Individual Differences in Reading Development: A Review of 25 Years of Empirical Research on Matthew Effects in Reading

The idea of Matthew effects in reading—the widening achievement gap between good and poor readers—has attracted considerable attention in education research in the past 25 years. Despite the popularity of the topic, however, empirical studies that have analyzed the core assumption of Matthew effects...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of educational research 2014-06, Vol.84 (2), p.203-244
Main Authors: Pfost, Maximilian, Hattie, John, Dörfler, Tobias, Artelt, Cordula
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement gaps
Achievement Gap
Achievement Tests
Correlation
Correlation analysis
Decoding
Decoding (Reading)
Developmental Delays
Developmental patterns
Educational psychology
Educational research
Elementary School Students
Elementary schools
Individual Development
Individual Differences
Literacy
Literature Reviews
Longitudinal studies
Measurement
Meta Analysis
Psychometrics
Reading Achievement
Reading comprehension
Reading Difficulties
Reading Research
Reading Skills
Scores
Systematic review
Validity
Vocabulary
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Summary:The idea of Matthew effects in reading—the widening achievement gap between good and poor readers—has attracted considerable attention in education research in the past 25 years. Despite the popularity of the topic, however, empirical studies that have analyzed the core assumption of Matthew effects in reading have produced inconsistent results. This review summarizes the empirical findings on the development of early interindividual differences in reading. We did not find strong support for the general validity of a pattern of widening achievement differences or for a pattern of decreasing achievement differences in reading. The inclusion of moderating variables, however, allowed a clearer picture to be painted. Matthew effects were more likely to occur for measures of decoding efficiency, vocabulary, and composite reading scores when the achievement tests were not affected by deficits in measurement precision. Furthermore, moderators such as the applied analytic method or the orthographic consistency of the language were of less importance for the emergence of Matthew effects in reading. An additional meta-analysis of studies reporting correlations between a baseline level and a growth parameter yielded a small, negative mean correlation (r = -.214), which again was moderated by properties of the measures. Possible explanations for the reported findings are discussed.
ISSN:0034-6543
1935-1046
DOI:10.3102/0034654313509492