ABSTRACT
It is now over ten years since the March 1999 publication of the Report of the Literacy Taskforce, commissioned by the same National-led government that had initiated a raft of curriculum and qualifications reforms in New Zealand in the 1990s. The report was subtitled: ‘Advice to the Government on achieving its goal that: “By 2005, every child turning nine will be able to read, write, and do maths for success”’ (Ministry of Education (MOE) 1999: 2). Like literacy strategies in other settings, its goal was ambitious and susceptible to varying definitions and, of course, occasioned by various claims of crisis. In New Zealand's case, the cause for concern was the verdict of successive international literacy surveys from 1990 onwards indicating a wide gap between the highest and lowest levels of reading achievement and significant differences in performance in all areas between particular groups of children, in particular Maori and Pasifika children, boys, and children from low socio-economic schools.
