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

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 .