Victorian Year 4s Reading Result a Cause for Concern?
The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) , found that student achievements from 2016 to 2021 were stable in every Australian state and territory except for Victoria, where the average score fell 14 points.
Most Australian Year 4s have at least held onto their reading levels since the last PIRLS while other countries have seen significant drops.
The Victorian result will ruffle some feathers but Monash Uni academics assure us that we have other issues that should be cause for more concern.
“The year 4 student results dropped by 14 points from their average scores in 2016. This should not be a cause for alarm given that this test, on a small population of Victorian students, was administered in 2021 amid our exceptional experience with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We know from other data, such as NAPLAN, that Victorian students maintained their learning achievements despite the challenges they experienced during the pandemic. For this reason, our schools, teachers, parents and students should be commended,” says Dr Fiona Longmuir from Monash University Faculty of Education.
“It is important to note that Victoria's results on the PIRLS measure were still the second highest in the country and that the achievement against benchmarks did not decline.
“While we are discussing concerns about a 14 point decline for Victorian students, we should notice that there was a 54 point difference in average scores between students in disadvantaged schools and those in affluent schools, and a 62 point difference between students in remote locations and those in cities. These are the results that need the most attention as they again highlight the inequity of Australian school education.”
“The PIRLS report found that Australian students who enjoy reading are achieving 55 points higher than those who do not like reading. In the ongoing debates about how reading should be taught in our schools, this finding should be included in the discussions. Providing balanced reading programs that both teach the essential skills as well as provide opportunity for children to enjoy reading is clearly important.”
Dr Venesser Fernandes, Monash University Faculty of Education points out that, “Australian students started sitting for the PIRLs in 2011. To date, in the three cycles of PIRLs - 2011, 2016 and 2021 - we have seen some established indicators of inequity coming through, which was further exacerbated after the pandemic.
“It is quite clear that more focused educational improvement work needs to be done so that we can address the lag in reading ability for our First Nations students across Australia. The impact of not being able to read effectively while in Primary has long-term consequences for setting them behind and missing out on better outcomes through education.
“Boys also have consistently been lower than girls in reading over the last three cycles of PIRLs which indicates more than a decade of gender gap,” she says.
The proportion of Australian Year 4 students who did not meet the proficient standard (20%) has not changed since PIRLS 2016. These students are our at-risk students and more targeted improvements need to be developed for them.
“Australian literacy programs being run across schools have been delivering the outcomes for most of our students, however, where there are multiple levels of inequity stacked up for students, a more targeted approach for helping them is required.
“This requires long-term strategies and policies that move with the school as well as other student support networks. In other words, the mobilisation of parents, allies of parents, community organisations, sports clubs and other social networks needs to be included in a learning improvement and recovery approach.”
Image by Robin Schreiner