The ecology of language arts talent development: An illustration of classroom variability and changes in achievement for rural first‑grade students

Previous research has tracked how students’ reading abilities grow over time, but little is known about how much variability exists in reading abilities for rural students in low-socioeconomic schools nor how the ecology of the classroom environment facilitates student growth. Thus, the instructional reading levels of three cohorts of first-grade students (n = 468) attending a rural, low-socioeconomic primary school were assessed in the fall, winter, and spring. Results indicated substantial variability in student instructional reading level within classrooms (n = 27). In the average classroom, student instructional reading levels ranged from readiness to third grade at the beginning of first grade and then readiness to fourth grade at the end of first grade. We also investigated whether the alignment between student instructional reading levels of students and classrooms at the beginning of the year was predictive of changes in instructional reading levels. Results indicated alignment – not misalignment – was predictive of changes in instructional reading levels. Specifically, students whose initial instructional reading level matched their classroom’s average experienced differential change – those students with lower initial instructional reading levels demonstrated smaller increases in their instructional reading levels than students with higher instructional reading levels. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.