In recent decades, large-scale assessments in Ireland have revealed consistent trends, phases of change, and some surprises. This brief explores how data from large-scale assessments informed Ireland's "National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy 2011-2020," particularly regarding priorities, target-setting, and monitoring. It also examines…

Part of the mission of IEA (the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) is to support education systems worldwide with data-driven insights for evidence-based policies and improved student learning outcomes. Together with the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College, LaNA (Literacy and…

From once being synonymous with reading and writing, literacy, as a concept has expanded in the last three decades to today being associated with multiple meaning making forms and competences. Impactful, in this shift, has been the research orientation of New Literacy Studies. Besides academia, the literacy concept has also had a major influence…

Today's students must acquire the necessary reading skills and strategies for active engagement in a fast-paced, information-laden, globally connected society. One opportunity imperative for gaining these skills and strategies is participation in independent reading. As facilitators of the learning environment, teachers play a critical role in…

Focusing on the variables that can affect both academic achievement and the well-being of students has been crucial for their development, making schools effective and designing educational policy as well as curriculum. The study has aimed to investigate the effect of peer bullying on academic achievement and to determine moderators in the…

Background: Proficient reading skills are crucial for Foundation Phase learners to develop critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. The 2021 PIRLS assessment highlighted alarmingly low reading proficiency among ten-year-olds. Effective reading instruction, and a positive reading environment are essential for developing confident, skilled…

With the release of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) results, concerns that reading scores of U.S. students have remained flat for the past decade have surfaced again along with suggestions about the source of this problem and how it might be remedied. The…

This study investigates the student- and school-level predictors of reading performance across five top-performing countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021. Utilising a multilevel analysis, the research examines the influence of cognitive development, socio-cultural contexts and educational environments on…

Reading and writing have an essential place in the social life of individuals as well as in school learning. In this study, bidirectional relationships between reading and writing skills have been examined after gender and socio-economic level of students have been controlled. The participants in this study were 240 fifth-grade students from 10…

Purpose: We investigated the roles of leisure reading and word reading ability in vocabulary and reading comprehension development in 598 adolescents at ages 10, 11, and 12 (285 girls, 313 boys). Method: Structural equation modeling was used to test whether word reading was associated with vocabulary and reading comprehension: a) directly; b)…

Many students require special education and programming to succeed in the classroom. This study analyzed international and national assessment teacher survey data regarding inclusive education to better characterize student classroom needs and teacher preparedness to support them. Most teachers indicated that they relied on teacher-based…

Modern societies are characterised by forms of acceleration, which influence social processes. Sociologist Hartmut Rosa has systematised temporal structures by focusing on three categories of social acceleration: technical acceleration, acceleration of social change, and acceleration of the pace of life. All three processes of acceleration are…

Prior research shows that establishing early literacy and numeracy skills may help children achieve better outcomes in later schooling. Data from the Regional Project on Child Development Indicators (PRIDI), which focused on Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru, provided insights into four domains of child development that build the…

This chapter offers a survey of education development in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), and how the different crises have changed the global dynamics in education. This chapter first gives an overview of the regional context and the history of education in the region, followed by a discussion of the education developments in the…

This European Training Foundation (ETF) assessment provides an external, forward-looking analysis of Azerbaijan's human capital development issues and Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy responses in a lifelong learning perspective. It identifies challenges related to education and training policy and practice that hinder the…