DESCRIPTORS

placed New Zealand's nine and fourteen year olds first in reading achievement in comparison with all other participating countries. Literacy educators the world over have studied New Zealand's methods and classroom environments, and its approaches to reading/writing instruction have been adopted in many countries. Reading Recovery, developed by Marie Clay in the 1970s, has become a key intervention program in Britain, Australia, and the United States. But the IEA survey of 1990 showed that New Zealand has slipped in ranking, and their children had the greatest difference between high achievers and low achievers. A 1996 adult literacy survey was also disappointing. Several factors have probably contributed to the changing literacy profile of New Zealand: the number of multiethnic children from backgrounds other than English has greatly increased; socioeconomic factors have led to polarization of wealth and living conditions; and curriculum demands on schools have increased both in diversity and content. Some have recommended that New Zealand adopt phonics programs instead of the natural language philosophy o