Executive Summary

Māori students made up about 22 percent of the national samples at Year 4 and Year 8. About 80 percent of Māori students attended low or mid decile schools.

Forty-three percent of Māori students at Year 4 achieved above the minimum score associated with achieving level 2 objectives on the Knowledge and Application of Reading in English (KARE) assessment and 44 percent at Year 8 achieved above the minimum score associated with achieving level 4 objectives. These percentages were lower than the corresponding percentages for all students in the national samples. The difference in average scale scores between Māori students in Year 4 and Year 8 was 30 scale units. This was similar to the corresponding difference for all students in the national sample (29 scale score units).

Overall, Māori students at both year levels were positive about reading. Students in Year 4 were generally more positive than students in Year 8. Māori students who scored higher on the Attitude to Reading scale also scored higher, on average, on the KARE assessment.

Māori students who indicated that they read for more than 2 hours a week in their own time scored, on average, about 20 scale score units higher than those who reported that they did no or very little reading in their own time.

Māori students from high decile schools scored higher, on average, on the KARE assessment than students from low decile schools. Students from low decile schools were also under-represented in the group of Māori students who achieved above the national average for all students in their year level.

Māori girls scored higher, on average, than Māori boys on the KARE assessment at both year levels by about 7 scale score units. Māori girls were generally more positive about reading than Māori boys and at Year 8, less likely than boys to report that they did no or very little reading in their own time.