An investigation of gender differences in PIRLS 2021 results with a multilevel model analysis

Reading comprehension is an extremely critical skill for an individual's academic and everyday life. It is known that individuals in developed societies are generally better readers. PIRLS is an internationally recognized assessment that measures the reading skills of fourth-grade students. Investigating variables related to reading skills and understanding the differences in reading achievement between boys and girls is believed to contribute to the fight against inequality in education. In this study, variables related to reading achievement and gender differences in reading were examined using the Multilevel Modeling (MLM) approach. The study was conducted with data from 192 schools and 5893 students participating in the PIRLS 2021 cycle from Turkey, after data cleaning. The analysis results found that 29% of the differences related to reading skills were related to schools, while 71% were related to individual characteristics. Girls scored 14 points higher in reading than boys. According to the findings, the variables Digital Self-Efficacy, Sense of Belonging to School, Student Bullying, Self-Confidence, and Socioeconomic Status were significant at the individual level. At the school level, Emphasis on Achievement was the only variable with a statistically significant effect. The study found that gender-related reading differences did not significantly vary between schools. The interaction of individual-level variables with gender was not found to be significant. The model constructed with individual and school-level variables explains approximately 54% of the differences in reading achievement.