A longitudinal investigation of reading development from kindergarten to grade eight in a Spanish-speaking bilingual population

This longitudinal study used latent growth curve modeling to investigate English literacy development in a sample of Spanish-speaking language minority students from third through eighth grade. This study also compared the sample's literacy development to the entire population of California students using state standardized test data. Second, this study examined the contributions of a variety of bilingual measures of kindergarten letter knowledge, phonological awareness, word reading, and vocabulary to literacy development. Results demonstrated the present sample scored below average in literacy compared to the overall population of California students across years, but made slight gains to narrow the achievement gap. The greatest gains were obtained between fourth and fifth grade, but plateaued thereafter. Results concerning the second research questions showed that the third grade literacy intercept was predicted by kindergarten English letter knowledge, Spanish onset, Spanish word reading, and English vocabulary. However, English literacy development through eighth grade was only predicted by kindergarten English and Spanish vocabulary. Findings support arguments for educational efforts to target oral language instruction for these students in early elementary and instruction in both languages may provide the greatest benefit. Instructional implications are discussed.