Use and Impact of PIRLS
The government has funded the Netherlands’ participation in international studies since the 1960s. The Netherlands participated in IEA’s first international study of reading achievement, the Reading Literacy Study, in 1991; the country has been involved in its successor, PIRLS, ever since.
While the Dutch PIRLS results showed Dutch students performing well internationally, a decrease in reading achievement occurred from 2001 to 2011.35 To tackle the problem of declining student performance both in language and in mathematics, the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science launched two reform programs, the Quality Agenda in 2007 and its successor, Basis for Performance, in 2011.36 These programs outline the steps being taken to reinforce the commitment of the Netherlands to ensuring that literacy and numeracy remain core focuses at all levels of the education system. There are specific goals for; the end of primary school attainment test; the number of underperforming schools; schools that are labeled excellent; and the percentage of schools with output-oriented education.
PIRLS 2011 and TIMSS 2011 showed a relatively low percentage of Dutch students reaching the advanced benchmarks as compared to that of other high achieving countries. The results indicate that Dutch students reached a basic level of reading competency but were not given the chance to excel.37 Because of these results, several programs have been introduced that focus on developing achievement in education. Early results of these policy initiatives showed that most participating schools already have seen improvement in student performance.38