Reading literacy achievement: senior secondary schooling
New Zealand is continuing its high performance in reading literacy at the senior secondary level, with only two out of thirty OECD countries achieving significantly higher mean scores than New Zealand.
Date Updated: December 2007
Indicator Description
Reading literacy of 15 year-old students.
What We Have Found
New Zealand is continuing its high performance in reading literacy at the senior secondary level, with only two out of thirty OECD countries achieving significantly higher mean scores than New Zealand.
Why This Is Important
Reading literacy achievement at senior secondary level contributes to preparation for successful participation in tertiary education and training. Achievement level is also related to people’s well being and influences their ability to contribute to, and participate in, a changing labour market and increasingly knowledge-based society.
Literacy involves the ability of individuals to use written information to fulfil their goals, and the consequent ability of complex modern societies to use written information to function effectively.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study assessed 15 year-old students’ reading ability on retrieving information, interpreting texts, and reflection and evaluation.
How We Are Going
The reading scores from PISA 2000, PISA 2003 and PISA 2006 can be summarised on a combined reading literacy scale. This enables a comparison to be made between the reading literacy achievement of 15 year-old students in each of these years.
New Zealand is continuing its high performance in reading literacy at the senior secondary level, as measured by the PISA 2000, 2003 and 2006 reading tasks.
In 2006, PISA found New Zealand 15 year-old students had a mean reading literacy score significantly above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) mean across 30 countries. Only two OECD countries (Korea and Finland) achieved significantly higher mean scores than that for New Zealand. Hong Kong-China also achieved a significantly higher mean score than New Zealand.
Distribution of overall reading literacy scores in PISA (2000, 2003 and 2006)
Between 2000 and 2006 there has been no significant change in New Zealand’s average 15 year-old student performance in reading literacy. In contrast, Korea and Hong Kong-China achieved significantly higher results on average than in 2000. Australia was the only country who achieved above the OECD mean and showed a significant decline in performance from 2000 to 2006.
More New Zealand 15 year-old students achieved at the top proficiency levels in reading in PISA 2006 with 40% achieving at least Level 4 and 16% achieving Level 5 or above. This compares with the OECD averages of 29% and 9% respectively. Fifteen percent of New Zealand 15 year-old students did not reach beyond the lowest level of reading literacy (that is, achieving Level 2), and this was statistically similar to that for Australia, but statistically lower than the average across the OECD countries (20%).
Percentage of New Zealand 15 year-old students reaching the PISA reading literacy proficiency levels (2006)
Fifteen year-old New Zealand girls achieved a significantly higher mean reading literacy score than boys, a result common to all of the 56 countries participating in PISA 2006 for reading. However, while there was no change in the mean performance for boys between 2000 and 2006, the average score for girls declined significantly (by 14 points).
In PISA 2006, European/Pākehā 15 year-old students achieved significantly higher mean reading literacy scores than Asian, Māori and Pasifika, while Asian performance was significantly above Māori and Pasifika. A lower proportion of Māori and Pasifika students achieved at the highest levels of proficiency in reading, and were over-represented at the lower levels when compared with European/Pākehā and Asian students.
Where To Find Out More
This indicator is closely linked to other national assessment programs for reading, as well as achievement indicators for senior secondary school students, such as:
- Reading literacy achievement: primary schooling
- Literacy Skills in the adult population
- Mathematics literacy achievement: senior secondary schooling
- Science literacy achievement: senior secondary schooling
The Ministry of Education has established an Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, analyse, synthesise and make accessible, relevant evidence linked to a range of learner outcomes. Evidence about what works for this indicator can be found in:
References
Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington, Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education, (2001). Assessing Knowledge and Skills for Life - First results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000) - New Zealand Summary Report. Wellington, Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education (2004). Learning for Tomorrow's World - Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 - New Zealand Summary Report Wellington, Ministry of Education.
OECD (2004). Learning for Tomorrow's World - First Results from PISA 2003. Paris, OECD.
OECD (2007). PISA 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World: Vol 1. Paris: OECD.
Sturrock, F. and May, S. (2002). PISA 2000: The New Zealand Context. Wellington, Ministry of Education.
Telford, M. and Caygill, R. (2007). PISA 2006: How Ready Are Our 15-Year-Olds for Tomorrow’s World? Wellington: Ministry of Education.