Early Reading Growth Across Economic, Linguistic, and Special Education Lines

• In Event: Cognition, Comprehension, Culture, and Cross-Linguistic Transfer: Advancing Equity in Reading Development

Abstract

Objectives

This study explores how household economically-disadvantaged (ED) status influence early reading development. Specifically, we focus on English learners (ELs) and special education (SPED) students in a large, diverse urban district in the Southern United States, which has implications for identifying opportunities to support early reading development among students identified for EL and SPED services.

Theoretical Framework

Early literacy development is foundational to long-term academic success, yet persistent opportunity gaps disproportionately affect students who come from ED backgrounds, are identified as ELs, or receive SPED services. These student groups often face compounding barriers that limit access to high-quality early instruction, placing them at heightened risk for limited language-rich opportunities and reading difficulties. While each of these factors—ED, EL, and SPED status—is generally independently associated with lower reading outcomes, less is known about how economic disadvantage interacts with disability and language learner status to explain variability among these categories of student backgrounds. Understanding these intersections is critical for informing equitable reading instruction, resource allocation, and intervention design in the early grades.

Methods and Data

Early reading data were drawn from the partnering school district’s FastBridge universal screener for reading1, a state-approved assessment system administered during the Fall, Winter, and Spring assessment windows of the 2023–2024 academic year. The analytic data included early reading growth scores and sociodemographic characteristics among 396 kindergarten and first-grade students from Spanish-speaking homes enrolled in a large, urban public school district in the Southern United States. Early reading growth scores were publisher-generated, defined as the difference in reading scores between fall and spring testing for kindergarten and first-grade students. To examine the heterogeneous effects of ED status across student groups (EL, SPED, EL+SPED) on early reading growth scores, we conducted regression analysis with reading growth scores as the outcome. We then adjusted this model by adding interactions of ED status with the key student group indicator (categorized into EL, SPED, or EL+SPED), with the EL group as the reference group. We also accounted for a variety of student-level characteristics, including sex, race and ethnicity, and grade level. Additionally, we included a school fixed effect to control for potential school-level variability within the partner district.

Results

Preliminary findings revealed ED is a significant predictor of reduced early reading growth, but with variation across student subgroups. ED compounded the risk for all subgroups, with the dual-identified group (EL+SPED ) most affected. These patterns persisted after controlling for student sociodemographic and school effects, suggesting compounding challenges for multiply-identified students.

Significance

This study advances understanding of how ED intersects with language and disability status to influence early reading growth among young learners from Spanish-speaking homes. By identifying whether and how ED status influences reading, the findings help inform targeted interventions and educational policies aimed at reducing disparities and promoting equitable reading outcomes. Findings contribute to the broader goal of promoting equity in reading and offer actionable evidence to guide targeted interventions, resource allocation, and inclusive instructional practices in the early grades.

Authors

• Bhabika Joshi, Vanderbilt University

• Min Hyun Oh, United States Department of Defense

• Phoebe J Ahn, Vanderbilt University

• Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez, Vanderbilt University

• Gigi Luk, McGill University