PIRLS 2016 Assessment Framework

Because developing reading literacy ability is vital to every student's growth and maturation, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, more widely known as IEA, has been conducting regular international assessments of reading literacy and the factors associated with its acquisition in countries around the world for more than 50 years. PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) was inaugurated in 2001 as a follow-up to IEA's 1991 Reading Literacy Study. Conducted a five year intervals, PIRLS 2016 is the fourth assessment in the current trend series, following PIRLS 2001, 2006, and 2011, All of the countries, institutions and agencies involved in successive PIRLS assessments have worked collaboratively in building the most comprehensive and innovative measure of reading comprehension possible beginning in 2001 and improving with each cycle since then. PIRLS is directed by the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College. New for 2016, ePIRLS is an innovative assessment of online reading. In order to be responsive to the information age and provide important information about how well students are developing 21st century skills, ePIRLS uses an engaging, simulated Internet environment to present fourth grade students with authentic school-like assignments involving science and social studies topics. A teacher avatar guides students through the ePIRLS assignments, prompting the students with questions about the online information. The number of countries participating in PIRLS has grown with each assessment cycle. Based on reading purposes and comprehension processes, the PIRLS framework provides the foundation for the PIRLS, prePIRLS, and ePIRLS assessments of students' reading achievement. PIRLS assesses students' reading achievement within the two overarching purposes for reading that account for most of the reading done by young students both in and out of school: (1) Reading for literary experience; and (2) Reading to acquire and use information. The PIRLS assessments integrate four types of comprehension processes within each of the two purposes for reading: (1) Focus on and retrieve explicitly stated information; (2) Make straightforward inferences; (3) Interpret and integrate ideas and information; and (4) Evaluate and critique content and textual elements. The upcoming PIRLS 2016 assessment with its questionnaires, as well as the PIRLS 2016 Encyclopedia, will collect and report data on a variety of activities and experiences from the following range of learning to read contexts: (1) National and community; (2) Home; (3) School; (4) Classroom; and (5) Student. As a result, the PIRLS 2016 Encyclopedia and questionnaire data will provide a dynamic picture of reading educational policies and practices across the participating countries that can raise issues and indicate avenues relevant to educational improvement efforts. Consistent with the purpose of extending PIRLS or bridging to PIRLS, the less difficult reading assessment has been named prePIRLS. The prePIRLS assessment follows the same conception of reading literacy as PIRLS outlined in this publication, but is intended to measure the reading comprehension skills of students who are still in the process of learning how to read. The availability of prePIRLS enables IEA to target the PIRLS assessment to each country's situation in order to provide the best possible measurement. Depending on a country's educational development and the students' reading level, countries can participate in either or both PIRLS and prePIRLS in order to conduct the most effective assessment. The goal is to provide the best policy-relevant information about how to improve teaching and learning and to help young students become accomplished and self-sufficient readers. Updating the PIRLS framework with each assessment cycle provides participating countries opportunities to introduce fresh ideas and current information about curricula, standards, frameworks, and instruction. This keeps the frameworks educationally relevant, creates coherence from assessment to assessment, and permits the framework, instruments, and procedures to evolve gradually into the future. The introduction was authored by Ina V. S. Mullis. Chapters of this report are as follows: (1) PIRLS 2016 Reading Framework (Ina V. S. Mullis, Michael O. Martin, and Marian Sainsbury); (2) PIRLS 2016 Context Questionnaire Framework (Martin Hooper, Ina V. S. Mullis, and Michael O. Martin); and (3) PIRLS 2016 Assessment Design and Specifications (Michael O. Martin, Ina V. S. Mullis, and Pierre Foy). Appendices include: (1) Acknowledgements; (2) Sample PIRLS Passages, Questions, and Scoring Guides; and (3) Sample prePIRLS Passages, Questions, and Scoring Guides.