Author Description

A study of the reading comprehension of 4th and 9th grade students in the U.S. that goes beyond simple comparisons of national achievement levels. The reader can place the U.S. in an international perspective, compare the performance of the U.S. population with the performance of children in 32 other nations, and thus, evaluate our students against a world standard. It looks at the reading comprehension skill of 4th graders; the variation in these skills across various sub- populations of students; and the explanation for these variations according to what families, teachers, and schools do and provide. Charts and tables.