Use and Impact of PIRLS
Participation in international assessment studies has been a key feature of New Zealand’s system level evaluation framework since the early 1970s when it took part in the IEA’s Six Subject Survey, followed by the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) in the early 1980s. However, the cyclical nature of more recent studies beginning with the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1995, followed by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2000, and then PIRLS in 2001 has highlighted their value for monitoring the “health” of the New Zealand education system in an international context and for informing education policy and practice.77,78 These international studies have been invaluable for examining equity in New Zealand’s educational provision. For example, PIRLS has contributed to a greater understanding of achievement and inequitable outcomes for Māori and Pasifika students.79,80
As well as being able to benchmark student performance, PIRLS also has informed the Ministry of Education’s policy work in English medium settings. For example, the PIRLS 2006 framework was used to inform the work for developing the Literacy Learning Progressions and National Standards. To date, the utility of PIRLS for informing literacy learning in Māori medium settings has been minimal. At Year 5, the language proficiency of Māori medium students (who mostly are second language learners) is generally not at a stage where an assessment with the reading demands of PIRLS is able to provide meaningful information about their achievement.
The Ministry of Education’s Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis program, a series of syntheses that draw national and international research together for the purpose of informing education policy and practice, has used findings from PIRLS. Specifically, the Best Evidence Synthesis on school leadership incorporated PIRLS 2006 achievement information and findings on student safety, school administration, and leadership.81
The Ministry of Education’s Four Year Plan 2015–2019 specifically notes that the international and national monitoring studies have highlighted diminishing of some key skill levels and children not meeting curriculum expectations.82 Some of the Ministryʼs aims for this period include implementing Communities of Learning | Kāhui Ako and the update of the Education Act of 1989 and championing 21st century teaching and learning practices. A key indicator of success will be increases in the proportion of students “at or above standard.” Current National Standards data show a small positive increase in the proportion of Year 5 students at or above standard in reading from 2013 (80.5 percent) to 2015 (81.2 percent).83
According to PIRLS 2011, there were no significant changes in reading achievement for New Zealand students overall or among its subgroups (i.e., girls, boys, ethnic groupings) for the period of 2001 to 2010.84 At the time of writing, information about achievement in PIRLS 2016 was not available; it was, however, implemented in New Zealand at the beginning of the period noted for the Four Year Plan and thus provides a baseline point for a new era in New Zealand education. PIRLS 2016 will contribute to the government’s knowledge and evidence base on how the aims are being met.
On a final note, while participation in PIRLS is integral to New Zealand’s system level evaluation framework and has made a significant contribution to the Ministry of Education’s policy work on literacy in recent years, the challenge is to make greater use of the rich contextual information that is generated from PIRLS.85