In 2014, the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) assessed student achievement at Year 4 and Year 8 in two areas of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) – English: reading and social studies. This report examines a selection of contextual data collected as part of the study of English: reading. These data include responses to: the About You section of the student questionnaire1 and the My Reading student interview; questions in the teacher questionnaire related to English: reading; and questions in the principal questionnaire related to general school characteristics and the school’s English: reading programme. The purpose of the report is to provide background information relevant to the English: reading study. Special attention is paid to relationships between the contextual data and achievement on the English: reading achievement measure used in the study – the Knowledge and Application of Reading (KARE) assessment. The report supplements English: Reading 2014 – Overview and the priority learner group reports in English: reading for Māori, Pasifika and students with special education needs. The report is written descriptively to outline the types of responses typical of the students, teachers and principals that made up the sample. It is important to note that two of these groups, the teachers and principals, are not necessarily representative of the corresponding groups in the general population. In addition, the students, teachers and principals are reporting their perceptions based on the meaning they make of the questions and their ability to recall information in order to make a response. Taken together, this means care should be applied when interpreting and generalising from the findings. Overall, however, the findings do provide indications and patterns that are useful when seeking to understand reading as part of the English learning area.