Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (pirls)

Periodicity 
PIRLS is administered once every 5 years, near the end of 
the school year in each education system. PIRLS was 
conducted in 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016. The next 
administration is scheduled for 2021. 
Data Availability 
Information on the availability of data for PIRLS can be 
found at 
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pirls/datafiles.asp
. 
2. USES OF DATA 
PIRLS will help educators and policymakers by answering 
questions such as the following: 
•
How well do fourth-grade students read? 
•
How do students in one education system compare with 
students in another education system? 
•
Do fourth-grade students value and enjoy reading? 
•
Internationally, how do the reading habits and attitudes of 
students vary? 
To assist in this process, the 
PIRLS Encyclopedia
is created 
which provides a profile of each country’s
education
system, with a particular focus on reading education for 
primary-school children. The encyclopedia provides 
general data on economic and educational indicators, 
describes how the education system is organized, and 
describes how decisions are made about education. The 
reading curriculum, including goals, materials, and 
instruction, is also discussed, along with information on the 
assessment of reading achievement. 
3. KEY CONCEPTS 
International desired population
. This is the grade or age 
level that each education system should address in its 
sampling activities. The international desired population for 
PIRLS 2001 was defined as all students enrolled in the 
upper of the two adjacent grades that contain the largest 
proportion of 9-year-olds at the time of testing. For PIRLS 
2006, 2011, and 2016 the international desired population 
was defined as all students enrolled in the grade that 
represents 4 years of schooling, counting from the 1st year 
of the International Standard Classification of Education 
(ISCED) Level 1, providing that the mean age at the time of 
testing was at least 9.5 years. For most education systems, 
the target grade was the fourth grade or its national 
equivalent.