Annual Monitoring of Reading Recovery: the Data for 2007

Schools and Students Involved in Reading Recovery during 2007

Schools and Students Involved in Reading Recovery Nationally and Regionally

At the end of 2007, a total of 1,456 individual teachers were reported to be teaching Reading Recovery at some point during the year. In total, 1,302 state and state-integrated schools with six-year-old students were involved in providing 446,804 hours of teaching, delivered to 10,777 students – just over 41 hours of teaching time per student on average. There was little change in the total number of students in Reading Recovery between 2007 (10,777 students), 2006 (10,757 students) and 2005 (11,054 students).

Overall, Reading Recovery was offered in two-thirds (67%) of all state and state-integrated schools with six-year-old students (Table 1a). This is similar to 65 percent recorded in 2006 and equivalent to 67 percent recorded in 2005.

The number of six-year-olds attending schools that offered Reading Recovery represented three-quarters (76%) of the total six-year-old population in New Zealand. This compares with 76 percent in 2006 and 78 percent recorded in 2005.

As shown in Table 1a (next page), the proportion of schools that offered Reading Recovery in 2007 varied from 47 percent in the Gisborne region to 92 percent in the Nelson region¹, with implementation in the majority of regions falling within the range of 57 percent to 73 percent.

Compared with regional figures from the 2006 Annual Monitoring Report (see Appendix Table 1), the only notable decrease (i.e. of 5% or more) in the proportion of schools offering Reading Recovery was in the Tasman region (79% in 2006, 71% in 2007). In contrast, the proportion of schools that offered Reading Recovery increased (by 5% or more) in the Southland, Canterbury, Nelson and Taranaki regions.

 

Table 1a: Schools with Reading Recovery by region in 2007

Local Body (Region)	Schools with Reading Recoverya		Total schools with six-year-oldsb		Access to Reading Recoveryc
	N	6-year-olds on rollb	N	6-year-olds on roll	% of schools	% of 6-year-olds
Northland Region	70	1,732	123	2,311	56.9	74.9
Auckland Region	221	12,014	351	18,892	63.0	63.6
Waikato Region	169	4,578	252	5,710	67.1	80.2
Bay of Plenty Region	71	2,959	123	3,990	57.7	74.2
Gisborne Region	22	631	47	823	46.8	76.7
Hawkes Bay Region	61	1,797	99	2,263	61.6	79.4
Taranaki Region	55	1,357	77	1,530	71.4	88.7
Manawatu-Wanganui Region	89	2,233	163	3,131	54.6	71.3
Wellington Region	147	5,270	184	6,143	79.9	85.8
Tasman Region	20	574	28	631	71.4	91.0
Nelson Region	12	520	13	540	92.3	96.3
Marlborough Region	19	470	26	535	73.1	87.9
West Coast Region	19	362	32	413	59.4	87.7
Canterbury Region	193	6,089	236	6,610	81.8	92.1
Otago Region	85	1,810	122	2,270	69.7	79.7
Southland Region	49	1,077	73	1,264	67.1	85.2
Total	1,302	43,473	1,949	57,056	66.8	76.2

Table 1 Notes: 

a - Where school reports are missing, data are obtained from a match between the institution numbers provided in the individual students’ reports and data from Data Management Unit, Ministry of Education.
b - Source: Data Management Unit, Ministry of Education, E4/2:Annual Return of Primary Pupils as at 1 July 2007. 
c - Care must be taken when interpreting results from regions with low base numbers (i.e. less than n=30) of schools with six-year-olds.
 

 

Table 1b: Schools with Reading Recovery by region – Māori students

Local Body (Region)	Schools with Māori students in Reading Recoverya		Total schools with six-year-old Māori studentsb		Access to Reading Recoveryc
	N	6-year-olds on rollb	N	6-year-olds on roll	% of schools	% of 6-year-olds
Northland Region	69	774	122	1,176	56.6	65.8
Auckland Region	204	1,837	322	3,279	63.4	56.0
Waikato Region	154	1,429	227	1,994	67.8	71.7
Bay of Plenty Region	69	1,073	119	1,743	58.0	61.6
Gisborne Region	21	352	45	529	46.7	66.5
Hawkes Bay Region	61	723	91	885	67.0	81.7
Taranaki Region	51	322	64	380	79.7	84.7
Manawatu-Wanganui Region	83	674	138	1,032	60.1	65.3
Wellington Region	137	1,051	168	1,311	81.5	80.2
Tasman Region	16	55	21	63	76.2	87.3
Nelson Region	12	78	13	83	92.3	94.0
Marlborough Region	17	73	22	81	77.3	90.1
West Coast Region	18	55	22	59	81.8	93.2
Canterbury Region	153	728	175	792	87.4	91.9
Otago Region	73	195	96	246	76.0	79.3
Southland Region	36	178	49	224	73.5	79.5
Total	1,174	9,597	1,694	13,877	69.3	69.2

Table 1b Notes: 

a - Where school reports are missing, data are obtained from a match between the institution numbers provided in the individual students’ reports and data from Data Management Unit, Ministry of Education.
b - Source: Data Management Unit, Ministry of Education, E4/2:Annual Return of Primary Pupils as at 1 July 2007. 
c - Care must be taken when interpreting results from regions with low base numbers (i.e. less than n=30) of schools with six-year-olds.
 

As shown in Table 1b, the proportion of schools with Māori students that offered Reading Recovery ranged from 47 percent in Gisborne to 92 percent in Nelson, with the majority of regions falling within the range of 60 percent to 82 percent.

Table 1b also shows that, although many state and state-integrated schools with Māori students offered Reading Recovery in 2007 (69 percent), overall access to Reading Recovery for Māori six-year-olds was lower compared to the general population. That is, 69 percent of the total six-year-old Māori population attended schools where Reading Recovery was offered, compared to 76 percent for the total six-year-old population.

The proportion of six-year-old Māori students who had access to Reading Recovery was lowest in the Auckland region, despite this region having a high population of Māori children.

 

Table 1c: Schools with Reading Recovery by region – Pasifika students

Local Body (Region)	Schools with Pasifika students in Reading Recoverya		Total schools with six-year-old Pasifika studentsb		Access to Reading Recoveryc
	N	6-year-olds on rollb	N	6-year-olds on roll	% of schools	% of 6-year-olds
Northland Region	19	30	26	40	73.1	75.0
Auckland Region	193	2,775	290	4,220	66.6	65.8
Waikato Region	63	150	74	186	85.1	80.6
Bay of Plenty Region	31	70	37	83	83.8	84.3
Gisborne Region	7	19	8	20	87.5	95.0
Hawkes Bay Region	30	115	32	117	93.8	98.3
Taranaki Region	23	30	23	30	100.0	100.0
Manawatu-Wanganui Region	34	76	40	93	85.0	81.7
Wellington Region	109	655	124	703	87.9	93.2
Tasman Region	2	2	2	2	100.0	100.0
Nelson Region	8	10	8	10	100.0	100.0
Marlborough Region	6	10	6	10	100.0	100.0
West Coast Region	3	5	3	5	100.0	100.0
Canterbury Region	75	199	80	207	93.8	96.1
Otago Region	27	52	29	54	93.1	96.3
Southland Region	14	23	15	24	93.3	95.8
Total	644	4,221	797	5,804	80.8	72.7

Table 1c Notes:

a - Where school reports are missing, data are obtained from a match between the institution numbers provided in the individual students’ reports and data from Data Management Unit, Ministry of Education.
b - Source: Data Management Unit, Ministry of Education, E4/2:Annual Return of Primary Pupils as at 1 July 2007. 
c - Care must be taken when interpreting results from regions with low base numbers (i.e. less than n=30) of schools with six-year-olds.

As shown in Table 1c, the proportion of schools with Pasifika students that offered Reading Recovery was greater than 80 percent in many regions. It is important to note however, that these results must be analysed with caution as these regions had very small base numbers of Pasifika students.

Consistent with the analysis for Māori students above, Table 1c also shows that while many state and state-integrated schools with Pasifika students offered Reading Recovery in 2007 (81 percent), overall access to Reading Recovery for Pasifika six-year-olds was lower compared to the general population. That is, 73 percent of the total six-year-old Pasifika population attended schools where Reading Recovery was offered, compared to 76 percent for the total six-year-old population.

Also consistent with the analysis for Māori students, the proportion of six-year-old Pasifika students who had access to Reading Recovery was lowest in the Auckland region, despite this region having a high population of Pasifika children.
 
As a proportion of all six-year-olds in New Zealand state and state-integrated schools, 14 percent entered Reading Recovery in 2007 (Table 2). There has been little change in this figure over time (14% in 2006, 15% in 2005).

Compared with regional figures from 2006, the proportion of six-year-olds entering Reading Recovery in 2007 increased in the Southland (17% in 2006, 21% in 2007) and Tasman (16% in 2006, 20% in 2007) regions. Although the proportion of six-year-olds entering Reading Recovery in the West Coast region decreased from 32 percent in 2006 to 23 percent in 2007, this region continued to have the highest entry rate overall. The Auckland and Bay of Plenty regions had the lowest entry rate at approximately 11 percent.

Table 2: Six-year-old students who entered Reading Recovery by region^a

Local Body (Region)	Six year olds who entered Reading Recovery in 2007		Total six-year-old school populationb
	N	% of total	N
Northland Region	360	15.6	2,311
Auckland Region	2,103	11.1	18,892
Waikato Region	830	14.5	5,710
Bay of Plenty Region	457	11.5	3,990
Gisborne Region	116	14.1	823
Hawkes Bay Region	391	17.3	2,263
Taranaki Region	227	14.8	1,530
Manawatu-Wanganui Region	440	14.1	3,131
Wellington Region	965	15.7	6,143
Tasman Region	126	20.0	631
Nelson Region	90	16.7	540
Marlborough Region	80	15.0	535
West Coast Region	95	23.0	413
Canterbury Region	930	14.1	6,610
Otago Region	424	18.7	2,270
Southland Region	269	21.3	1,264
Total	7,903	13.9	57,056

Table 2 Notes:

a - This table includes only those students who entered Reading Recovery in 2007. The total number of students involved in Reading Recovery cannot be compared to the total number of six-year-olds in the population as those students who were carried over from 2006 were age seven in 2007.
b - Source: Data Management Unit, Ministry of Education, E4/2:Annual Return of Primary Pupils as at 1 July 2007. 
 

Table 3 shows the relationship between Reading Recovery schools and their decile². Overall, proportionately fewer schools in lower deciles offered Reading Recovery compared to those in higher deciles. For example, 57 percent and 62 percent of decile 1 and 2 schools respectively offered Reading Recovery in 2007 compared to 72 percent and 69 percent of decile 9 and 10 schools. Despite this, the proportion of students entering Reading Recovery was greater for lower decile schools (e.g. 16% and 17% of students in decile 1 and decile 2 schools entered Reading Recovery in 2007, compared to 13% and 10% in decile 9 and 10 schools respectively). This trend has been observed in previous years³.

Across all deciles, the amount of time students spent in Reading Recovery ranged from 40 to 46 hours per student. There was no clear relationship between the number of hours spent in Reading Recovery and school decile.

Table 3: Reading Recovery by decile^a

Decile	Schools with Reading Recovery       %b	Students who entered Reading Recovery       %c	Time in Reading Recovery per Student (hours)d
1	57.1	15.8	43.7
2	61.7	16.5	39.5
3	58.5	12.7	44.2
4	75.8	18.5	40.1
5	66.5	14.0	45.2
6	67.2	13.6	44.0
7	68.8	13.3	42.4
8	70.9	13.7	42.5
9	72.2	13.3	40.8
10	69.2	9.8	45.6

Table 3 Notes:

a - Excludes schools with missing decile information.
b - The percentage of schools in Reading Recovery is calculated as the number of schools that offered Reading Recovery in each of deciles 1 to 10 divided by the total number of schools with six-year olds in that decile.
c - Excludes students for whom no individual student report was received.
d - The time in Reading Recovery per student is calculated as the total amount of Reading Recovery time reported by schools in each decile divided by the number of students in Reading Recovery in those schools. Therefore, students with missing school reports were excluded from this analysis.

 

Gender and Ethnicity of Students in Reading Recovery

Table 4 shows the gender and primary ethnicity of students in Reading Recovery during 2007. Consistent with previous years, two-thirds (66%) were boys and one-third (34%) were girls.

Regardless of gender, Asian students (including Chinese, Indian, South East Asian and ‘Other Asian’) were less likely to be in Reading Recovery than students of other ethnicities. In contrast, Pasifika students (including Tokelauan, Tongan, Cook Island Māori, Samoan and ‘Other Pacific Islands’) were more likely to be in Reading Recovery than students of other ethnicities. As with previous years, Māori students were more likely to be in Reading Recovery than NZ European students.

It is interesting to consider the results from Table 4 in light of those presented in Tables 1a-c (pp 9-11). This comparison shows that although Māori and Pasifika students were more likely than Asian and NZ European students to be in Reading Recovery during 2007, six-year-olds from these ethnic groups were also less likely (compared to the total population of six-year-olds) to have access to Reading Recovery during the year.

This finding suggests that while many Māori and Pasifika students attend schools where Reading Recovery is not offered (compared to the total population), when these students do attend schools that offer Reading Recovery, they are more likely to be in Reading Recovery than students of other ethnicities.

Table 4: Ethnicity and gender of students in Reading Recovery^a            

Ethnicity	Boys			Girls
	Total six year old boys in population	In Reading Recovery		Total six year old girls in population	In Reading Recovery
	N	n	%	N	n	%
Māori	7,160	1,979	27.6	6,827	1,122	16.4
Tokelauan	70	21	30.0	75	18	24.0
Fijian	105	24	22.9	113	15	13.3
Niuean	169	37	21.9	163	27	16.6
Tongan	703	241	34.3	673	167	24.8
Cook Island Māori	443	131	29.6	438	71	16.2
Samoan	1,407	433	30.8	1,285	239	18.6
Other Pacific Islands	112	31	27.7	103	18	17.5
South East Asian	349	51	14.6	331	32	9.7
Indian	808	101	12.5	739	63	8.5
Chinese	710	60	8.5	691	31	4.5
Other Asian	455	48	10.5	431	34	7.9
Other	593	124	20.9	578	68	11.8
Other European	1,037	204	19.7	947	106	11.2
NZ European	15,680	3,559	22.7	15,009	1,646	11.0
Unspecified	77	27	35.1	62	11	17.7
Total	29,878	7,071	23.7	28,465	3,668	12.9

Table 4 Note:

a - Schools’ enrolment forms usually allow for students to self identify or be identified by their parents/guardians as belonging to more than one ethnic group. However, for the purposes of the Reading Recovery return students are reported in one ethnic group only. The Reading Recovery return follows the same system of priority recording as used by Statistics New Zealand in the 1996 census.

 

 

 

Footnotes

1. Please note that care must be taken when interpreting these results due to low base numbers for these regions (Gisborne, n=47 and Nelson, n=13).
   
2. A school’s decile indicates the extent to which the school draws its students from low socio-economic communities. Decile 1 schools are the 10% of schools with the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic communities, whereas Decile 10 schools are the 10% of schools with the lowest proportion of these students. Five factors (household income, parents’ occupations, household crowding, parents’ educational qualifications, and parents receiving income support) are used in determining a school’s socio-economic indicator and thus the school’s decile. These factors are based on families with school age children within the catchment area of the school.
3. Unlike previous years, schools with missing end-of-year school report were included in this analysis. Their decile information was obtained by doing a match with their corresponding student reports.