PROGRAMME FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ASSESSMENT 2000 - SCOTLAND ANALYSIS
Language spoken at home
4. It is not surprising to find that the language spoken at home has a very significant effect on the reading literacy scores of 15 year olds. The international data show that in all countries where comparisons could be made, students who spoke the language of the test at home most of the time had higher scores than those who spoke a different language most of the time. However, the final column in Table 13 suggests that language spoken at home had a lower impact on scores in Scotland than it did in all other OECD countries except Australia and Canada.
Table 13. Percentage of students and performance on the PISA reading literacy scale, by language spoken at home, by country
| Language spoken at home most of the time IS DIFFERENT from the language of assessment, from other official languages or from other national dialects | Language spoken at home most of the time IS THE SAME as the language of assessment, other official languages or another national dialects | Increased likelihood of students who do not speak the language of assessment at home scoring in the bottom quarter of the national reading literacy performance distribution |
Percentage of students | Performance on the PISA reading literacy scale | Percentage of students | Performance on the PISA reading literacy scale |
Mean score | Mean score | Ratio |
OECD countries |
Australia | 17.0 | 504 | 83.0 | 534 | 1.6 |
Austria | 6.7 | 434 | 93.3 | 515 | 2.3 |
Belgium | 4.9 | 403 | 95.2 | 518 | 2.8 |
Canada | 9.4 | 506 | 90.6 | 540 | 1.6 |
Czech Republic | 0.8 | * | 99.2 | 494 | * |
Denmark | 6.7 | 425 | 93.3 | 503 | 2.5 |
Finland | 1.3 | 470 | 98.7 | 548 | * |
France | 4.0 | 442 | 96.0 | 510 | 2.3 |
Germany | 7.9 | 386 | 92.1 | 500 | 2.9 |
Greece | 2.8 | 407 | 97.2 | 477 | 2.3 |
Iceland | 1.9 | 463 | 98.1 | 509 | * |
Ireland | 0.9 | * | 99.1 | 527 | * |
Italy | 0.7 | * | 99.3 | 491 | * |
Japan | 0.3 | * | 99.7 | 525 | * |
Luxembourg | 18.3 | 367 | 81.7 | 460 | 2.8 |
Mexico | 0.2 | * | 99.8 | 422 | * |
New Zealand | 9.6 | 469 | 90.4 | 541 | 2.1 |
Norway | 5.3 | 459 | 94.7 | 510 | 1.8 |
Poland | 0.5 | * | 99.5 | 482 | * |
Portugal | 1.5 | 416 | 98.5 | 471 | * |
SCOTLAND | 1.3 | 482 | 98.7 | 528 | 1.7 |
Spain | 1.2 | 456 | 98.8 | 495 | * |
Sweden | 6.7 | 456 | 93.3 | 523 | 2.1 |
Switzerland | 13.6 | 414 | 86.4 | 509 | 2.8 |
United Kingdom | 4.1 | 470 | 95.9 | 528 | 1.9 |
United States | 10.8 | 438 | 89.2 | 514 | 2.1 |
OECD total | 5.5 | 443 | 94.5 | 503 | 2.0 |
OECD average | 5.5 | 440 | 94.5 | 506 | 2.1 |
Non-OECD countries |
Brazil | 0.8 | * | 99.2 | 397 | * |
Latvia | 0.0 | * | 100.0 | 460 | * |
Liechtenstein | 20.7 | 441 | 79.3 | 494 | * |
Russian Federation | 7.3 | 432 | 92.7 | 465 | 1.5 |
* based on too few responses to be valid