.3	601	↓	2.0
Belgium (French)-BEL1	408	↓	4.7	454	↓	3.1	544	↓	2.5	584	↓	3.6
Bulgaria	440	|	7.5	501	|	6.5	611	|	3.5	653	|	3.5
Canada1,2	444	|	3.9	497	|	2.7	596	↓	2.0	634	↓	2.0
Chile	388	↓	4.0	442	↓	3.5	550	↓	3.1	591	↓	3.1
Chinese Taipei-CHN	475	↑	3.7	521	↑	2.9	603	|	2.3	637	|	2.6
Czech Republic	456	|	4.6	503	|	2.8	590	↓	2.3	625	↓	2.4
Denmark1	457	|	4.2	507	|	3.0	594	↓	2.5	628	↓	2.9
Egypt	161	↓	8.6	246	↓	7.9	420	↓	6.0	483	↓	6.7
England-GBR	455	|	3.3	508	|	3.1	613	↑	2.2	655	↑	2.9
Finland	481	↑	4.6	526	↑	2.7	612	|	2.0	647	|	2.5
France	420	↓	3.7	468	↓	2.8	559	↓	2.2	595	↓	3.7
Georgia2	383	↓	5.3	440	↓	3.4	543	↓	3.0	584	↓	3.8
Germany	435	|	6.7	493	|	4.2	591	↓	2.8	629	↓	3.1
Hong Kong-CHN1,3	487	↑	4.4	531	↑	2.6	612	|	3.0	645	|	3.0
Hungary	452	|	5.8	506	|	4.6	606	|	3.6	645	|	3.1
Iran, Islamic Republic of	278	↓	9.7	361	↓	5.9	505	↓	2.8	553	↓	2.7
Ireland	472	↑	5.2	522	↑	3.5	617	↑	3.0	656	↑	3.2
Israel4	407	↓	3.7	475	↓	4.5	593	↓	2.9	635	|	3.4
Italy	461	|	5.4	508	|	3.2	592	↓	2.4	627	↓	2.8
Kazakhstan	455	|	4.2	496	|	3.5	578	↓	3.2	615	↓	3.6
Kuwait	250	↓	7.4	326	↓	5.5	466	↓	4.4	522	↓	5.8
Latvia1	475	↑	3.6	518	↑	2.4	601	|	2.3	636	|	3.8
Lithuania	459	|	5.5	506	|	3.9	595	|	4.0	632	↓	2.9
Macao-CHN	459	|	2.6	506	|	1.4	590	↓	1.4	625	↓	1.7
Malta1	328	↓	5.5	394	↓	2.5	517	↓	2.2	560	↓	2.3
Morocco	217	↓	4.9	282	↓	5.3	436	↓	3.6	496	↓	3.6
Netherlands3	466	↑	3.4	508	|	2.5	586	↓	2.1	619	↓	2.2
New Zealand	400	↓	5.3	469	↓	3.4	586	↓	3.1	630	↓	3.0
Northern Ireland-GBR	460	|	5.4	516	↑	2.8	619	↑	3.1	662	↑	2.2
Norway (5)5	474	↑	4.4	518	↑	2.9	603	|	2.9	640	|	3.1
Oman	275	↓	3.4	348	↓	4.2	494	↓	4.0	549	↓	4.2
Poland	470	↑	4.6	521	↑	3.3	615	↑	2.4	652	|	2.3
Portugal1	442	|	4.0	485	↓	3.3	572	↓	2.9	611	↓	3.3
Qatar	291	↓	3.9	367	↓	3.4	523	↓	1.7	577	↓	2.4
Russian Federation	495	↑	4.1	540	↑	2.8	626	↑	2.7	663	↑	2.6
Saudi Arabia	298	↓	6.0	363	↓	6.0	500	↓	4.3	553	↓	6.6
Singapore4	469	↑	6.2	528	↑	4.4	633	↑	3.5	673	↑	4.2
Slovak Republic	430	|	8.6	493	|	3.8	589	↓	2.7	626	↓	2.9
Slovenia	444	|	3.7	498	|	3.8	592	↓	2.2	629	↓	2.8
South Africa	182	↓	4.7	246	↓	3.9	390	↓	5.0	456	↓	7.9
Spain	442	|	3.9	486	↓	2.2	573	↓	1.4	607	↓	2.1
Sweden	465	↑	4.0	515	↑	3.1	601	|	3.2	635	|	3.5
Trinidad and Tobago	351	↓	5.6	420	↓	4.7	547	↓	3.5	594	↓	2.5
United Arab Emirates	299	↓	4.1	373	↓	4.2	533	↓	3.6	590	↓	2.5
United States3	446	|	6.3	501	|	4.1	604	|	3.3	645	|	4.0
Benchmarking education systems	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|
Abu Dhabi-UAE	270	|	7.0	333	↓	7.3	495	↓	5.9	557	↓	5.8
Andalusia-ESP	438	|	3.9	482	↓	3.3	569	↓	2.0	604	↓	2.4
Buenos Aires-ARG	369	|	5.9	425	↓	4.1	539	↓	3.1	582	↓	4.3
Dubai-UAE	380	|	4.4	456	↓	2.7	584	↓	2.3	630	↓	2.5
Madrid-ESP1	472	|	3.4	510	↑	2.4	590	↓	2.1	623	↓	2.6
Moscow City-RUS	532	|	2.9	573	↑	2.7	654	↑	2.6	689	↑	2.4
Ontario-CAN	441	|	7.2	495	|	4.8	598	|	4.0	636	|	5.0
Quebec-CAN6	463	|	6.4	506	|	4.3	591	↓	3.2	629	↓	4.7

| Blank cell.

↑ Percentile cut score is higher than U.S. percentile cut score.

↓ Percentile cut score is lower than U.S. percentile cut score.

1 National Defined Population covers 90 percent to 95 percent of National Target Population.

2 National Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population.

3 Met guidelines for sample participation rates only after replacement schools were included.

4 National Defined Population covers less than 90 percent of National Target Population (but at least 77 percent).

5 The number in parentheses indicates the grade level. For PIRLS 2016, Norway revised its assessed population to students in the fifth grade to obtain better comparisons with Sweden and Finland. However, in previous PIRLS cycles Norway assessed students in the fourth grade, which is similar to third grade in many other education systems because grade 1 in Norway is considered the equivalent of a year of kindergarten. To maintain trend with previous PIRLS cycles, in 2016 Norway also collected data from fourth-grade students, which is used in trend tables.

6 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.

NOTE: Education systems are ordered alphabetically. Italics indicate participants identified as a non-national entity that represents a portion of a country. All cut scores reported as higher or lower than the U.S. cut score are different at the05 level of statistical significance. The tests for significance take into account the standard error for the reported difference. Thus, a small difference between the United States and one education system may be significant, while a large apparent difference between the United States and another education system may not be significant. Education systems that did not administer PIRLS at the target grade are not shown; see the international report for their results. Five education systems participated in PIRLS Literacy (Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Morocco, and South Africa); two of these education systems completed both PIRLS and PIRLS Literacy (Iran and Morocco). More detail on PIRLS Literacy is available at https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/framework.html. Standard error is abbreviated as s.e.

SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), 2016.