Reading Competency as a Predictor of Scholastic Performance: Comparisons between Industrialized and Third-World Nations.

Using data collected by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the authors of this study examined the reading achievement of 14-year-old boys in India and England. They sought to determine the factors involved in the academic achievement of these boys in the natural sciences. Factors studied, in addition to reading achievement, were socioeconomic background, vocabulary achievement, and thinking-stage development. The similarities between the two groups were found to outweigh the differences, although the effects of parental education and father's occupational status were less important in predicting academic success for Indian students. Reading achievement in both countries was consistently the most powerful predictor of science achievement, with the exception of performance in biology, in India. The thinking-stage variable had the next most powerful net effect, yet was only marginally ahead of meaning-vocabulary influences, in terms of direct effects. (MKM)