Teacher Strategies to Help Fourth-Graders Having Difficulty in Reading: An International Perspective (NCES 2009-013)

In an international assessment, the most common teacher response to a question about what they usually do if a student begins to fall behind in reading was ask parents to help their child with reading (among the highest responses in 44 of the 45 jurisdictions). The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assesses the reading achievement of fourth-graders and collects data on their teachers' reading instruction practices and strategies. Presenting data from the United States and the 44 other jurisdictions that participated in PIRLS 2006, this Statistics in Brief describes international patterns in the strategies reported by teachers to help fourth-graders falling behind in reading. These strategies include: (a) waiting to see if performance improves with maturation, (b) spending more time working on reading individually with that student, (c) having other students work on reading with the student having difficulty, (d) having the student work in the regular classroom with a teacher-aide, (e) having the student work in the regular classroom with a reading specialist, (f) having the student work in a remedial reading classroom with a reading specialist, (g) assigning homework to help the student catch up, (h) and asking the parents to help the student with reading.