Reading skills in the early grades can predict future academic success, and too many children begin formal schooling already behind. By fourth grade, only 33 percent of U.S. students are considered proficient in reading, and each year it becomes harder to catch up. U.S. children are not alone in this struggle. Much like the science of reading laws proliferating across the U.S., New Zealand is implementing a national effort to improve literacy, requiring daily class time dedicated to reading and writing instruction.
Among several approved options to meet this requirement, the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) was developed by researchers from the University of Canterbury as a targeted, phonics-based teaching approach for five- to seven-year-olds. BSLA teachers undergo a micro-credentialing program that takes about six months to complete, during which they learn to develop students’ skills in vocabulary, oral narrative, and listening comprehension. They are trained in phonological awareness and phonics and ways of helping children apply these skills in both reading and writing. Children participate in daily 30-minute lessons, along with 10–15 minute small group reading sessions with books aligned to the phonic patterns from the main lessons. Prior to a large-scale implementation of the BSLA method, the approach showed positive effects for smaller samples of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and in a randomized study of a diverse range of students.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Better Start Literacy Approach at scale, a team of researchers affiliated with the University of Canterbury and the Better Start program analyzed data from 56,122 students in 885 New Zealand schools. Most children in New Zealand begin school on or near their fifth birthday, rather than on a school year schedule, so the study collected data on a rolling basis to capture comparable data for each child. It focuses primarily on the experience of 4,796 students who began BSLA instruction upon entering school and were assessed at 10 weeks and 30 weeks (approximately one school year).
The researchers used multilevel regression to see how factors like school size, peer performance, gender, English learner status, ethnicity, and reading skills at school entry affect student literacy progress. Student outcomes were measured by non-word reading and non-word spelling skills after 30 weeks of the BSLA teaching. Sometimes called “nonsense” or “pseudo-words,” these assessments parse out a student’s decoding skills separate from word memorization which can mask phonological awareness. The analysis affirmed that school- and student-level factors are strong predictors of student success, and that students perform better surrounded by high-performing peers. However, the findings also suggest that early student growth in the first 10 weeks of BSLA instruction may be a stronger predictor of their end-of-year literacy outcomes, even when controlling for student demographics.
The authors also compared BSLA students’ 10-week assessment scores against baseline data from a random sample of 4,270 demographically matched students who received standard teaching rather than the BSLA implementation. They used predictive modeling to estimate differences between these groups after a full year of formal schooling, and suggest that BSLA students are 1.6 times as likely to perform at the advanced proficiency level for both reading and spelling. And it’s not just the high flyers: The approach leads to an estimated 1.5 times decreased chance of performing at the lowest levels. The models suggest positive improvements for students starting school with different backgrounds and across all levels of early literacy skills.
The study has important limitations. Student literacy outcomes were assessed based on the BSLA scope and sequence, and the aligned assessment may overstate the positive effects of the instruction method. This analysis also relies heavily on predictive modeling, which provides more timely but less reliable evidence compared to a longer term study using student data. The researchers acknowledge that achievement gaps begin before students start school and those gaps tend to endure. Given the stated importance of skills at the time of school entrance and the disruptive early childhood experiences for this sample—toddlers and preschoolers during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns—a randomized controlled study of future cohorts could provide more reliable insights.
Note, too, that while this latest evaluation appears in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Educational Research, the authors have a vested interest in the program’s success. In fact, the University of Canterbury offers government-funded training in the approach so that teachers can bring BSLA instruction to their communities to meet the national structured literacy requirement.
Still, the approach—and the broader implementation of structured reading instruction in New Zealand—is worth reviewing as U.S. states rush to adopt evidence-backed methods to support early literacy development. As programs take shape to address urgent shortcomings in literacy instruction, monitoring these efforts over time can guide improvements and help states, districts, and individual schools select approaches that give children a better start toward literacy.
SOURCE: Megan Gath, Gail Gillon, Brigid McNeill, and Amy Scott, “Evaluating the large-scale implementation of structured literacy teaching in New Zealand: Evidence from the Better Start Literacy Approach,” International Journal of Education Research 129 (2025).
