Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2021) Main Study Data Collection

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is an international assessment of fourth-grade students’ achievement in reading. PIRLS reports on four benchmarks in reading achievement at grade 4 and on a variety of issues related to the education context for the students in the sample, including instructional practices, school resources, curriculum implementation, and learning supports outside of school. Since its inception in 2001, PIRLS has continued to assess students every 5 years (2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016), with the next PIRLS assessment, PIRLS 2021, being the fifth iteration of the study. Participation in this study by the United States at regular intervals provides data on student achievement and on current and past education policies and a comparison of U.S. education policies and student performance with those of the U.S. international counterparts. In PIRLS 2016, 58 education systems participated. The United States will participate in PIRLS 2021 to continue to monitor the progress of its students compared to that of other nations and to provide data on factors that may influence student achievement. PIRLS is coordinated by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), an international collective of research organizations and government agencies that create the assessment framework, the assessment instrument, and background questionnaires. The IEA decides and agrees upon a common set of standards and procedures for collecting and reporting PIRLS data, and defines the studies’ timeline, all of which must be followed by all participating countries. As a result, PIRLS is able to provide a reliable and comparable measure of student skills in participating countries. In the U.S., the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts this study. In preparation for the PIRLS 2021 main study, all countries are asked to implement a field test in 2020. The purpose of the PIRLS field test is to evaluate new assessment items and background questions, to ensure practices that promote low exclusion rates, and to ensure that classroom and student sampling procedures proposed for the main study are successful. Data collection for the field test in the U.S. will occur from March through April 2020 and for the main study from March through June 2021. The submission describing the overarching plan for all phases of the data collection, including the 2021 main study, and requesting approval for all activities, materials, and response burden related to the field test recruitment was approved in April 2019 with a change request in September 2019 (OMB# 1850-0645 v.11-12) , while the submission describing all aspects of the field test and recruitment for the main study was approved in October 2019 (OMB# 1850-0645 v.13). This submission request is for all aspects of the PIRLS 2021 main study, including data collection activities, with an accompanying 30-day public comment period. The supporting statements Parts A and B describe all aspects of the study; Appendices A1 and A2 provide the main study communication materials and additional materials related to the data collection activities, respectively; Appendix B provides the non-response bias analysis plan; Appendices C1 and C2 (carried over from v.13) provide the questionnaires used for the Field Test, which is still in progress at the time of submission. After the international versions of the main study questionnaires are released by IEA in September 2020, a submission for the main study questionnaires with the proposed U.S. adaptations in Appendices C1 and C2 will be submitted in October 2020. In the case that the final approved U.S. adapted versions of the PIRLS 2021 main study questionnaires differ from those provided in that October 2020 submission, the final versions will be submitted to OMB for approval as a change request in December 2020.

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