Explaining Variance in Comprehension for Students in a High-Poverty Setting

Abstract

This study examined the contributions of decoding, language, spelling, and motivation to the reading comprehension of elementary school readers in a high-poverty setting. Specifically, the research questions addressed whether and how the influences of word reading efficiency, semantic knowledge, reading self-concept, and spelling on reading comprehension varied based on 2 different measures of comprehension. The sample included 52 elementary-age participants from 1 high-poverty school. Multiple regression analyses revealed that factors were related differently to comprehension depending on the measures used. Specifically, fluency accounted for most of the variance in silent reading comprehension but a smaller proportion of the variance in oral reading comprehension. For the oral reading comprehension measure, semantic knowledge was the most influential predictor.