Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016 (IGLU 2016)

The project IGLU (International: Progress in Reading Literacy Study [PIRLS]) 2016 uses representative data to investigate the reading literacy of students at the end of the fourth grade in primary schools in Germany. Due to the international orientation of the project, school achievements in Germany can be compared with those in other countries and regions of the world. IGLU is a central element of educational monitoring in Germany and took place for the fourth time in 2016. The survey allows statements about trends in the school system. The IGLU study focuses on reading literacy. In addition, it looks at key characteristics of students, their classes, their schools and their families. A special feature of IGLU 2016 is the extension study PIRLS Literacy. In the past, it has been shown that in those countries where the reading skills of fourth-graders were significantly below international levels, the skills of the weaker children could not be adequately recorded with the regular IGLU instruments. Germany did NOT participate in PIRLS Literacy. (IQB)

  • Research Design: Oberservational Design
  • Sample: Students in grade 4 (N=3,959); Classes (N=208); Schools (N=208)
  • DOI: 10.5159/IQB_IGLU_2016_v3
  • Restrictions: No

  • Socio-demographic Background
    • Germany as country of birth of the child
    • Language(s) in infancy
    • Country of birth of the child and parents
    • Germany as country of origin of the mother
    • Germany as country of origin of the father
    • Germany as country of origin of the child
  • Cultural Capital
    • Economic and cultural capital
    • Number of books at home
    • Wealth assets
  • Individual Characteristics
    • Resource generator
    • Start of learning German language
  • Family Background
    • Language of the child at home
    • Parents' graduation qualifications
    • Language at home
    • Single parent
    • Persons in the household
    • Number of persons in household
    • Money available per month
    • Frequency of use of the test language at home
  • School-related Attitudes and Behaviors
    • Parents' satisfaction with school
    • Satisfaction with teaching profession
    • Absence from school
    • Breakfast on school days
  • Personality
    • Assessment of cognitive, emotional and behavioral characteristics of the child.
  • Occupational Situation
    • Occupation held by parents
    • Occupational position of parents
    • Employment status of parents
    • Number of employees in the enterprise
    • Parents' priority activity
    • Occupation
    • Weekly teaching time of the school management
    • Relief for school management activities
    • Activities of the school principal
    • Time scope of school management activities
    • Working time for different activities
  • Professional Education
    • Vocational certificates of parents
    • Parents' graduation qualifications
    • Vocational training of parents
    • Highest educational attainment
    • Vocational qualification
    • Main focus of studies
    • Emphasis in study and training - German
    • Attending professional development courses on reading/reading instruction
    • Educational certificates
    • Degree/Qualification for school principals/management
  • Educational Biography
    • Early childhood education
    • Age of the child at school enrollment
    • Reading skills of the child at school entry
    • Early enrollment or deferral
  • Private ICT Usage
    • Devices for the use of e-books
    • Number of digital information devices in the home
    • Computer use: duration
  • Reading and Writing Habits
    • Parents' reading habits: reading time
    • Parents' reading habits: reading for pleasure
    • Parents' reading habits: motives
    • Extent of reading outside of school
    • Extracurricular reading activities
    • Interest in reading
    • Favorite book
  • Leisure Activities and Peer Group
    • Cultural practice of parents
    • Activities outside school
  • Home Learning Environment
    • Number of books in the home
    • Number of children's books in the household
  • Home Learning Support
    • Learning to read: preparatory activities at home (type of activities)
    • Extracurricular support to improve performance
    • Supportive activities at home
    • Parent participation: language, reading and writing promotion
    • Parents' interest in the child's activities
  • Parental Educational Practices
    • Cultural activities with the child
    • Interest of parents in friendships of the child
  • Parental Educational Aspirations
    • Educational expectations: School leaving certificate of the child
    • Educational expectations: Vocational qualification of the child
    • Educational expectations: School leaving certificate of the child
    • Decision about the secondary school
    • Parents' satisfaction with child's school performance
  • Parental Involvement
    • Contact between home and school
  • Handling Homework
    • Homework
    • Reading as homework: frequency
    • Reading as homework: duration
    • Dealing with reading as homework
  • Learning and Performance-related Attitudes
    • Attitude towards heterogeneous learning groups
    • Self concept reading
  • Professional Experience
    • Teaching experience
    • Duration of employment as principle
    • Duration of employment as principle (current school)
  • Educational Resources
    • Computer use in reading classes: availability
    • Library in the classroom
    • Number of books in the classroom library
    • Number of magazines in the classroom library
    • Free meals at the school
    • Problems with personnel and material equipment of the school
    • Use of libraries (student statement)
  • Learning Opportunities
    • Students in the classroom library
    • Borrowing opportunities from the classroom library
    • Homework supervision: Spatial and personnel resources
    • Classroom management: organization of learning groups
  • Composition of the Student Body
    • Number of students in the IGLU class
    • Percentage of grade 4
    • Number of students: need for support in reading
    • Number of students: receiving support in reading
    • Number of students: advanced readers
    • Joint lessons
    • Number of students at the school
    • Number of students in grade 4
    • Percentage of students: social origin
    • Percentage of students with German as their mother tongue
    • Immigration: Schooling
    • Immigration: number of students
  • Collegiality
    • Willingness to innovate within the college
    • Cooperation within the collegium
  • School Atmosphere
    • School climate
    • Safety at school
    • Problematic student behavior
    • Problematic teacher behavior
    • Condition at school
    • Satisfaction with the school/examination anxiety
    • Sense of security at school
  • Intra-school Cooperation
    • Exchange within the teaching staff
    • Teacher cooperation: Fixed times
    • Teacher cooperation: concept
    • Teacher cooperation: areas
  • Lesson Design/ Teaching Practice
    • Duration of teaching in a 4th grade class
    • Assessments of reading in class
    • Reading activities in class
  • Use and Variation of Different Teaching Methods
    • Text types in reading instruction
    • Methods in reading instruction
    • Support reading comprehension/strategies in reading instruction
    • Follow-up of texts in reading lessons
    • Computer use in reading classes: frequency
    • Textbooks used: German
    • Spelling Lessons: Time for Exercises
    • Spelling Lessons: Materials
    • Spelling Lessons: Methods and Forms
    • Use of pronunciation tables
    • Use of pronunciation tables: Timing
    • Use of pronunciation tables: Form
    • Use of pronunciation tables: Frequency
    • Teaching reading strategies
    • Silent reading in class
    • Silent reading in class: design
    • Reading tandems: frequency
    • Reading tandems: design
    • Individualisation in reading instruction
    • Use of reading strategies
    • Reading aloud in class public teaching phases
    • Periods of silent reading in class
    • Sound Reading Tandems
  • Clarity and Structuredness
    • Structuring of the lessons
  • Cognitive Activation
    • Cognitive activation from the teachers' point of view
    • Perceived cognitive activation by the teacher
  • Lesson Preparation and Lesson Content
    • Support language-related skills: time
    • Time for reading instruction/reading activities
    • Individualisation in reading instruction
    • Common lessons: preparation
    • Shared teaching: changing the way lessons are taught
    • Systematic development of reading skills/strategies
  • Professional Support/ Individual Support
    • Additional staff for reading promotion
    • students with reading difficulties
    • Support students according to their individual learning requirements
    • Support weak readers
    • Support strong readers
    • School support and care services
    • Measures to promote reading
    • Inclusion: Implementation
    • Inclusion: Implementation Year
    • Inclusion: implementation grades
    • Inclusion: Number of students
    • Inclusion: Support without diagnosis
    • Inclusion: type of support needs
    • Inclusion: Participants
    • Inclusion: framework conditions
    • Inclusion: School development
    • Inclusion: Assessment
    • Teaching reading strategies
  • Effective Use of Time/ Discipline in the Classroom
    • Extent of activities in the classroom
    • Structuring of the lessons
  • Performance Assessment/ Diagnostic Competence
    • Assessment of reading achievement
  • Student Orientation/ Social Support
    • Supportive climate from the teachers' perspective
    • Perceived teacher support
  • Learning Climate
    • Impairment of teaching
    • Language requirements in the classroom
    • Appropriateness of demanded level of performance
  • Classroom Climate
    • Classroom management from the teachers' point of view
  • Learning and Performance-related Attitudes (Learning Outcome)
    • Grade 4: German language skills
    • Constructivist beliefs
  • Personal Characteristics
    • Head teacher completing the survey: Gender
  • Institutional Characteristics
    • School profile
    • School profile: Type
    • School profile: Goals
  • School Location
    • Number of inhabitants in the school's town
    • School environment
  • Organization of School Operations
    • Number of teaching days per year
    • Instructional time (without breaks)
    • Number of teaching days per week
    • Half-yearly enrollments
    • Immigration: Challenges
  • Organization of Teaching Operations
    • Lesson cancellations/substitutions
    • Immigration: Organization
  • Organization of all-day Operation
    • School as all-day operation
    • Existence of all-day operation
    • School in all-day operation: Form
  • School ICT Usage
    • Access to e-books
    • Number of computers available
    • Computer use: duration
  • Composition of the Faculty
    • Age composition
    • Migration background of teachers
  • Quality Development and Evaluation
    • Performance orientation of the school
  • Measures of Quality Development
    • Quality development measures of reading instruction
  • Class Management
    • Profile classes
    • Profile classes: Type
    • Profile classes: Goals
    • Perceived classroom management
  • Other
    • Knowledge at school entry
    • Design, identification and linkage variables
    • General information on test administration
    • Assignment of test booklets
    • Sampling and weighting variables
    • Coding of the test booklets
  • Leisure Time Behavior and Media Use
    • Computer use: location and frequency
  • Tutoring
    • Private tuition (student details)
  • Quality of all-day Programs
    • Participation in all-day classes from student's point of view

  • Domain-Specific Cognitive Competencies
  • Linguistic Competence
  • Test Instrument Language
  • ELFE II - Ein Leseverständnistest für Erst- bis Siebtklässler
  • in-house development
  • German Language
  • Reading
    • Reading skills: literary texts
    • Reading skills: non-fiction texts
    • Text-immanent comprehension
    • Competencies in knowledge-based comprehension
    • Word comprehension
    • Sentence Comprehension Test
  • Cross-Domain Cognitive Skills
    • nonverbal intelligence
  • Test Instrument Intelligence
  • KFT - Kognitiver Fähigkeitstest
    • Figurative thinking
Apply for Scientific Use Files
Data Set Published on
July 9, 2020
Current Version Available Since
June 1, 2023
Survey Period
2016
Sample
Students in grade 4 (N=3,959); Classes (N=208); Schools (N=208)
Survey Unit
  • Parents
  • Teachers
  • Principals
  • Students
  • Others
Measured Competencies
German - Reading Comprehension
Region
Germany, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia
Principal Investigators
  • Bos, Prof. Dr. Wilfried
  • Mc Elvany, Prof. Dr. Nele
Data Producers
  • Hußmann, Dr. Anke
Funded by
Federal Ministry of Education and Research , Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany
Related Studies
Suggested Citation
Hußmann, A., Wendt, H., Bos, W., Bremerich-Vos, A., Kasper, D., Lankes, E.-M., McElvany, N., Stubbe, T. C., & Valtin, R. (2020). Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016 (PIRLS 2016) (Version 3) [Data set]. Berlin: IQB – Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen. http://doi.org/10.5159/IQB_IGLU_2016_v3
Restriction Notice

No federal state identifier variable is available for these records.

Cognitive abilities must not be used as a dependent variable in the analyses.

Blank data sets

For a first overview of the data set and its variables, dummy data sets containing the variables used and the value labels relating to them are provided for download here.

IGLU 2016 Teachers-Students IGLU 2016 Students-Parents IGLU 2016 Teachers IGLU 2016 Principals IGLU 2016 Tracking

Documentation

Here you can find further documentation:

IGLU 2021 Scales Classes Overview eatRep

Further information

Notes on the use of the data

General and study-specific methodological notes on our large-scale assessment studies (IQB Trends in Student Achievement, IQB National Assessment Study, PISA, PIRLS) can be found here.

Under Featured Studies, we present articles and research papers using this data that illustrate the potential of secondary analyses.

Literature

Selected literature is listed here.

PIRLS 2016 Literature (.bib)

Huth-Stöckle, N., Schnuck, R., & Zschnirt, E. (2025). Reference Group Effects and Parental Educational Expectations: Can Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effects Explain Immigrant Parents’ High Expectations? European Societies. https://doi.org/10.1162/euso_a_00014

Leidig, S. J. (2025). Wahrnehmung sozialer Bildungsungleichheit im Unterricht der Primarstufe aus der Perspektive der Lernenden [Dissertation, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena].

Rüdiger, C., Jansen, M., & Kocaj, A. (2025). Zusammenhänge des eingeschätzten Arbeits- und Sozialverhaltens in der Primarstufe mit Geschlechterunterschieden in der Benotung. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie. https://doi.org/10.1024/1010-0652/a000401

Schwerter, J., Bleher, J., Doebler, P., & McElvany, N. (2025). Metropolitan, Urban, and Rural Regions: How Regional Differences Affect Elementary School Students in Germany. AERA Open, 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584251331453

Strasser, L. (2024). Das „Paradoxon der Expansion in hierarchisch Das „Paradoxon der Expansion in hierarchisch differenzierten Bildungssystemen“ nach El-Mafaalani. Eine empirische Analyse [Bachelorarbeit, Bergische Universität Wuppertal].

Rieser, S., & Decristan, J. (2023). Kognitive Aktivierung in Befragungen von Schülerinnen und Schülern. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie. https://doi.org/10.1024/1010-0652/a000359

Bütje, L. (2022). Exam Timing and the Socioeconomic Achievement Gap [unveröffentlichte Masterarbeit, Universität Konstanz].

Peinelt, E. (2022). (Un-)Gerechte Übergänge? Intersektionalitätseffekte beim Übergang von der Grundschule in die Sekundarstufe I [Masterarbeit, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena].

Hußmann, A., Wendt, H., Bos, W., & Rieser, S. (2020). IGLU 2016: Skalenhandbuch zur Dokumentation der Erhebungsinstrumente und Arbeit mit den Datensätzen. Waxmann. https://books.google.de/books?id=jhsDEAAAQBAJ

Hußmann, A. (2019). Unter der Norm - Kompetenz und Diagnostik in IGLU 2016: Below the norm – competence and diagnosis in PIRLS Germany 2016. Pabst Science Publishers.

Hußmann, A., Wendt, H., Bos, W., Bremerich-Vos, A., Kasper, D., Lankes, E.-M., McElvany, N., Stubbe, T. C., & Valtin, R. (Eds.). (2017). IGLU 2016: Lesekompetenzen von Grundschulkindern in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich. Waxmann. https://www.waxmann.com/index.php?eID=download&buchnr=3700