Interrelationships among Reading Achievement, Grade level, and Age in PIRLS 2006

This study uses PIRLS 2006 reading achievement results for fourth grade students in 40 countries to show how countries ’ policies on age of school entry and promotion/retention affect students ’ age within grade and result in a range of average ages for the PIRLS countries. In addition, the relationship between age within grade and achievement is complicated by the flexibility of school entry policies as well as policies regarding promotion/retention. Although in some countries older fourth grade students have higher achievement than younger students, older students do not necessarily perform better. Many countries have a significant proportion of older students in the fourth grade (students whose age suggests they belong in a higher grade) and these older students have significantly lower achievement than their younger classmates. The many different configurations of age-within-grade and reading achievement makes statistical adjustment of countries ’ average reading achievement for differences in age problematic