Editorial

This issue of set features case study articles on four South Auckland schools that have, in their different ways, taken up the challenge of significantly raising the literacy achievement levels of their students. In October 1998, Wyatt Creech, then Minister of Education, announced that by 2005 every child turning nine would be able to “read, write and do maths for success”. For New Zealand schools in middle class communities, this goal presents little challenge. For schools in economically poor communities, whose students typically score well below age-related norms, it poses a considerable challenge.