Reading Performance at Nine
01 July 1996
In March 1996, NFER and the Open University jointly carried out a survey of reading attainment in Year 4 classes (pupils aged 9) in England and Wales. Most of the pupils had also been tested in Year 3 in 1995.
The survey was principally funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust, with additional support from Channel 4 Television, the Mail on Sunday newspaper, NFER and the Open University.
Key Findings
- the average score on the international test would have put England and Wales close to the overall average in the 1991 study, within a group of 13 countries whose average scores did not differ significantly;
- the average score for England and Wales on the international test was lowered by (among other factors) a "long tail" of pupils who achieved scores well below the average; and
- the pupils tested in both 1995 and 1996 appeared to have made slower progress, on average, in the intervening 12 months than children did in 1987.
Related Titles
Reading performance at nine , Reading performance at nine , Reading performance at nine , Effective teaching of inference and deduction skills for reading , PIRLS 2011 , PIRLS and TIMSS 2011 in Northern Ireland