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

PISA 2006 asked a number of questions relating to students’ home backgrounds. Different combinations of questions can be used to create indices that summarise information about students’ economic and social status. Socio-economic status is generally determined by factors such as occupational status, education and wealth. The PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) was derived from information from students on parental occupations, parental education and home possessions; access to possessions at home was used as a surrogate measure of wealth.

New Zealand students were higher on the ESCS index on average than students across the OECD countries. However students from 12 OECD countries, including Finland, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United Kingdom, were higher on this index than those in New Zealand.

Figure 14 illustrates the reading literacy achievement of students at each quarter of the index. Students were assigned to the Lowest SES group if they were in the lowest 25 percent of the ESCS index, while students in the High SES group were those ranked highest on the index. As shown in Figure 14, student reading achievement increased on average with increasing levels of economic, social and cultural status, as measured by the ESCS index.
 

Figure 14: Mean reading achievement in PISA 2006 for students, by level on the ESCS index 

Note: Each level of the ESCS index is defined by quarters, so that the High SES group is approximately the top quarter of students on the ESCS index, while the Lowest SES group is approximately the lowest quarter of students.

Socio-economic status by ethnic grouping

Given the strength of the relationship between socio-economic status and achievement, a factor influencing the performance of students of different ethnic groupings may be disparities in socio-economic status. As shown in Figure 15, a higher proportion of Pākehā/European students were in the High SES grouping than might be expected from the population size, while a lower proportion were in the Lowest SES grouping. In contrast, a higher proportion of Māori and Pasifika students were in the Lowest SES grouping than might be expected from the population size, while a lower proportion were in the High SES grouping.
 

Figure 15: Proportions of students in each ethnic grouping in the lowest and highest levels on the ESCS index