Between PIRLS and PISA: The advancement of reading literacy in a 10–15-year-old cohort

•Push–Pull is a new tool to measure and monitor the dynamics of reading literacy.•It was constructed to explain the controversy between high PIRLS and low PISA results.•Push–Pull exposed a cause of this phenomenon.•There was no progress in understanding of informational texts through grades 4 to 6.•We indicated the focus for improvement of reading education in the Russian school.

While reading literacy in Russian 10-year-old schoolchildren was exceptionally high in the PIRLS assessment, reading literacy of 15-year-old students as measured by PISA stayed low. To elucidate this controversy, we developed the “Push–Pull” diagnostic method combining PIRLS and PISA approaches. This new tool compares reading literacy across at least five years of schooling. With Push–Pull, we assessed grades 4, 6 and 9 (3110 students) and demonstrated that two years of study in Russian middle school (grades 5 and 6) failed to promote students' ability to comprehend informational texts, bringing modest improvement over five years of schooling. By measuring and monitoring the dynamics of reading literacy, Push–Pull spots the dead ends of Russian educational approach to reading and comprehension of informational texts in 10–15-year-old readers.