Socioeconomic Status in PIRLS 2021 - Insights from Parent, Student, and Principal Reports

Oct 15, 2026

Socioeconomic Status in PIRLS 2021 analyzes how students’ home resources relate to reading achievement using PIRLS 2021 materials. The report highlights the newly created Home Socioeconomic Status context scale from parents’ or guardians’ Home Questionnaire responses and discusses its psychometric performance across participating countries. It addresses interpretation challenges, missing data and cultural variation in indicators of socioeconomic and cultural capital, then studies alignment with student and school questionnaire measures using convergent validity analyses and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages33

Reading Time1 h 23 min

AccessFree to download

Overview

Defining Socioeconomic Status

Interpreting the Home Socioeconomic Status Scale in PIRLS 2021

Alignment Analyses and Convergent Validity

Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM)

Key Findings and Future Directions

Socioeconomic Status in PIRLS 2021: Insights from Parent, Student, and Principal Reports Dihao Leng, Deepthi Kodamala, Katherine A. Reynolds, UmmugulBezirhan, Matthias von Davier, Eugenio Gonzalez, Ann Kennedy © IEA, 2025 Copyright © 2025 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Socioeconomic Status in PIRLS 2021: Insights from Parent, Student, and Principal Reports Dihao Leng, Deepthi Kodamala, Katherine A. Reynolds, Ummugul Bezirhan, Matthias von Davier, Eugenio Gonzalez, Ann Kennedy Suggested citation: Leng, D. , Kodamala, D. , Reynolds, K.A. , Bezirhan, U. , von Davier, M. , Gonzalez, E. & Kennedy, A.(2025) . Socioeconomic Status in PIRLS 2021: Insights from Parent, Student, and Principal Reports. Boston College, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center. [https://doi.org/10.6017/lse.tpisc.ey8378](https://doi.org/10.6017/lse.tpisc.ey8378) For more information about PIRLS contact: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center Lynch School of Education and Human Development Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 United States tel: +1-617-552-1600 e-mail: [timssandpirls@bc.edu](timssandpirls@bc.edu)[ ](timssandpirls@bc.edu)[timssandpirls.bc.edu](timssandpirls.bc.edu) Boston College is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. Socioeconomic Status in PIRLS 2021: Insights from Parent, Student, and Principal Reports Overview The relationship between students’ home resources and academic performance has long been of interest to researchers, policymakers, and educators. Access to home resources for learning has been shown to have a strong, positive relationship with reading achievement in many assessments, and for many cycles of PIRLS.1,2,3,4 PIRLS 2021 expanded upon these findings by including a new context scale, the Home Socioeconomic Status scale, created from items in the Home Questionnaire completed by the parents or guardians of fourth-grade students. The new scale draws its indicators from established definitions of socioeconomic status and demonstrates sound psychometric properties and relationships with students’ reading achievement across the countries participating in PIRLS 2021.5,6 The development of this scale reflects ongoing interest in the predictive power of students’ home environments to explain their academic achievement. Despite the desirable properties of the Home Socioeconomic Status scale, its interpretation is not without challenges. Although the variables included in the scale faithfully reflect wellknown conceptualizations of socioeconomic status, this construct is challenging to measure and even more challenging to use for comparisons across diverse countries and cultures. While some basic indicators of socioeconomic status are applicable across countries, more specific indicators of cultural capital are likely to vary across country contexts. The scale also poses logistical challenges—in some countries, the scale’s reliance on parents’ reports suffers from large amounts of missing data, as response rates from parent questionnaires were relatively low in those countries, and a small number of countries opt not to administer this questionnaire. This PIRLS Insights report begins with a discussion of how socioeconomic status has been conceptualized and measured historically and how this is reflected in the Home Socioeconomic Status scale. The discussion begins broadly, before narrowing to focus specifically on the context of PIRLS 2021. The report then examines the alignment between scores on the Home Socioeconomic Status scale and other indicators of home resources in the PIRLS questionnaires—specifically the Student Questionnaire completed by fourth-grade students following the reading assessment, and the School Questionnaire completed by school principals—to explore other variables that may be useful for analysis given the high levels of nonresponse observed for SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS IN PIRLS 2021 1 the home questio

FAQs

What is the Home Socioeconomic Status scale in PIRLS 2021 based on?

It is created from items in the Home Questionnaire completed by parents or guardians of fourth-grade students, using indicators derived from established definitions of socioeconomic status.

Why can interpreting the Home Socioeconomic Status scale be challenging?

Because measuring socioeconomic status is complex, and comparisons across countries and cultures are difficult; cultural capital indicators may vary, and the parent-report approach can produce substantial missing data and lower response rates.

How does the report investigate relationships between home SES and other PIRLS measures?

It examines alignment between Home Socioeconomic Status scale scores and other indicators of home resources from the Student Questionnaire and the School Questionnaire, using convergent validity analyses and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Maya Linwood