PIRLS 2011 Tables

(314 KB)

Table 3.

Overall reading average scale score and purposes of reading subscale scores of 4th-grade students, by education system: 2011

Education system	Overall reading average scale score		Purposes of reading				Education system	Overall reading average scale score		Purposes of reading
Education system	Overall reading average scale score		Literacy experience		Acquire and use information		Education system	Overall reading average scale score		Literacy experience		Acquire and use information
PIRLS scale average	500		500		500		PIRLS scale average	500		500		500
Hong Kong-CHN¹	571	△	565		578	△	France	520	▼	521	▼	519	▼
Russian	568	△	567		570	△	Spain	513	▼	516	▼	512	▼
Finland	568	△	568	△	568	△	Norway⁵	507	▼	508	▼	505	▼
Singapore²	567	△	567		569	△	Belgium (French)-BEL^2,3	506	▼	508	▼	504	▼
Northern Ireland-GBR³	558		564		555		Romania	502	▼	504	▼	500	▼
United States²	556		563		553		Georgia^4,6	488	▼	491	▼	482	▼
Denmark²	554		555	▼	553		Malta	477	▼	470	▼	485	▼
Croatia²	553		555	▼	552		Trinidad and Tobago	471	▼	467	▼	474	▼
Chinese Taipei-CHN	553		542	▼	565	△	Azerbaijan^2,6	462	▼	461	▼	460	▼
Ireland	552		557		549		Iran, Islamic Rep. of	457	▼	459	▼	455	▼
England-GBR³	552		553	▼	549		Colombia	448	▼	453	▼	440	▼
Canada²	548	▼	553	▼	545	▼	United Arab Emirates	439	▼	427	▼	452	▼
Netherlands³	546	▼	545	▼	547	▼	Saudi Arabia	430	▼	422	▼	440	▼
Czech Republic	545	▼	545	▼	545	▼	Indonesia	428	▼	418	▼	439	▼
Sweden	542	▼	547	▼	537	▼	Qatar²	425	▼	415	▼	436	▼
Italy	541	▼	539	▼	545	▼	Oman⁷	391	▼	379	▼	404	▼
Germany	541	▼	545	▼	538	▼	Morocco⁸	310	▼	299	▼	321	▼
Israel¹	541	▼	542	▼	541	▼
Portugal	541	▼	538	▼	544	▼
Hungary	539	▼	542	▼	536	▼	Benchmarking education systems
Slovak Republic	535	▼	540	▼	530	▼	Florida-USA^1,4	569	△	577	△	564	△
Bulgaria	532	▼	532	▼	533	▼	Ontario-CAN²	552		558		549
New Zealand	531	▼	533	▼	530	▼	Alberta-CAN²	548	▼	552	▼	545	▼
Slovenia	530	▼	532	▼	528	▼	Quebec-CAN	538	▼	539	▼	536	▼
Austria	529	▼	533	▼	526	▼	Andalusia-ESP	515	▼	518	▼	512	▼
Lithuania^2,4	528	▼	529	▼	527	▼	Dubai-UAE	476	▼	466	▼	488	▼
Australia	527	▼	527	▼	528	▼	Maltese-MLT	457	▼	458	▼	455	▼
Poland	526	▼	531	▼	519	▼	Dhabi-UAE	424	▼	414	▼	437	▼

△ Score is higher than the U.S. average score.
▼ Score is lower than the U.S. average score.
¹National Defined Population covers less than 90 percent of National Target Population.
²National Defined Population covers 90 percent to 95 percent of National Target Population.
³Met guidelines for sample participation rates only after replacement schools were included.
⁴National Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population.
⁵Nearly satisfied guidelines for sample participation rates after replacement schools were included.
⁶Exclusion rates for Azerbaijan and Georgia are slightly underestimated as some conflict zones were not covered and no official statistics were available.
⁷The TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center has reservations about the reliability of the average achievement score because the percentage of students with achievement too low for estimation exceeds 15 percent, though it is less than 25 percent.
⁸The TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center has reservations about the reliability of the average achievement score because the percentage of students with achievement too low for estimation exceeds 25 percent.
NOTE: Education systems are ordered by 2011 average score. Italics indicate participants identified and counted in this report as an education system and not as a separate country. Participants that did not administer PIRLS at the target grade are not shown; see the international report for their results. All Florida-USA data are based on public school students only. All average scores reported as higher or lower than the U.S. average score are different at the .05 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. The standard errors of the estimates are shown in table E-1 available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013010_suptables.pdf.
SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), 2011.