Use and Impact of PIRLS
Russia participated in PIRLS 2001, PIRLS 2006, PIRLS 2011, and PIRLS 2016. Participation had a significant impact not only on teaching reading, but also on the assessment of reading literacy. Previously, in primary school the oral forms of reading literacy assessment were dominant in Russia: a child read the text, the teacher asked this child a few questions on the content, the child answered the questions orally, and the teacher made a qualitative conclusion about the awareness of reading. After Russiaʼs participation in PIRLS 2001, written tests similar to PIRLS instruments, which allowed quantitative and qualitative assessment of reading literacy, started to be used actively at the regional and federal levels.
Analysis of the results of PIRLS 2006 revealed problems with reading informational text. As a result, the section on informational texts in the literary reading program has been strengthened. Also, the interdisciplinary program “Reading. Working with a Text” was developed as the part of the new Federal State Education Standards (2009).