PIRLS and ePIRLS Results

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Table 13. Cut scores of fourth-grade students at the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles in ePIRLS online informational reading average scale scores, by education system: 2016
Education system	10th Percentile Cut scores	10th ▲▼	10th s.e.	25th Percentile Cut scores	25th ▲▼	25th s.e.	75th Percentile Cut scores	75th ▲▼	75th s.e.	90th Percentile Cut scores	90th ▲▼	90th s.e.
Canada1,2	444	|	5.3	497	▼	4.6	595	▼	3.0	632	▼	3.5
Chinese Taipei-CHN	457	|	3.9	508	|	2.7	591	▼	2.7	624	▼	2.6
Denmark3	472	▲	3.8	515	|	3.0	604	|	3.4	640	|	3.2
Georgia1	380	▼	6.4	430	▼	4.2	530	▼	3.8	567	▼	4.0
Ireland	477	▲	5.6	525	▲	3.4	616	|	2.9	650	|	2.7
Israel4	424	▼	5.8	485	▼	4.2	595	▼	2.2	634	▼	3.7
Italy	452	|	3.9	493	▼	3.0	576	▼	2.0	609	▼	2.9
Norway (5)5	485	▲	3.9	528	▲	3.6	610	|	2.6	645	|	3.1
Portugal2	438	▼	3.4	480	▼	2.8	567	▼	2.0	602	▼	2.7
Singapore4	486	▲	6.0	541	▲	3.7	643	▲	3.3	681	▲	2.9
Slovenia	433	▼	3.6	482	▼	2.7	573	▼	2.4	606	▼	2.8
Sweden	473	▲	3.7	520	▲	3.3	604	|	2.5	637	▼	2.9
United Arab Emirates	327	▼	4.0	398	▼	3.2	542	▼	2.7	595	▼	2.5
United States6	458	|	4.3	510	|	3.7	608	|	3.1	647	|	2.6
Benchmarking education systems	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|	|
Abu Dhabi-UAE	294	▼	6.1	356	▼	6.2	506	▼	4.7	568	▼	6.2
Dubai-UAE	407	▼	3.6	475	▼	3.1	590	▼	2.0	633	▼	1.8

| 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 Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population.

2 National Defined Population covers 90 to 95 percent of the National Target Population.

3 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.

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 ePIRLS 2016, Norway assessed students in the fifth grade to obtain better comparisons with Sweden.

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

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. 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.