The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of formal teacher competence on pupils' reading achievement. The data comes from the Swedish participation in PIRLS 2001 in grade 3. Information was obtained from pupils (n = 5271) and teachers (n = 351). The analyses were conducted using 2-level structural equation modeling. Teacher…

Data from a Swedish PISA-sample were used (1) to identify a digital reading factor, (2) to investigate gender differences in this factor (if found), and (3) to explore how computer game playing might relate to digital reading performance and gender. The analyses were conducted with structural equation modeling techniques. In addition to an overall…

Background: Influence of external factors in general, and socioeconomic background factors in particular, on traditional reading performance has been extensively researched and debated. While traditional reading is well investigated in this respect, there is a lack of studies on equity aspects related to digital reading achievement, in spite of…

The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether and, if so, how formal teacher competence relates to the relationship between pupil reading achievement and teachers judgements' of pupils' reading achievement. The data come from the Swedish participation in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 in Grade 3.…

Background: This study explored the credibility of Swedish third-grade students' self-assessments of their reading achievement by relating those assessments to two different criteria--teachers' judgments and students' reading test scores. Student gender and socioeconomic status (SES) were introduced to determine to what extent, if any, these…

This study examines the changes in educational inequality at the school- and individual-levels in 1991 and 2001. Comparisons are made between the IEA Reading Literacy Study 1991 and the so called 10-Year Trend Study in PIRLS 2001. The between-school differences in reading achievement variance and the size of the relationship between SES and…

Background: Cultural capital in families and especially, the educational level of parents, has during the last decades been found to be the most important dimension of socio-economic influence on school performance. How the transmission of cultural capital over generations is concretized is however not yet fully investigated. Aims: The aim is to…

The cultural capital in families, more specifically, the educational level of parents, has during the last decades been shown to be the most important dimension of socioeconomic influence on school performance in many countries. Less is known about the factors that actually mediate this influence. The aim, therefore, is to investigate the relative…

This study examined changes in the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on reading achievement at individual and school levels between 1991 and 2001. Data from 9 countries that participated in both the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Reading Literacy Study 1991 and the Trend Study in the Progress in…