Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study 2006 - International

Abstract
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The PIRLS 2006 aimed to generate a database of student achievement data in addition to information on student, parent, teacher, and school background data for the 47 areas that participated in PIRLS 2006.

Geographic coverage
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The survey had international coverage

Analysis unit
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Individuals and institutions

Universe
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PIRLS is a study of student achievement in reading comprehension in primary school, and is targeted at the grade level in which students are at the transition from learning to read to reading to learn, which is the fourth grade in most countries. The formal definition of the PIRLS target population makes use of UNESCO's International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) in identifying the appropriate target grade:

"…all students enrolled in the grade that represents four years of schooling, counting from the first year of ISCED Level 1, providing the mean age at the time of testing is at least 9.5 years. For most countries, the target grade should be the fourth grade, or its national equivalent."

ISCED Level 1 corresponds to primary education or the first stage of basic education, and should mark the beginning of "systematic apprenticeship of reading, writing, and mathematics" (UNESCO, 1999). By the fourth year of Level 1, students have had 4 years of formal instruction in reading, and are in the process of becoming independent readers. In IEA studies, the above definition corresponds to what is known as the international desired target population. Each participating country was expected to define its national desired population to correspond as closely as possible to this definition (i.e., its fourth grade of primary school). In order to measure trends, it was critical that countries that participated in PIRLS 2001, the previous cycle of PIRLS, choose the same target grade for PIRLS 2006 that was used in PIRLS 2001. Information about the target grade in each country is provided in Chapter 9 of the PIRLS 2006 Technical Report.

Although countries were expected to include all students in the target grade in their definition of the population, sometimes it was not possible to include all students who fell under the definition of the international desired target population. Consequently, occasionally a country's national desired target population excluded some section of the population, based on geographic or linguistic constraints. For example, Lithuania's national desired target population included only students in Lithuanian-speaking schools, representing approximately 93 percent of the international desired population of students in the country. PIRLS participants were expected to ensure that the national defined population included at least 95 percent of the national desired population of students. Exclusions (which had to be kept to a minimum) could occur at the school level, within the sampled schools, or both. Although countries were expected to do everything possible to maximize coverage of the national desired population, school-level exclusions sometimes were necessary. Keeping within the 95 percent limit, school-level exclusions could include schools that:

• were geographically remote,
• had very few students,
• had a curriculum or structure diff erent from the mainstream education system, or
• were specifically for students with special needs.

The difference between these school-level exclusions and those at the previous level is that these schools were included as part of the sampling frame (i.e., the list of schools to be sampled). Th ey then were eliminated on an individual basis if it was not feasible to include them in the testing.

In many education systems, students with special educational needs are included in ordinary classes. Due to this fact, another level of exclusions is necessary to reach an eff ective target population-the population of students who ultimately will be tested. These are called within-school exclusions and pertain to students who are unable to be tested for a particular reason but are part of a regular classroom. There are three types of within-school exclusions.

• Intellectually disabled students
• Functionally disabled students
• Non-native language speakers

Students eligible for within-school exclusion were identified by staff at the schools and could still be administered the test if the school did not want the student to feel out of place during the assessment (though the data from these students were not included in any analyses). Again, it was important to ensure that this population was as close to the national desired target population as possible. If combined, school-level and within-school exclusions exceeded 5 percent of the national desired target population, results were annotated in the PIRLS 2006 International Report (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, & Foy, 2007). Target population coverage and exclusion rates are displayed for each country in Chapter 9 of the PIRLS 2006 Technical Report. Descriptions of the countries' school-level and within-school exclusions can be found in Appendix B of the PIRLS 2006 Technical Report.

Kind of data
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Sample survey data

Sampling procedure
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The basic sample design used in PIRLS 2006 is known as a two-stage stratif ed cluster design, with the first stage consisting of a sample of schools, and the second stage consisting of a sample of intact classrooms from the target grade in the sampled schools. While all participants adopted this basic two-stage design, four countries, with approval from the PIRLS sampling consultants, added an extra sampling stage. The Russian Federation and the United States introduced a preliminary sampling stage, (first sampling regions in the case of the Russian Federation and primary sampling units consisting of metropolitan areas and counties in the case of the United States). Morocco and Singapore also added a third sampling stage; in these cases sub-sampling students within classrooms rather than selecting intact classes.

For countries participating in PIRLS 2006, school stratification was used to enhance the precision of the survey results. Many participants employed explicit stratification, where the complete school sampling frame was divided into smaller sampling frames according to some criterion, such as region, to ensurea predetermined number of schools sampled for each stratum. For example, Austria divided its sampling frame into nine regions to ensure proportionalrepresentation by region (see Appendix B for stratification information for eachcountry). Stratification also could be done implicitly, a procedure by which schools in a sampling frame were sorted according to a set of stratification variables prior to sampling. For example, Austria employed implicit stratification by district and school size within each regional stratum. Regardless of the other stratification variables used, all countriesused implicit stratification by a measure of size (MOS) of the school.

All countries used a systematic (random start, fixed interval) probabilityproportional-to-size (PPS) sampling approach to sample schools. Note that when this method is combined with an implicit stratification procedure, the allocation of schools in the sample is proportional to the size of the implicit strata. Within the sampled schools, classes were sampled using a systematic random method in all countries except Morocco and Singapore, where classes were sampled with probability proportional to size, and students within classes sampled with equal probability. The PIRLS 2006 sample designs were implemented in an acceptable manner by all participants.

Sampling deviation
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8 National Research Coordinators (NRCs) encountered organizational constraints in their systems that necessitated deviations from the sample design. In each case, the Statistics Canada sampling expert was consulted to ensure that the altered design remained compatible with the PIRLS standards.

These country specific deviations from sample design are detailed in Appendix B of the PIRLS 2006 Technical Report (page 231).

Mode of data collection
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Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument
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PIRLS Background Questionnaires
By gathering information about children’s experiences together with reading achievement on the PIRLS test, it is possible to identify the factors or combinations of factors that relate to high reading literacy. An important part of the PIRLS design is a set of questionnaires targeting factors related to reading literacy. PIRLS administered four questionnaires: to the tested students, to their parents, to their reading teachers, and to their school principals.

Student Questionnaire
Each student taking the PIRLS reading assessment completes the student questionnaire. The questionnaire asks about aspects of students’ home and school experiences – including instructional experiences and reading for homework, selfperceptions and attitudes towards reading, out-of-school reading habits, computer use, home literacy resources, and basic demographic information.

Learning to Read (Home) Survey
The learning to read survey is completed by the parents or primary caregivers of each student taking the PIRLS reading assessment. It addresses child-parent literacy interactions, home literacy resources, parents’ reading habits and attitudes, homeschool connections, and basic demographic and socioeconomic indicators.

Teacher Questionnaire
The reading teacher of each fourth-grade class sampled for PIRLS completes a questionnaire designed to gather information about classroom contexts for developing reading literacy. This questionnaire asks teachers about characteristics of the class tested (such as size, reading levels of the students, and the language abilities of the students). It also asks about instructional time, materials and activities for teaching reading and promoting the development of their students’ reading literacy, and the grouping of students for reading instruction. Questions about classroom resources, assessment practices, and home-school connections also are included. The questionnaire also asks teachers for their views on opportunities for professional development and collaboration with other teachers, and for information about their education and training.

School Questionnaire
The principal of each school sampled for PIRLS responds to the school questionnaire. It asks school principals about enrollment and school characteristics (such as where the school is located, resources available in the surrounding area, and indicators of the socioeconomic background of the student body), characteristics of reading education in the school, instructional time, school resources (such as the availability of instructional materials and staff), home-school connections, and the school climate.

Cleaning operations
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To ensure the availability of comparable, high-quality data for analysis, PIRLS took rigorous quality control steps to create the international database. Countries used manuals and software provided by PIRLS to create and check their data files, so that the information would be in a standardized international format before being forwarded to the IEA Data Processing Center. Upon arrival at the DPC, the data underwent an exhaustive cleaning process involving several steps and procedures designed to identify, document, and correct deviations from the international instruments, file structures, and coding schemes. The process also emphasized consistency of information within national data sets, and appropriate linking among the student, parent, teacher, and school data files.

Response rate
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Ideally, response rates to study samples should always be 100 percent, and although the PIRLS 2006 participants worked hard to achieve this goal, it was anticipated that a 100 percent participation rate would not be possible in all countries. To avoid sample size losses, the PIRLS sampling plan identified, a priori, replacement schools for each sampled school. Therefore, if an originally selected school refused to participate in the study, it was possible to replace it with a school that already was identified prior to school sampling. Each originally selected school had up to two pre-assigned replacement schools. In general, the school immediately following the originally selected school on the ordered sampling frame and the one immediately preceding it were designated as replacement schools. Replacement schools always belonged to the same explicit stratum, although they could come from different implicit strata if the originally selected school was either the first or last school of an implicit stratum.

For a full table of school participation rates please see Exhibit 9.5 on page 126 of the PIRLS 2006 Technical Report.

摘要
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PIRLS 2006项目旨在构建一个包含学生学业成绩数据以及学生、家长、教师和学校背景信息的数据库，涉及47个参与PIRLS 2006项目的地区。
地理覆盖范围
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调查具有国际覆盖范围。
分析单元
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个体和机构。
总体
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PIRLS是一项关于小学生阅读理解能力的研究，旨在针对学生从学习阅读过渡到通过阅读学习的年级，在大多数国家中为四年级。PIRLS目标人群的正式定义利用了联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）的国际教育标准分类（ISCED）来确定合适的年级目标：
“……所有在代表四年学制的年级注册的学生，从ISCED 1级的第一年开始计算，测试时的平均年龄至少为9.5岁。对于大多数国家来说，目标年级应为四年级或其国家等效年级。”
ISCED 1级对应于初等教育或基础教育第一阶段，应标志着“系统性的阅读、写作和数学学徒训练”的开始（联合国教科文组织，1999年）。到1级第四年，学生已经接受了4年的正式阅读教育，并正在成为独立阅读者。在IEA研究中，上述定义对应于所谓的国际期望目标人群。每个参与国都应定义其国家期望人群，使其尽可能符合此定义（即其小学四年级）。为了衡量趋势，对于在PIRLS 2001（前一个PIRLS周期）中参与的国家来说，选择与PIRLS 2001中使用的相同的目标年级对PIRLS 2006至关重要。关于每个国家的目标年级信息可在PIRLS 2006技术报告的第9章中找到。
尽管预期各国在其人群定义中包括所有目标年级的学生，但有时无法包括所有符合国际期望目标人群定义的学生。因此，有时一个国家的国家期望目标人群会根据地理或语言限制排除某些人群。例如，立陶宛的国家期望目标人群仅包括立陶宛语学校的学生，代表该国国际期望学生人群的大约93%。PIRLS参与者预期确保国家定义的人群包括至少95%的国家期望人群。排除（必须保持在最低限度）可能发生在学校层面、抽样学校内部或两者之间。尽管预期各国尽一切可能最大限度地涵盖国家期望人群，但在学校层面有时需要进行排除。在95%的限制范围内，学校层面的排除可能包括以下学校：
• 地理偏远；
• 学生数量非常少；
• 课程或结构与主流教育系统不同；或
• 专门为有特殊需求的学生设立。
这些学校层面的排除与上一级别的排除之间的区别在于，这些学校被视为抽样框架的一部分（即要抽样的学校清单）。然后，如果无法将这些学校包括在测试中，它们将逐个被排除。在许多教育体系中，有特殊教育需求的学生被包括在普通班级中。由于这一事实，还需要另一层次的排除，以达到有效的目标人群——即最终将接受测试的学生人群。这些被称为校内排除，涉及因特定原因无法参加测试但属于普通班级的学生。有三种类型的校内排除。
• 智力障碍学生；
• 功能障碍学生；
• 非母语使用者。
有资格进行校内排除的学生由学校工作人员识别，如果学校不希望学生在评估期间感到格格不入，则可以对这些学生进行测试（尽管这些学生的数据未包含在任何分析中）。同样，确保这一人群尽可能接近国家期望目标人群非常重要。如果学校层面和校内排除的总和超过国家期望目标人群的5%，则结果将在PIRLS 2006国际报告中进行标注（Mullis，Martin，Kennedy，& Foy，2007年）。每个国家的目标人群覆盖率和排除率在第9章的PIRLS 2006技术报告中显示。关于各国学校层面和校内排除的描述可在PIRLS 2006技术报告的附录B中找到。
数据类型
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样本调查数据。
抽样程序
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PIRLS 2006中使用的基样子本设计被称为两阶段分层聚类设计，第一阶段包括对学校的抽样，第二阶段包括对目标年级中抽样学校的完整班级的抽样。虽然所有参与者都采用了这种基本的两个阶段设计，但有四个国家在PIRLS抽样顾问的批准下增加了额外的抽样阶段。俄罗斯联邦和美国引入了一个初步抽样阶段（俄罗斯联邦的情况是首先抽样地区，美国的情况是抽样单元由大都市区和县组成）。摩洛哥和新加坡也增加了第三个抽样阶段；在这些情况下，是对教室内的学生进行子抽样，而不是选择完整的班级。
对于参与PIRLS 2006的国家，学校分层被用于提高调查结果的精确性。许多参与者采用了明确的分层，即将完整的学校抽样框架根据某些标准（如地区）划分为更小的抽样框架，以确保每个层级的抽样学校数量达到预定数量。例如，奥地利将其抽样框架划分为九个地区，以确保按地区进行比例代表（参见附录B中每个国家的分层信息）。分层也可以是隐性的，这是一种在抽样之前根据一系列分层变量对抽样框架中的学校进行排序的程序。例如，奥地利在每个区域层级内根据地区和学校规模进行了隐性的分层。无论使用其他哪些分层变量，所有国家都使用了一种系统性的（随机起点，固定间隔）概率成比例大小（PPS）抽样方法来抽样学校。请注意，当这种方法与隐性的分层程序结合使用时，样本中的学校分配与隐性的层大小成比例。在抽样学校内，所有国家除了摩洛哥和新加坡外，都使用系统随机方法进行班级抽样，摩洛哥和新加坡使用概率成比例大小进行班级抽样，并在班级内以等概率抽样学生。PIRLS 2006样本设计得到了所有参与者的良好实施。
抽样偏差
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8位国家研究协调员（NRCs）在其系统中遇到了组织约束，这需要偏离样本设计。在每个案例中，都咨询了加拿大统计局的抽样专家，以确保修改后的设计仍然符合PIRLS标准。
这些国家特定的样本设计偏差在PIRLS 2006技术报告的附录B中详细说明（第231页）。
数据收集方式
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面对面（f2f）。
研究工具
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PIRLS背景问卷
通过收集关于儿童阅读经验以及PIRLS测试中的阅读成就信息，可以确定与高阅读素养相关的因素或因素的组合。PIRLS设计的的重要组成部分是一套针对与阅读素养相关的因素的问卷。PIRLS实施了四个问卷：针对测试学生、学生家长、阅读教师和学校校长的问卷。
学生问卷
参加PIRLS阅读评估的每个学生都完成学生问卷。问卷询问学生的家庭和学校经历方面的问题——包括教学经历和阅读作业、自我认知和对阅读的态度、课外阅读习惯、计算机使用、家庭阅读资源以及基本的人口统计信息。
学习阅读（家庭）调查
学习阅读调查由参加PIRLS阅读评估的每个学生的父母或主要照顾者完成。它涉及儿童与父母之间的阅读素养互动、家庭阅读资源、父母的阅读习惯和态度、家庭与学校之间的联系，以及基本的人口统计和社会经济指标。
教师问卷
参加PIRLS的每个四年级班级的阅读教师完成一份旨在收集有关发展阅读素养的课堂环境的问卷。问卷询问教师关于被测试班级的特征（例如，大小、学生的阅读水平以及学生的语言能力）。它还询问用于教授阅读和促进其学生阅读素养发展的教学时间、材料和活动，以及学生的阅读教学分组。问卷还包含关于课堂资源、评估实践和家校联系的问题。问卷还询问教师对专业发展和与其他教师合作机会的看法，以及关于他们的教育和培训信息。
学校问卷
参加PIRLS的每个学校的校长回答学校问卷。问卷询问校长关于学校的注册和学校特征（例如，学校的位置、周边地区可用的资源以及学生群体的社会经济背景指标），学校的阅读教育特征、教学时间、学校资源（例如，教学材料和人员可用性）、家校联系以及学校氛围。
数据清洗操作
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为了确保分析可用的高质量、可比数据，PIRLS采取了严格的质量控制步骤来创建国际数据库。各国使用PIRLS提供的手册和软件来创建和检查其数据文件，以确保信息在转发到IEA数据处理中心之前采用标准化的国际格式。在数据处理中心到达后，数据经历了彻底的清洗过程，涉及多个步骤和程序，旨在识别、记录和纠正与国际工具、文件结构和编码方案偏差。该过程还强调国家数据集中信息的连贯性，以及学生、家长、教师和学校数据文件之间适当的链接。
响应率
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理想情况下，对研究样本的响应率应始终为100%，尽管PIRLS 2006的参与者努力实现这一目标，但预计并非所有国家都能实现100%的参与率。为了避免样本量损失，PIRLS抽样计划事先确定了每个抽样学校的替代学校。因此，如果最初选定的学校拒绝参与研究，则可以用在之前学校抽样之前就已经确定的学校来替换它。每个最初选定的学校最多有两个预先指定的替代学校。一般来说，按顺序抽样框架中紧接最初选定的学校之后的学校以及紧接其前的学校被指定为替代学校。替代学校始终属于同一明确的层级，尽管如果最初选定的学校是隐含层级的第一个或最后一个学校，它们可以来自不同的隐含层级。
有关学校参与率的完整表格，请参阅PIRLS 2006技术报告的第126页上的展示9.5。