PISA 2006: Reading Literacy - How ready are our 15-year-olds for tomorrow’s world?

Conclusion

How ready are our 15-year-olds for tomorrow’s world?

This report examines the reading literacy performance of New Zealand’s 15-year-olds in PISA 2006 in comparison with other participating countries and over time.

Since 2000, the average score in reading literacy of New Zealand’s 15-year-olds has remained stable and been very high in comparison to most of the other countries that take part in this survey. However, New Zealand continues to have a somewhat larger proportion of students with low levels of proficiency in reading literacy than other high-performing countries such as Finland and Korea.

When student achievement is looked at in the context of a number of background factors, important disparities between the performances of different groups within the population are apparent. Gender, ethnic grouping, immigrant status, language spoken at home, and socio-economic status are all associated to some extent with differences in performance in reading literacy.

This report does not attempt to demonstrate causal links between achievement and background factors, nor does it make any attempt to isolate which of these factors is the most important in predicting achievement.  Further analyses of the data are needed to address these questions.

The persistently wide spread of achievement in reading literacy presents a challenge to the New Zealand education system. Reducing these disparities is the focus of many current education policies.

In primary schooling, building strong, early foundations is seen as critical, with an emphasis on literacy and numeracy for all students. Across all levels of schooling, initiatives such as the Literacy Professional Development Project and the Secondary Literacy Project have been implemented to improve student performance in literacy, particularly for those students who struggle with reading.

Educators are encouraged to assume that all students can and will achieve, and to teach in ways that relate effectively to the backgrounds and aspirations of students. Ka Hikitia (Ministry of Education, 2008a) and the Pasifika Education Plan (Ministry of Education, 2006) are education strategies that focus on realising the potential of Māori and Pasifika students.

The PISA 2006 results demonstrate that many of New Zealand’s 15-year-olds are already well-prepared to apply their reading skills effectively in their future lives.