Explaining social class differences in growth of reading skills from beginning kindergarten through fourth-grade: The role of phonological awareness, rate of access, and print knowledge

The aim of this longitudinal study was to further our understanding of the reasons for social class differences in growth of decoding and reading comprehension skills from beginning kindergarten through children's fourth grade year. Participants were enrolled in five public schools in a moderately sized southern American city (n = 197). We examined if beginning kindergarten levels of three kinds of reading related abilities explained social class differences in growth of reading skills during the time periods of beginning kindergarten to children's first-, second-, third-, and fourth-grade years. The reading related abilities were phonological awareness, rate of access to phonological information in long-term memory, and print knowledge. We found that the reasons for social class differences in growth of reading skills depended on the time interval that was considered. During the earliest time interval, social class differences in growth of decoding skills were completely accounted for by performance on the control measures of general verbal intelligence and prior word reading skills. During the remaining time periods, social class differences in growth of decoding and reading comprehension skills persisted when performance on the three kinds of reading related abilities and the control measures were accounted for. The greatest attenuation of SES differences in growth of reading skills occurred when beginning kindergarten levels of print knowledge were taken into account.