This report uses data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assessment and summarizes the performance of U.S. students. It also compares the scores of U.S. fourth-graders to the scores of their peers internationally in 2006 and also examining the extent to which the reading literacy of U.S. students had changed from the first administration of PIRLS in 2001. Following the presentation of results, a technical appendix describes the study design, data collection, and analysis procedures that guided the administration of PIRLS 2006 in the United States and in the other participating jurisdictions.