Student performance in reading literacy

Means and distributions of performances

As shown in Figure 1, the mean reading literacy performance of New Zealand 15-year-olds was 521 scale score points, significantly above the mean for the 30 OECD countries of 492 score points. The New Zealand mean score in reading literacy has not changed significantly since 2003 or 2000.

Figure 1 also includes other participating countries, with an indication of whether their results were higher, similar or lower than those for New Zealand. The 15-year-old students in three countries − Korea (556), Finland (547) and Hong Kong-China (536) − had higher mean reading literacy achievement than in New Zealand. The mean reading literacy achievement of 15-year-olds in Canada (527) and Ireland (517) was statistically similar to that of their New Zealand counterparts, while the mean achievement scores for 15-year-olds in all other participating countries were significantly lower.

This represents some change from 2003 and 2000, when only Finland had a higher mean reading literacy score than New Zealand. In 2000, New Zealand’s mean reading literacy score was similar to that in five other countries (Canada, Australia, Ireland, Korea and the United Kingdom). In 2003 the 15-year-olds in eight other countries (Korea, Canada, Australia, Liechtenstein, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Hong Kong-China) had statistically similar mean reading literacy scores to their New Zealand counterparts.

Figure 1 shows the distribution of achievement across 15-year-olds within each country. The distribution of student performance on the combined reading scale was much wider in some countries than in others. In New Zealand the gap between the 75th and 25th percentiles was 142 scale score points, somewhat above the OECD average of 133 points and also greater than that of most other high-performing countries (for example, Finland 109, Ireland 125 and Canada 125).

This relatively wide spread of achievement in New Zealand reflects two aspects of the distribution of scores. New Zealand’s top students’ performance was among the best in the world in reading literacy – the top five percent of New Zealand students achieved a score of at least 683 score points, which was similar to that of Korea (688), Finland (675) and Canada (674). However, the lowest five percent of New Zealand students scored less than 339 points, significantly lower than in Hong Kong-China (390), Korea (399) and Finland (410). Although the 5th percentile score in New Zealand (339) was still higher than that for OECD countries (317) on average, it does point to the potential for further improvement in New Zealand’s overall achievement by raising the performance of those currently achieving at low levels.
 

Interpretation of percentiles

The percentages of students performing below or above particular points on the scale are shown for each country. The lowest outer limit is the 5th percentile – the score at which only 5% of students achieved a lower score. The highest outer limit is the 95th percentile – the score at which only 5% of students achieved a higher score. The middle 50% of students achieved scores between the 25th and 75th percentiles, shown on Figure 1 as the darkly shaded section of each bar.
 

Figure 1:  Means and distributions of reading achievement in PISA 2006

Note: * denotes non-OECD (partner) countries. These countries are not included in the OECD average. 

New Zealand proficiency level performance

In PISA 2006, nearly 16 percent of New Zealand 15-year-olds achieved at the highest proficiency level, Level 5, and were deemed capable of completing sophisticated reading tasks. A further 25 percent were proficient at the second-highest level, Level 4.

At lower proficiency levels, the 10 percent of students who were proficient at Level 1 were capable of completing tasks such as locating a single piece of information or making a simple connection with everyday knowledge. Just under five percent of New Zealand students achieved below proficiency Level 1 and were unable to demonstrate consistent success on the most basic type of reading competencies that PISA seeks to measure. The proportions of students achieving at each proficiency level have not changed since 2003.

Performance across countries

As illustrated in Figure 2, a larger proportion of New Zealand students (16%), when compared with the average internationally, achieved at the top proficiency level: on average in OECD countries nine percent of students reached Level 5. Finland (17%), Canada (15%) and Hong Kong-China (13%) had similar proportions of students in the top proficiency level, compared to New Zealand, while only Korea (22%) had a significantly higher proportion in this top level.

In the OECD on average, 29 percent of students reached Level 4 or 5. Among New Zealand 15-year-olds the proportion was 40 percent. This was significantly lower than the proportions in two top-performing countries − Korea (54%) and Finland (49%). Hong Kong-China (45%), Canada (42%) and Ireland (37%) had similar proportions, while a smaller proportion of Australian students (36%) were proficient at Level 4 or higher.

The relatively wide spread of achievement within New Zealand is further reflected in the proportion of students achieving at or below Level 1 on the combined reading literacy scale. Around 15 percent of New Zealand 15-year-olds did not reach beyond Level 1, a similar proportion to that observed in Australia (13%) and Ireland (12%), but significantly more than in Finland (5%), Korea (6%), Hong Kong-China (7%) and Canada (11%).

Students who did not demonstrate proficiency above Level 1, although usually having acquired some technical reading skills, are likely to have difficulty in applying these skills in order to learn. They are therefore at much greater risk of being unable or unwilling to participate in further education or training, which is likely to have implications both for their personal well-being and for the economic potential of the country.

Although New Zealand’s overall performance is very high in comparison with most other participating countries, a relatively wide spread of achievement persists. In seeking to understand the reasons for this distribution in reading literacy it is important to place the achievement of students in context. When we compare student achievement with a number of background factors it becomes apparent that there are important disparities between the performances of different groups within the population. The influence of these factors is outlined in the following sections.

Figure 2: Reading literacy proficiency levels international performance

Note: * denotes non-OECD (partner) countries. These countries are not included in the OECD average.