Publication of COVID-19 Research Resources in PIRLS 2021

COVID-19 Research Resources in PIRLS 2021, the second report in the PIRLS Insights series, is now available. This guide for researchers describes how the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 impacted PIRLS 2021 and outlines the contextual data related to COVID-19 collected in the study. Read the full report here.

PIRLS 2021 data cannot be used to make causal inferences about the impact of COVID-19 on students’ reading achievement. It does, however, include rich information about instruction and learning, and about students’ home and school environments, during the pandemic. COVID-19 Research Resources in PIRLS 2021 provides an overview of this information, as well as important considerations for interpretation of the data.

PIRLS Insights is an ongoing series of reports that use PIRLS achievement and contextual data to take a closer look at areas of interest in educational research. The first report in the series, Aspects of Student Well-Being and Reading Achievement in PIRLS 2021, explored possible relationships between fourth-grade students’ reading achievement and certain factors that may impact their subjective well-being.