The Post Primary Teachers Association have released research it believes shows it is inaccurate and simplistic to say one in five New Zealand students is failing in education.
Independent researchers Liz Gordon, who was a former member of Parliament for Alliance, and Brian Easton, who is an economist and former columnist for the Listener, were given access to the Education Ministry's 2009 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) database.
They found 14.3 per cent of students failed to achieve proficiency level 2 on PISA reading.
They also found that 74 per cent of those that failed were male and that socio-economic factors such as parental income and the number of books in the home were contributing issues.
Education Minister Hekia Parata has spoken widely of the one in five students she has believed to be failing and alongside this has spoken of Maori and Pasifika making up much of that under-achievement.
PPTA president Angela Roberts said focusing singularly on ethnicity meant overlapping issues like socio-economic status were ignored.
She said the information that 20 per cent of children were failing had created a crisis in schools that was being used to drive through policy change.
"The Government's practice of separating out a single factor - such as ethnicity - and comparing one sub-group to other whole populations is statistically grossly misleading and fails to recognise many factors contributing to under-achievement."
Despite Mrs Roberts comments, the PPTA's researchers also found there is around a 20 percentage point gap between the level of achievement of Maori and Pasifika students and non-Maori and Pasifika students in New Zealand.
The research finds New Zealand has the highest gap on PISA's social gradient approach - at 52 points, the gap reflects New Zealand's high level of income inequality and a strong performance at the top of the scale.
The PPTA have timed the release of their research with the visit of leading world expert on educational achievement and best practice, Andreas Schleicher this week.
Andreas Schleicher is deputy director for education and skills and special advisor on education policy to the OECD's secretary general.
He is being hosted by Education Minister Hekia Parata and is the co-ordinator of the PISA study.
What the research found
- Average PISA scores in reading, mathematics and science of New Zealand 15-year-olds are high among OECD countries.
- Socioeconomic status seems to affect educational achievement - students with a higher socio-economic status tend of achieve better than those with a lower socioeconomic status.
- New Zealand students perform well on average, but their annual gain is higher than the OECD suggesting education for mid teen New Zealanders is more successful than a typical OECD country.
- New Zealand's education system is about a year ahead on the achievement measures compared to the OECD average.
