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Spanish-speaking students constitute the largest subgroup of emergent bilingual (EB) students in the United States. Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative sample of Spanish–English EBs, we explore profiles of English reading trajectories and how early individual differences (i.e., early Spanish reading and English oral proficiency) influence English reading development. Latent class growth analysis revealed five distinct growth trajectories of English reading scores across elementary grades. Results showed a fan-spread effect, indicating that children with higher mean reading scores in kindergarten also had faster growth in English reading from kindergarten to Grade 5. Results also showed that children with high early Spanish reading were more likely to be a member of the classes with the highest initial English reading scores and fastest growth rates. However, kindergarten English oral proficiency was not related to trajectories of English reading. Our findings highlight that early Spanish reading skill is an important factor in identifying EB children who may be at risk for reading difficulties later in elementary school. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
