The authors tested the component model of reading (CMR) among 186,725 fourth grade students from 38 countries (45 regions) on five continents by analyzing the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study data using measures of ecological (country, family, school, teacher), psychological, and cognitive components. More than 91% of the differences in student difficulty occurred at the country (61%) and classroom (30%) levels (ecological), with less than 9% at the student level (cognitive and psychological). All three components were negatively associated with reading difficulties: cognitive (student’s early literacy skills), ecological (family characteristics [socioeconomic status, number of books at home, and attitudes about reading], school characteristics [school climate and resources]), and psychological (students’ attitudes about reading, reading self-concept, and being a girl). These results extend the CMR by demonstrating the importance of multiple levels of factors for reading deficits across diverse cultures.
AaronP. G.JoshiR. M.GoodenR.BentumK. E. (2008). Diagnosis and treatment of reading disabilities based on the component model of reading. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41, 67–84.
2.
ArchambaultI.EcclesJ. S.VidaM. N. (2010). Ability self-concepts and subjective value in literacy: Joint trajectories from grades 1 through 12. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 804–816.
3.
BakerD. P.GoeslingB.LetendreG. K. (2002). Socioeconomic status, school quality, and national economic development. Comparative Education Review, 46, 291–312.
BakerL.ScherD.MacklerK. (1997). Home and family influences on motivations for reading. Educational Psychologist, 32, 69–82.
6.
BenjaminiY.KriegerA. M.YekutieliD. (2006). Adaptive linear step-up procedures that control the false discovery rate. Biometrika, 93, 491–507.
7.
BerningerV. W.DunnA.LinS.-J. C.ShimadaS. (2004). School evolution. Journal of Learning disabilities, 37, 500–508.
8.
BronfenbrennerU. (1993). The ecology of cognitive development: Research models and fugitive findings. In WozniakR. H.FisherK. W. (Eds.), Development in context (pp. 3–44). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
BrownG.MicklewrightJ.SchnepfS. V.WaldmannR. (2005). Cross-national surveys of learning achievement—How robust are the findings?Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series A), 170, 623–646.
10.
ChapmanJ. W.TunmerW. E. (1995). Development of young children’s reading self-concepts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 154–167.
11.
ChiuM. M.ChowB. W.-Y. (2010). Culture, motivation, and reading achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 20, 579–592.
12.
ChiuM. M.ChowB. W.-Y.McBride-ChangC. (2007). Universals and specifics in learning strategies: Explaining adolescent mathematics, science, and reading achievement across 34 countries. Learning and Individual Differences, 17, 344–365.
13.
ChiuM. M.KlassenR. M. (2009). Calibration of reading self-concept and reading achievement among 15-year-olds. Learning and Individual Differences, 19, 372–386.
14.
ChiuM. M.McBride-ChangC. (2006). Gender, context, and reading: A comparison of students in 43 countries. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10, 331–362.
15.
ChiuM. M.McBride-ChangC. (2010). Family and reading in 41 countries: Differences across cultures and students. Scientific Studies of Reading, 14, 514–543.
16.
ConnorC. M.MorrisonF. R.KatchL. E. (2004). Beyond the reading wars: Exploring the effect of child-instruction interactions on growth in early reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8, 305–336.
17.
ConnorC. M.SonS.-H.HindmanA. H.MorrisonF. J. (2005). Teacher qualifications, classroom practices, family characteristics, and preschool experience. Journal of School Psychology, 43, 343–375.
18.
Darling-HammondL.YoungsP. (2002). Defining “highly qualified teachers”: What does “scientifically based research” actually tell us?Educational Researcher, 31, 13–25.
19.
Dudley-MarlingC. (2004). The social construction of learning disabilities. Journal of Learning disabilities, 37, 482–489.
20.
EvansG. (2004). The environment of childhood poverty. American Psychologist, 59, 77–92.
21.
GoldsteinH. (1995). Multilevel statistical models. Sydney, Australia: Edward Arnold.
22.
GreenwaldR.HedgesL. V.LaineR. D. (1996). The effect of school resources on student achievement. Review of Educational Research, 66, 361–396.
23.
HeynemanS. P.LoxleyW. A. (1982). Influences on academic achievement across high and low income countries. Sociology of Education, 55, 13–21.
24.
HeynemanS. P.LoxleyW. A. (1983). The effect of primary-school quality on academic performance across twenty-nine high- and low-income countries. American Journal of Sociology, 88, 1162–1194.
25.
JoshiR. M.AaronP. G. (2006). Handbook of orthography and literacy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
26.
KennedyP. (2003). A guide to econometrics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
27.
KonstantopoulosS. (2008). The power of the test in three-level cluster randomized designs. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 1, 66–88.
28.
KrullJ. L.MacKinnonD. P. (2001). Multilevel modeling of individual and group level mediated effects. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 36, 249–277.
29.
MartinM. O.MullisI. V. S.KennedyA. M. (2007). PIRLS 2006 technical report. Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College, TIMSS & PIRLS International Center.
30.
MayH. (2006). A multilevel Bayesian IRT method for scaling socioeconomic status in international studies of education. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 31, 63–79.
31.
McBride-ChangC. (2004). Children’s literacy development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
32.
OgleL.SenA.PahlkeE.JocelynL.KastbergD.RoeyS.. . . WilliamsT. (2003). International comparisons in fourth-grade reading literacy (U.S. Department of Education, NCES 2003-073). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
33.
PeughJ. L.EndersC. K. (2004). Missing data in educational research. Review of Educational Research, 74, 525–556.
34.
PodhajskiB.MatherN.NathanJ.SammonsJ. (2009). Professional development in scientifically based reading instruction: Teacher knowledge and reading outcomes. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42, 403–417.
35.
RossiP. E.GilulaZ.AllenbyG. M. (2001). Overcoming scale usage heterogeneity. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 96, 20–31.
36.
RustK. F.RaoJ. N. K. (1996). Variance estimation for complex estimators in sample surveys. Statistics in Medical Research, 5, 381–397.
37.
ScarrS. (1991). Theoretical issues in investigating intellectual plasticity. In BrauthS. E.HallW. S.DoolingR. J. (Eds.), Plasticity of development (pp. 57–72). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
38.
SchulzW. (2003). Validating questionnaire constructs in international studies. Camberwell: Australian Council for Educational Research.
39.
SenechalM. (2006). Testing the home literacy model: Parent involvement in kindergarten is differentially related to Grade 4 reading comprehension, fluency, spelling, and reading for pleasure. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10, 59–87.
40.
SenechalM.LeFevreJ. (2002). Parental involvement in the development of children’s reading skill: A 5-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 73, 445–460.
41.
TaylorB. M.PearsonP. D.ClarkK.WalpoleS. (2000). Effective schools and accomplished teachers: Lessons about primary-grade reading instruction in low-income schools. Elementary School Journal, 101, 121–165.
42.
WagemakerH.TaubeK.MunckI.Kontogiannopoulou-PolydoridesG.MartinM. (1996). Are girls better readers?Amsterdam, Netherlands: International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement.
43.
WarmT. A. (1989). Weighted likelihood estimation of ability in item response theory. Psychometrika, 54, 427–450.
44.
WillmsJ. D. (1999). Quality and inequality in children’s literacy: The effects of families, schools, and communities. In KeatingD. P.HertzmanC. (Eds.), Developmental health and the wealth of nations (pp. 72–93). New York, NY: Guilford.
45.
World Bank. (2007). The world development report 2006. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
