Abstract:
Introduction A persistent feature of the New Zealand school system is the so-called ‘long tail of underachievement’ by economically poor and usually Māori and Pasifika children, and the pattern of much higher achievement by middle class and usually Pakeha and Asian children. The 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results on the Reading Literacy of 15-year-olds, demonstrate that “among the eight top or high-performing countries or economies, New Zealand had the widest range of scores …