Reading Skills of First Graders in Russia and Kazakhstan: A Cross-Cultural Study

This article assesses the intercultural comparability of reading assessment results taking into account the specifics of the test content in relation to the child’s cultural environment. The reading skills of first graders in two countries were assessed using the reading scale of the computerized instrument “Start”. The sample of students from Kazakhstan included 1102 first-graders from Russian-language schools in the city of Almaty. The sample of students from Russia included 2247 first-graders from the city of Novosibirsk. Pearson reliability and Chronbach’s alpha were in the range from 0.89 to 0.96. Subsequently, Differential Item Functioning analysis was carried out on a combined sample in order to investigate whether the scale tasks work identically for the students from Russia and Kazakhstan when the levels of their reading skills are taken into consideration. Logic regression showed that there are no items with DIF effect size reaching beyond 0,13 (under Zumbo-Thomas classification). The research outcomes may be of interest to international comparative studies of reading skills development.