Test results released Wednesday showed U.S. students, who took the test last year, scored about the same as they did in 2001, the last time the test was given - despite an increased emphasis on reading under the No Child Left Behind law.
Still, the U.S. average score on the Progress in International Reading Literacy test remained above the international average. Ten countries or jurisdictions, including Hong Kong and three Canadian provinces, were ahead of the United States this time. In 2001, only three countries were ahead of the United States.
The 2002 No Child Left Behind law requires schools to test students
annually in reading and math, and imposes sanctions on schools that miss
testing goals.
The U.S. performance on the international test of 45 nations or
jurisdictions differed somewhat from results of a U.S. national reading
test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's
report card. Fourth-grade reading scores rose modestly on the most recent
version of that test, taken earlier this year and measuring growth since
2005. During the previous two-year period, scores were flat.
On the latest international exam, U.S. students posted a lower average score
than students in Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, Hungary, Italy
and Sweden, along with the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia
and Ontario.
Last time, Russia, Hong Kong and Singapore were behind the United States.
Hong Kong and Singapore have taken steps since then, such as increasing
teacher preparation, providing more tutoring and raising public awareness
about the importance of reading, said Ina Mullis, co-director of the
International Study Center at Boston College, which conducts the
international reading literacy study.
The results also showed:
-Among jurisdictions that took the test in 2001 and 2006, scores improved in
Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Singapore, the Slovak Republic
and Slovenia.
-Average test scores declined in England, Lithuania, Morocco, the
Netherlands, Romania and Sweden. England, the Netherlands and Sweden were
the top three performers in 2001. Sweden still outperformed the United
States this time, but average scores in England and the Netherlands were not
measurably different from the U.S. average.
-Girls scored higher than boys in the United States and all other countries
except for Luxembourg and Spain, where the boy-girl scores were the same.
-The average U.S. score was above the average score in 22 countries or
jurisdictions and about the same as the score in 12 others. The U.S. average
fell toward the high end of a level called "intermediate." At that level, a
student can identify central events, plot sequences and relevant story
details in texts. The student also can make straightforward inferences from
what is read and begin to make connections across parts of the text.
Background questionnaires administered to students, teachers and school
administrators showed that the average years of experience for fourth-grade
teachers in the United States decreased from 15 years to 12 years between
2001 and 2006. The international average was 17 years.
U.S. kids seem to get more reading instruction than others. U.S. teachers
were more likely to report teaching reading for more than six hours per week
than those elsewhere.