Summary

Overview

The aim of this report is to present a descriptive summary of the findings from New Zealand's participation in the first cycle of the Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) conducted in 2001.

This report examines Year 5 student achievement in reading within a national and international context, particularly with respect to student characteristics, their home background, their classrooms, and their schools.

This report is divided into seven sections:

• Chapter 1 provides an overview of the design of PIRLS along with details of its implementation in New Zealand.
• Chapter 2 contains information on the reading achievement of Year 5 students in an international context and in relation to international benchmarks.
• Chapter 3 focuses on the background characteristics of the students, including attitudes and leisure activities, and includes some comparisons with students from other countries.
• Chapter 4 provides details of the home context of students, particularly financial and education resources, pre-school literacy activities and parental attitudes.
• Chapter 5 contains information on the classroom context for learning for Year 5 students with some information on teaching reading in Years 1 to 4.
• Chapter 6 focuses on the school context for learning including policies and practices for teaching reading along with resourcing issues and school climate.
• A brief summary of the main findings concludes this report.