Socioeconomic status at the individual-and school-level are positively related to literacy achievement in all English-speaking countries. The components of socioeconomic statusincome, parent education and parent occupation -are each statistically significant predictors of school literacy achievement but they are primarily a proxy for more directly salient factors. This literature review outlines the factors that are most strongly implicated in literacy achievement. At the individual-level, they are early literacy ability, gene-environment interactions, home learning environment, time spent reading, sleep, school attendance and school mobility. At the schoollevel, they are school practices and teacher quality, including quality of initial reading instruction. These factors are interactive; not only are socioeconomically disadvantaged children more likely to experience these conditions, they are also more adversely affected by them than their more advantaged peers. This review concludes that understanding the nature of the relationship between socioeconomic status and literacy is the key to mitigating it.

In a response to intervention (RtI) model, reading is taught in increasingly intensive tiers of instruction. The aim of the study was to examine the efficacy of a Tier-2 (small group) literacy intervention for young struggling readers. This article focuses on the second phase of a randomised control trial involving 14 students in kindergarten as participants. In Phase 1 of the randomised control trial, the experimental group (E1) received the intervention for 1 hour, 4 days per week, for 3 school terms. The control group received regular classroom instruction. Large and statistically significant mean differences between groups were evident after 3 terms on 2 of 4 measures — the Martin and Pratt Nonword Reading Test and the Burt Reading Test, which measure phonological recoding and single word reading, respectively. Very large effect sizes were found. In Phase 2, the original control group received the intervention in the same way (E2). Testing at the end of Phase 2 confirmed the intervention's large effect on phonological recoding, but the results for the 3 other tests showed no acceleration in the Phase 2 experimental group (E2). This study evaluates the efficacy of the trialled intervention, adds to the research literature on Tier-2 interventions for young struggling readers, and yields practical implications for schools that offer literacy interventions without a strong RtI framework.

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