Summary

According to PIRLS, New Zealand Asian students’ reading achievement has been relatively stable over the last 20 or so years. Relative to other Year 5 student groups, they have also demonstrated strong performance, on average. PIRLS 2021 provides a unique opportunity to look at the diverse constituent groups that make up New Zealand’s Asian grouping at middle primary school. PIRLS 2021 was implemented in New Zealand in late 2020 and involved approximately 7800 Year 5 students who were assessed either digitally or on paper. About 1550 Asian students took part. Almost all were learning in English-medium settings. To illustrate the diversity of the Asian grouping, this report describes first the demographic and background characteristics of students in each of its constituent groups, and second, their attitudes to school and to reading. The relationship between contextual factors and Asian students’ reading achievement is also examined.

Key findings

• About one in five Year 5 students identified with an Asian ethnic group; most identified as either Chinese or Indian. But many other ethnicities were also represented.
• About two-thirds of Asian students were born in New Zealand. Speaking a heritage language at home was common particularly among Chinese and Korean students.
• Students’ socio-economic background varied across the Asian constituent groups; the socio-economic mix of the student body in the schools they attended also varied, with some clustering by ethnic identity.
• Reading achievement differences between girls and boys, favouring girls, were particularly pronounced for Filipino, Korean, and students in the broad category of Another Asian Group.
• While there was some variation among the constituent groups, Asian students generally had a high sense of school belonging, felt proud of who they were, and they often arrived at school feeling happy. They also reported having positive relationships with their teachers.
• Being a confident reader and attending school regularly had the strongest, positive relationships with Asian students’ reading achievement after accounting for background factors.