Skilled Students and Effective Schools: Reading Achievement in Denmark, Sweden, and France

Figures & data

Table 1. Scales and Variables Included in the Student/Home and School Levels.

Name of the variable	Items	No. of categories	Questionnaire
Student/home-level variables
Home resources for learning scale (HRL)	Number of books in the home	5	Student
	Number of children’s books in the home	5	Home
	Number of home study supports	3	Student
	Highest level of education of either parent	5	Home
	Highest level of occupation of either parent	4	Home
Students like reading scale (SLR)^a	– What do you think about reading? Tell how much you agree with each of these statements
	I read only if I have to^1	4	Student
	I like talking about what I read with other people	4	Student
	I would be happy if someone gave me a book as a present	4	Student
	I think reading is boring^1	4	Student
	I would like to have more time for reading	4	Student
	I enjoy reading^1	4	Student
	– How often do you do these things outside of school?
	I read for fun	4	Student
	I read things that I choose myself	4	Student
Letters of the alphabet^a		3	Home
Parental book reading^a		4	Home
Students engaged in reading lessons scale (ERL)^a	– Think about the reading you do for school. How much do you agree with these statements about your reading lessons?
	I like what I read about in school	4	Student
	My teacher gives me interesting things to read	4	Student
	I know what my teacher expects me to do	4	Student
	I think of things not related to the lesson	4	Student
	My teacher is easy to understand	4	Student
	I am interested in what my teacher says	4	Student
	My teacher gives me interesting things to do	4	Student
School characteristics
Instruction affected by reading resource shortages scale (RRS)^a	How much is your school’s capacity to provide instruction affected by a shortage or inadequacy of the following?		Principal
	A. General school resources
	(1) Instructional materials (e.g., textbooks)	4	Principal
	(2) Supplies (e.g., papers, pencils)	4	Principal
	(3) School buildings and grounds	4	Principal
	(4) Heating/cooling and lighting systems	4	Principal
	(5) Instructional space (e.g., classrooms)	4	Principal
	(6) Technologically competent staff –	4	Principal
	(7) Computers for instruction	4	Principal
	B. Resources for reading instruction	4	Principal
	(1) Teachers with a specialization in reading	4	Principal
	(2) Computer software for reading instruction	4	Principal
	(3) Library books	4	Principal
	(4) Audio-visual resources for reading instruction	4	Principal
School discipline and safety scale (DAS)^a
	To what degree is each of the following a problem among fourth grade students in your school?		Principal
	(1) Arriving late at school	4	Principal
	(2) Absenteeism (i.e., unjustified absences)	4	Principal
	(3) Classroom disturbance	4	Principal
	(4) Cheating	4	Principal
	(5) Profanity	4	Principal
	(6) Vandalism	4	Principal
	(7) Theft	4	Principal
	(8) Intimidation or verbal abuse among students (including texting, emailing, etc.)	4	Principal
	(9) Physical fights among students	4	Principal
	(10) Intimidation or verbal abuse of teachers or staff (including texting, emailing, etc.)	4	Principal
School emphasis on academic success scale (EAS–T)^a
	How would you characterize each of the following within your school?		Teacher
	(1) Teachers’ understanding of the school’s curricular goals	5	Teacher
	(2) Teachers’ degree of success in implementing the school’s curriculum	5	Teacher
	(3) Teachers’ expectations for student achievement –	5	Teacher
	(4) Parental support for student achievement	5	Teacher
	(5) Students’ desire to do well in school	5	Teacher
Emphasis in early grades on reading skills scale (RSS)^a
	At which grade do the following reading skills and strategies first receive a major emphasis in instruction in your school?		Principal
	(1) Reading isolated sentences	5	Principal
	(2) Reading connected text –	5	Principal
	(3) Locating information within the text	5	Principal
	(4) Identifying the main idea of a text –	5	Principal
	(5) Explaining or supporting understanding of a text –	5	Principal
	(6) Comparing a text with personal experience	5	Principal
	(7) Comparing different texts	5	Principal
	(8) Making predictions about what will happen next in a text	5	Principal
	(9) Making generalizations and drawing inferences based on a text	5	Principal
	(10) Describing the style or structure of a text	5	Principal
	(11) Determining the author’s perspective or intention	5	Principal
School average of HRL		5	Principal

Notes: – The Cronbach’s alpha reliability of all the scales used for Denmark, France, and Sweden is equal to or greater than 0.7 for all scales, except for France in the EAS-T scale (0.57). More detailed information about the scales used in this paper can be found in the PIRLS 2011 report at http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/methods/t-context-q-scales.html

^astands for reverse coding.

Table 2. Multilevel Coefficients for the Relationship Between Student/Home and School Characteristics and Students’ Reading Achievement.

Reading	(1) Null			(2)			(3)
	Denmark	France	Sweden	Denmark	France	Sweden	Denmark	France	Sweden
Fixed part (constant)	554.14	521.64	538.23	471.54	466.78	460.25	530.71	490.92	502.73
Student/home characteristics
Home resources for learning scale (HRL)				29.35 * (1.90)	35.38 * (2.19)	31.85 * (2.31)	21.20 * (1.88)	27.33* (2.12)	23.18* (2.24)
Students like reading scale				18.74* (1.63)	23.35* (1.70)	23.12* (1.66)	15.63* (1.58)	20.16* (1.59)	18.84* (1.62)
Letters of the alphabet							21.04* (1.42)	19.26* (1.54)	19.80* (1.50)
Parental book reading							13.28* (1.83)	14.98* (1.86)	17.31* (1.94)
Students engaged in reading lessons (ERL)				−1.24 (1.90)	−1.73 (1.95)	−6.37* (2.14)	−2.54 (1.89)	−1.75 (1.84)	−6.35* (2.04)
School characteristics
Instruction affected by reading resource shortages				−0.54 (1.33)	3.64 (4.29)	−4.51 (4.00)	−0.13 (1.34)	2.91 (4.05)	−4.65 (3.79)
School discipline and safety				3.60 (2.73)	2.13 (3.17)	0.15 (3.17)	3.34 (2.66)	1.26 (3.07)	0.29 (3.04)
School emphasis on academic success				−0.27 (2.68)	7.66 (2.38)	1.19 (2.84)	1.05 (2.65)	6.13* (2.40)	−0.21 (2.73)
Emphasis in early grades on reading skills				0.85 (3.27)	1.71 (3.78)	3.97 (3.29)	0.28 (3.10)	1.44 (3.67)	2.64 (3.17)
School average of HRL				14.63* (1.98)	15.77* (1.88)	15.83* (1.75)	12.51* (2.01)	15.04* (1.87)	14.10* (1.75)
School average of ERL				1.15 (2.29)	1.78 (2.46)	−0.81 (2.87)	0.51 (2.19)	2.64 (2.46)	−0.39 (2.43)
Random part (school level)	540.62	800.11	790.40	222.56	186.83	173.37	210.04	171.96	157.62
Random part (student/home level)	3,769.32	3,912.29	4,061.73	3,327.83	3,360.12	3,446.28	3,085.57	3,126.19	3,159.70
Deviance	50,944.76	49,485.58	52,319.55	44,826.75	41,984.51	34637.36	42,935.61	40,902.56	33,893.78
AIC	50,944	49,486	52,320	44,836	41,994	34,646	42,937	40,904	33,895
School variance expl. %	12.5	17	16.3	–	–	–	–	–	–
Student variance expl. %	87.5	83	83.7	–	–	–	–	–	–

Notes: Multilevel regression of students’ performance in reading. Model (1) is the null model; model (2) includes student/home- and school-level control variables; model (3) adds the home literacy model variables at the student level. Standard errors in parenthesis p-value: *p ≤ 0.05. The bold values indicate statistically significant coefficients.