Key Findings

Overall

• The mean mathematical literacy performance of New Zealand’s 15-year-old students in PISA 2006 was above the OECD mean.
• Only 5 out of the other 56 participating countries had significantly higher¹ mean performances than New Zealand.
• There was no significant change in mathematical literacy performance of New Zealand’s 15-year-old students between 2003 and 2006.
• Compared to other OECD countries, a relatively larger proportion of New Zealand students were highly proficient in mathematical literacy and a relatively smaller proportion had low proficiency in mathematical literacy.
• The five top-performing countries had larger proportions of students achieving the highest level of proficiency and smaller proportions of students with low proficiency compared with New Zealand.

Gender

• New Zealand boys had higher mean mathematical literacy performance than New Zealand girls; this difference was primarily due to the larger proportion of boys achieving at the highest proficiency levels.

Ethnicity

• Pākeha/European and Asian students had higher mean mathematical literacy performance than their Pasifika and Māori counterparts.
• Both high and low performers were found in all ethnic groupings. A larger proportion of Asian students, and to a lesser extent Pākeha/European students, achieved high proficiency levels in mathematical literacy, while a larger proportion of Pasifika students, and to a lesser extent Māori students, performed at a low level of proficiency in mathematical literacy.

Home language and immigrant status

• There was no difference between the mean mathematical literacy performance of 15-year-old students who usually spoke English at home and those who usually spoke another language.
• Immigrant students, comprising 21 percent of the 15-year-olds, had similar mathematical literacy achievement on average as their non-immigrant counterparts in New Zealand.

Socio-economic status

• Overall, the mathematical literacy performance of New Zealand 15-year-old students increased as their socio-economic status increased. A larger proportion of Māori and Pasifika students were in the lowest socio-economic status grouping compared to their proportions in the population.

Footnote

1. Throughout this report, the term ‘significantly’ refers to statistical significance at the 0.05 level. See the ‘Definitions and technical notes’ at the end of this report for further details.