PRINCIPIOS GENERALES

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Just as the presence of a newspaper in the home, the presence of a computer in the home significantly predicted reading literacy and is also frequently taken to reflect the socioeconomic background of the family. Once again, the results of the factor analyses showed the presence of a computer in the home to be an independent predictor. It should be noted that in three of the five countries, however, almost every student had a computer in the home. Students with a computer in the home

performed better on the RLT than students without a computer in the home although the impact of time spent using a computer on reading literacy is less straightforward than one might expect. According to Tapscott (1998), for example, the acquisition of computer literacy can facilitate learning in other areas. According to Lankshear et al. (1997), however, the increased use of computers may distract and actually “deskill” children (i.e., decrease their learning and practice of basic reading and writing skills in addition to handwriting skills). Further research should clearly address this issue. The length of preschool attendance has been found to positively relate to reading literacy (Stewart, 2004), and the results of our study show this simple measure of preschool attendance to indeed predict reading literacy outcomes. The fact that children in preschool are generally surrounded by reading and writing materials and often undertake such activities with peers may explain the development of better reading skills among such children. The initial stages of learning to read have been shown to be crucial for the future development of children (Stewart, 2004). Further research is nevertheless needed to identify the specific characteristics of the preschools in particularly literate countries and thereby advise policy makers on the organization of good preschool instruction.

Rather surprisingly, one of the most important predictors of reading literacy within the general model was a school-level variable. In fact, the variable of school climate was found to be a more important predictor of reading literacy than the student-level variable of home language. In schools where the principals were positive about teacher job satisfaction, teacher expectations with regard to student achievement, parental support for student achievement, student respect of school property, and student desire to do well in school, the students were also found to perform relatively better on the RLT. Similarly, Allington and Johnston (2000) have emphasized the importance of respectful, supportive, and productive communication between both students and teachers and the students themselves.

Another significant school-level predictor of reading literacy for the five top- performing countries was the background of the school population. On average, students in schools with more students from economically disadvantaged homes or speaking a language other than the test language at home performed lower on the RLT than other students. The nature of the school population has also been found to influence the literacy performance of students in previous studies (e.g., Overmaat,

Roeleveld, & Ledoux, 2002; Westerbeek, 1999). While our models contained various socioeconomic indicators (e.g., home reading climate, home language, presence of newspaper, presence of a computer), the population of the school was still found to influence the achievement of individual students. In addition, class size played a role in the reading achievement of the students in the top-performing countries. Contrary to common sense and the results of previous research (e.g., Pritchard, 1999; Watling, 1996; Robinson, 1990), however, the students in larger classes showed better reading literacy skills. The explanation for this finding does not lie in the degree of urbanization for the school location, as this variable was included in the model, but probably the availability of better facilities to provide good reading instruction in larger schools (e.g., remedial teachers, expensive training programs).

Differences between Top Performing Countries

While the general model clearly applies to all five of the top-performing countries, some minor differences between the countries were also detected. The incidence of all 18 background variables clearly differed across the five countries although the differences for the student-level variables were relatively small. For the student-level variables, the most marked difference was observed for the presence of a computer in the home with the Western European countries of Sweden, the Netherlands, and England having many computers in the home and the Eastern European countries of Bulgaria and Latvia having relatively few computers in the home. The presence of a computer in the home was also a more important predictor of reading literacy in the Western countries than in the Eastern countries.

Length of preschool attendance was a strong predictor of reading literacy in Sweden and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands and Latvia. That is, Sweden appears to have the most effective preschools as the length of preschool attendance strongly predicts fourth-grade reading literacy for this country.

Another remarkable difference between the top-performing countries was for the presence of a daily newspaper in the home. The presence of a newspaper constituted a significant predictor for the countries of Latvia, the Netherlands, and England while Bulgarian students reported the lowest presence of a newspaper and the Swedish students reported the highest presence.

One of the most striking findings is that reading interaction between parents and children prior to elementary school predicted fourth-grade reading literacy positively in England and negatively in the Netherlands. The positive relation in England corresponds to our expectation that the frequency of parents undertaking reading activities with their children prior to elementary school and the frequency of parents talking about reading with their fourth grade children will stimulate the children’s reading development (Baker, Scher, and Mackler, 1997; Guthrie Bus, 2002; Schafer, Wang, & Afflerbach, 1995; Rowe, 1991). Alternative explanations are conceivable for the negative relation in the Netherlands. It is possible that those parents who are

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