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The "PIRLS 2016 Assessment Framework, 2nd Edition" provides the foundation for the three international assessments planned as part of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016: PIRLS, PIRLS Literacy, and ePIRLS. PIRLS represents the international standard for reading comprehension at the fourth grade. PIRLS Literacy, a less difficult version of PIRLS, is designed to assess foundational reading skills that are prerequisites for success on PIRLS. New in 2016, ePIRLS is an innovative assessment of online reading that makes it possible for countries to understand how successful the are in preparing fourth grade students to read, comprehend, and interpret online information. Chapter 1 (Ina V. S. Mullis, Michael O. Martin, Marian Sainsbury) presents the "PIRLS 2016 Reading Framework", and describes in some detail the major purposes of reading and processes of comprehension to be tested at the fourth grade. PIRLS assesses two purposes of reading that fourth grade students typically engage in: reading for literary experience, as well as to acquire and use information. PIRLS also assesses four broad processes of comprehension predominantly used by fourth grade readers: focus on and retrieve explicitly stated information, make straightforward inferences, interpret and integrate ideas and information, and evaluate and critique content and textual elements. Chapter 2 (Martin Hooper, Ina V. S. Mullis, Michael O. Martin) contains the "PIRLS 2016 Contextual Framework" describing the types of schooling situations and factors associated with students' development in reading literacy that will be investigated via the "PIRLS 2016 Encyclopedia" in addition to the questionnaires completed by students, their teachers, and schools. Finally, Chapter 3 (Michael O. Martin, Ina V. S. Mullis, Pierre Foy) provides an overview of the PIRLS and PIRLS Literacy test booklet and ePIRLS task designs, including general parameters for item development. The following are appended: (1) Acknowledgements; (2) Sample PIRLS Passages, Questions, and Scoring Guides; and (3) Sample PIRLS Literacy Passages, Questions, and Scoring Guides. [For the first edition, "PIRLS 2016 Assessment Framework." see ED545242.]

TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is an international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades that has been conducted every four years since 1995, with the most recent assessment in 2011. PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is an international assessment of reading comprehension at the fourth grade that has been conducted every five years since 2001. In total, approximately 325,000 students participated in PIRLS 2011, including countries assessing students at the sixth as well as the fourth grades, regional participants or language benchmarking efforts, and prePIRLS (an easier version of PIRLS) for students who are still developing their reading skills. Both TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 continue series' of international assessments in mathematics, science, and reading conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational (IEA). IEA pioneered international comparative assessments of educational achievement in the 1960s to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of policies and practices across countries' different systems of education. In 2011, the TIMSS and PIRLS data collection schedules came into alignment for the first time in the history of these international assessments. This provided countries with the opportunity to assess their fourth grade students in three fundamental curricular areas: mathematics, science, and reading. However, more pertinent to the present report, 34 countries and three benchmarking entities took advantage of this unique opportunity to assess the same students in all three subjects. Equally important, because the PIRLS assessment includes a parent questionnaire that provides information describing students' home environments and supports for learning, this home environment information was available for the first time with TIMSS data as well. Taken together, the fourth grade students in these 34 countries and three benchmarking participants have achievement data in the three core academic areas--reading, mathematics, and science--accompanied by an extensive array of background questionnaire data about the home, school, and classroom contexts for learning these three subjects. Having data on the same students makes it possible to conduct a range of investigations of the important characteristics of home and school influencing early learning, while controlling for extraneous factors. Researchers can apply a variety of modeling techniques to explore these important issues by examining the interrelationships among their underlying components. To facilitate this research, the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center created a special international database including only fourth grade students assessed in all three subjects, and achievement scores in reading, mathematics, and science were estimated based on a multidimensional scaling or reading, mathematics, and science together (Foy, 2013). The purpose of the special database is to have the most appropriate basis for studying relationships among reading, mathematics, and science teaching and learning. It is anticipated that the primary value of this special TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 data will be realized through in-depth national research, as participating countries use the data for school improvement at the primary level. The intention of this initial book examining relationships among reading, mathematics, and science teaching and learning is to illustrate the potential of the special TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 database and to make some headway in the analysis process. The hope is that that the four chapters of this book will inspire many others to conduct further research and mine this valuable data. Following an introduction by Ina V. S. Mullis and Michael O. Martin, the content are as follows: (1) Profiles of Achievement across Reading, Mathematics, and Science at the Fourth Grade (Ina V.S. Mullis); (2) The Impact of Reading Ability on TIMSS Mathematics and Science Achievement at the Fourth Grade: An Analysis by Item Reading Demands (Ina V. S. Mullis, Michael O. Martin, and Pierre Foy); (3) Effective Schools in Reading, Mathematics, and Science at the Fourth Grade (Michael O. Martin, Pierre Foy, Ina V. S. Mullis, and Laura M. O'Dwyer); and (4) Effects of Home Background on Student Achievement in Reading, Mathematics, and Science at the Fourth Grade (Jan-Eric Gustafsson, Kajsa Yang Hansen, and Monica Rosén). Individual chapters contain references.

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.

Because of the educational importance of mathematics and science, IEA's (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, widely known as TIMSS, is dedicated to providing countries with information to improve teaching and learning in these curriculum areas. Conducted every four years on a regular cycle, TIMSS assesses achievement in mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades. TIMSS 2011 is the most recent in the TIMSS series, which began with the first assessment in 1995 and has continued with subsequent assessments in 1999, 2003, and 2007. For countries with data back to 1995, TIMSS 2011 will provide the fifth trend measure. This publication contains three frameworks and explains the assessment design that will serve as the basis for implementing TIMSS 2011. The "TIMSS 2011 Mathematics Framework" and the "TIMSS 2011 Science Framework" in Chapters 1 and 2, respectively, describe in some detail the major content and cognitive domains in mathematics and science to be tested at the fourth and eighth grades. The content domains (for example, algebra, geometry, etc. in mathematics, and biology, chemistry, etc. in science) and the topic areas within the domains are described separately for the fourth and eighth grades with each topic area elaborated with specific objectives. The cognitive domains describing the thinking students should be doing within the mathematics and science content domains are the same for mathematics and science and parallel across grades, but with different levels of emphasis. Chapter 3 contains the "TIMSS 2011 Contextual Framework" describing the types of situations and factors associated with students' learning in mathematics and science that will be investigated via the questionnaires. Finally, Chapter 4 provides an overview of the "TIMSS 2011 Assessment Design", including general parameters for item development. Appendices include: (1) Acknowledgements; (2) Example Mathematics Items; and (3) Example Science Items. (Contains 12 exhibits and 6 footnotes.) [Funding for this paper was provided by the Boston College.

The Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) was developed to help improve the teaching of reading and the acquisition of reading skills around the world, and was approved by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) General Assembly as an essential component of the IEA's regular cycle of core studies, which also includes mathematics and science (known as TIMSS). PIRLS is in its third round of assessing reading achievement for students in their fourth year of school. PIRLS 2011 provides countries with the unique opportunity to obtain internationally comparative data about how well their children can read after four years of primary schooling. Countries also will obtain detailed information about home supports for literacy as well as school instruction. For the countries that participated in PIRLS 2001 and PIRLS 2006, PIRLS 2011 will provide information on changes in students' reading achievement. Since PIRLS will continue on a five-year cycle into the future, countries participating for the first time can collect important baseline information for monitoring trends in reading literacy. As a new initiative in 2011, IEA has developed the prePIRLS assessment in response to the needs of the growing population of countries requiring the kind of information provided by PIRLS but whose students are earlier in the process of learning to read than expected by the PIRLS assessment. PrePIRLS, which can be administered to students in the 4th, 5th, or 6th grades, is designed to test basic reading skills that are a prerequisite for success on PIRLS. The "PIRLS 2011 Assessment Framework" is intended as a blueprint for IEA's 2011 assessment of reading literacy. Adapted from the widely accepted earlier version of the PIRLS framework, the 2011 framework resulted from a collaborative process involving many individuals and groups--notably the PIRLS Reading Development Group (RDG) and the National Research Coordinators (NRCs) of the more than 50 participating countries. All told, the framework underwent several iterations in response to the comments and interests of the PIRLS countries and the reading research community, and embodies the ideas and interests of many individuals and organizations around the world. Appendices include: (1) Acknowledgements; (2) Sample PIRLS Passages, Questions, and Scoring Guides; and (3) Sample prePIRLS Passage, Questions, and Scoring Guides. (Contains 6 figures and 4 footnotes.)

A recently completed landmark study of mathematics and science education in more than 40 countries gathered information that can help address questions as to why students in one country do better in math and science than students in another. This report focuses on the results of the primary school science test of students in 26 countries, from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS). Details of how the study was conducted, the nature of the science test, country characteristics, differences in student achievement, student achievement by science content area, and an analysis of example problems are included. Ideas of intended and implemented curricula are discussed and a number of questions related to these ideas that TIMMS may answer are listed. (DDR)