Ella Anghel

Test-taking disengagement in international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) is a widely explored topic, but little is known about students’ disengagement in ILSA surveys or how it compares internationally. In this study, we used data from PIRLS 2021 to compare six measures of survey disengagement across 25 countries. We also tested how the relationships between these disengagement measures, the survey scores, and reading achievement vary internationally. Countries accounted for a significant variation in the disengagement measures, especially in the percentage of slow responses (η² =.11). Fast responses predicted experiencing bullying and poorer reading achievement (β = 0.26, −0.37, respectively). However, there were substantial variations between countries in the relationships between the disengagement measures and students’ scores. Our results suggest that there are meaningful differences between countries in survey disengagement and in the associations between disengagement and the target scores, such that uniform criteria for identifying disengaged survey-takers might not be appropriate.