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Emotional distress was one of the factors associated with the academic performanceof Aboriginal students in WA. Aboriginal students at high risk of clinicallysignificant emotional or behavioural difficulties were almost three times more likelyto have low academic performance compared with Aboriginal students at low risk(Zubrick et al. 2006). Section 9.4 has more information on mental health and socialand emotional wellbeing issues for children.The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of thereading, mathematical, scientific literacy and problem solving skills of 15 year olds.PISA is an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD). The results of the Australia PISA sample for 2000 and 2003can be found in tables 6A.3.55–59. Less than half the proportion of 15 year oldIndigenous students surveyed reached the OECD average when compared to allstudents across all four educational domains in both years. (tables 6A.3.55–59).Information on learning outcomes is also available from the Trends in InternationalMathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). For background information on theTIMSS initiative, see section 6.3. Some of the findings from the TIMSS2002-03 for year 8 students include:• Indigenous students achieved 79 score points lower than non-Indigenousstudents in mathematics (the average score was 508 for non-Indigenous studentsand 429 for Indigenous students).• Indigenous students were 38 score points lower than the TIMSS internationalmathematics average and non-Indigenous students were 41 score points abovethe international average.• There was no change in Indigenous student achievement for both mathematicsand science from TIMSS 1994-95 to TIMSS 2002-03.• Indigenous students who speak English infrequently in the home achieved at alevel below Indigenous students who often speak English at home (Thomson,McKelvie and Murnane 2006).Programs that have been successful in improving literacy outcomes for Indigenouschildren can be found in chapter 6, box 6.3.2.This chapter presents nationally comparable learning outcomes data for 2005 foryears 5 and 7 reading, writing and numeracy. These data are the proportion ofstudents who achieved the minimum benchmark for reading, writing and numeracy(in contrast to PISA data — the proportion of students who reached the OECDaverage — which is possibly a higher standard).7.6 OVERCOMINGINDIGENOUSDISADVANTAGE 2007