Reading Literacy Around the World – England’s Pupils Among the Best in Europe

PIRLS 2016 is the fourth cycle of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, coordinated by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment (OUCEA) and Pearson have been appointed in partnership by the Department for Education to administer PIRLS 2016 in England.

PIRLS 2016 results for England are officially released Tuesday 5th December, 10am CET in a launch event at the British Library in London.

The team at OUCEA – Joshua McGrane, Jamie Stiff, Jo-Anne Baird, Jenny Lenkeit and Therese N. Hopfenbeck – have written the National Report for England which can be downloaded from our project websitefrom Tuesday 5th December onwards.

The key findings for England are:

• England has significantly improved its average reading performance compared to previous cycles and 2016 marks England’s highest average performance across all four PIRLS cycles.
• England’s average performance is among the best in Europe and Year 5 pupils perform significantly above the International Median.
• The large performance gap between the highest and lowest achieving pupils in previous cycles has substantially reduced. This is because (I) England’s lowest performing pupils have substantially improved and because (II) boys significantly improved their average performance in 2016.
• In 2011, England’s gender-gap was one of the largest across all participating countries, but in 2016, England’s gender-gap is now consistent with the International Median.