Dinaric Perspectives on PIRLS 2021

Žaneta Džumhur is the assistant director for curriculum development at the Institute for the Development of Pre-University Education in Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina.Before being named as the head of the sector in the Institute, Žaneta built up her experience as a mathematics teacher and a head of the Sector for Student Achievement Standards in the Agency for Preschool, Primary and Secondary Education. She dealt with external evaluations and implemented IEA studies and OECD PISA in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a focus on curriculum development and their implementation during instructions. Dr Paulína Koršňáková facilitates research networking, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration that enhance capacity building and knowledge sharing to foster innovation and quality in education. She has more than 20 years of experience in developing and implementing large-scale comparative studies at national, regional, and international levels. She serves as a series editor for the IEA Research for Educators and IEA Teacher Snippets. Dr Sabine Meinck is the co-head of IEA’s Research and Analysis Unit (RandA) and head of its Sampling Unit. She guides, supports, and coordinates IEA research activities, and fosters knowledge dissemination around statistical data analysis based on large-scale assessments. Since 2006, she has been involved with various aspects of the survey design of nearly all contemporary large-scale assessments in education.

• Foreword.- Acknowledgements.- 1 Assessing Reading Achievement in the Dinaric Region—An Introduction: Surette van Staden, Paulína Koršňáková, and Jan-Philipp Wagner.- 2 National Curriculum on Language as a Basis for Teaching and Students’ Achievement in Reading Comprehension: Biljana Mihajlovska, Surette van Staden, Danijela Đjukić, Elizabeta Karalić and Branislav Randjelović.- 3 Comparing Texts Used in PIRLS With Mother Tongue Textbooks in the Dinaric Region: Are Students Well Prepared To Take The Test?: Biljana Mihajlovska, Surette Van Staden, Danijela Đjukić, and Tanja Andonova Mitrevska.- 4 Teacher Qualifications, Professional Development, Teaching Quality, and Student Reading Achievements. A Comparative Perspective for the Dinaric Region: Trude Nilsen, Agim Alia, and Wangqiong Ye.- 5 Personal and Contextual Well-Being Factors Relating to Students’ Reading Achievement in the Dinaric Region: Kajsa Hansen Yang and Gordana Čaprić.- 6 Relevance of Home Situation for Students’ Reading Achievement: Christian Christrup Kjeldsen and Ines (Elezović) Perović.- 7 Digital Skills and Tools Supporting Distance Learning: A Comprehensive Response of Dinaric Education Systems in Times of Educational Disruption: Marina Radović, Dijana Vučković, and Jelena Radišić.- 8 Data Collection During a Pandemic. How did COVID-19 Impact the Sample Composition in PIRLS 2021?:John Jerrim and Duygu Savaşcı-Smith.- 9 An Analysis of PIRLS 2021 Mode Effects: Differences in Reading Achievement Related to the Assessment Mode for PIRLS 2021 in Croatia and Slovenia: Eva Klemenčič Mirazchiyski, Plamen Mirazchiyski and Ines (Elezović) Perović.