Australia and New Zealand have participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment since 2000. Reading literacy was the main focus of the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2000, and at that time both countries' students generally performed well above the…

The impact of socio-economic background on mathematics performance in England can be seen from the most to least disadvantaged. As socio-economic background of pupils increases, so does average mathematics performance; the gap between the most and least disadvantaged is equivalent to over three years' of schooling. However, many factors other than…