Parental involvement and social background in Canada and Germany

Results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2011 (PIRLS 2011) illustrate yet again that the association between reading achievement of fourth graders and social background in Germany is high compared to the OECD-country mean. This relation is less pronounced for the Canadian Provinces that are participating in PIRLS 2011. The present study conducts a comparative analysis between Germany and the participating Canadian Provinces concerning the association between parental involvement, social background, and reading achievement. This direct country comparison is extended by conducting analyses on performance groups as well as on differences between the Canadian provinces Quebec and Ontario. The approach of the current study is to use general results of large-scale assessment data to identify differences between countries and groups and to provide a more in-depth analysis of the data. A broad literature review helps to interpret the results more accurately taking additional information about the country contexts into account.