The Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) is a strengths-based approach to supporting children's literacy learning in their first year of school. Previous research has shown the approach is effective at accelerating foundational literacy knowledge in children with lower levels of oral language. This study examined the impact of the BSLA for…

Reading Recovery (RR) was introduced throughout New Zealand during the 1980s, for children struggling the most with learning to read after 1 year of formal schooling. In May 2024, the Minister of Education decided the programme would no longer be funded beyond 2024. This decision was based on evidence that the programme was not as effective as…

Reading assessment is a critical feature of education systems. The aim of this study is to explore reading assessment policy in the New Zealand (NZ) assessment culture. We reviewed research publications, national policy documents and test protocols on reading for year levels 6-9 (ages 9-13). We found that assessment data are broadly conceptualised…

This study described the growth trajectories of 105 children (n = 55 boys) who had just started primary school in New Zealand (NZ). Children were assessed every fourth school week around 1.5 months after starting school, for five sessions on Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills first sound fluency (FSF), AIMSweb letter sound fluency…

This national implementation study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Tier 2 structured literacy teaching set within a multi-tiered system of support. Case-controlled matching was used to determine the impact of the implementation for 1,265 5-year-old children. One comparison group included 1,265 children who were matched to the experimental…

Guided reading is an established and important approach in the pedagogical repertoire of teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Despite evidence suggesting that a strong foundation of literacy learning must be built before introducing guided reading, early initiation to this most intensive form of reading instruction has become commonplace. This study…

Young adolescents are at a critical stage in their schooling. They are consolidating and improving their reading skills. By exploring what supports these 11- to 13-year-old students in reading from a wider systemic perspective, educators and policy-makers can better understand the complex factors which support reading development. This article…

In recent years, it has become increasingly obvious that to enable students in schools from an increasingly diverse range of cultural backgrounds to acquire literacy to a standard that will support them to achieve academically, it is important to adopt pedagogy that is responsive to, and respectful of, them as culturally situated. What often has…

This study describes trajectories of early literacy skill development of 99 children (n = 55 boys) in their first year of primary school in New Zealand (NZ). Children were assessed twice weekly for 8 weeks on Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good & Kaminski, 2011) First Sound Fluency (FSF) and AIMSweb Letter Sound…

Literacy skills acquired during the first years of schooling have been recognised as the key to students' learning success. However, despite the continuing efforts by the New Zealand government and teachers there is still a large proportion of students who struggle to become literate. To address this issue the Ministry of Education funded selected…

Young adolescents are at a critical age in their schooling as they transition from primary schooling into secondary education. The reading development of these young adolescents in New Zealand occurs within a variety of contexts. Reading is not only a complex skill to achieve, but it is also contextual. Therefore, understanding the context and the…

Low metalinguistic knowledge of pre-service and in-service teachers is likely to restrict the provision of evidence-based literacy instruction in the classroom. Despite such concerns, relatively few studies have examined the effects of teacher preparation coursework in building pre-service teachers' language structure knowledge. This study…

Successful collaboration among speech and language therapists (SLTs) and teachers fosters the creation of communication friendly classrooms that maximize children's spoken and written language learning. However, these groups of professionals may have insufficient opportunity in their professional study to develop the shared knowledge, perceptions…

Existing literature acknowledges the potential variances between home and school in the values, priorities, aspirations, and practices surrounding literacy. Some researchers have approached this dilemma by offering programs to educate parents in ways of the school. Other researchers suggest that schools need to be more inclusive of home practices…

Teachers are influential in motivating and improving attitudes towards reading. This article reports on an investigation of eight teachers of 10- to 12-year-old students from five New Zealand schools and the strategies they used to improve attitudes to reading. Each school had been identified as implementing effective reading programmes by a panel…