Reprints and permission:

Matthew effects originate in Matthew’s Gospel, which states, “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath ” (Matthew 25:29). In simple terms the above phrase has often been summarized as, “The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer ” (Stanovich, 1986; Walberg & Tsai, 1983). Researchers have noted repeatedly that some children come to school somewhat “wealthier ” than their peers when it comes to early reading skills. As time goes by, those stu-dents who start out with some literacy advantages tend to thrive and grow academically, whereas their less fortunate peers tend to get left behind. Like the line in Matthew’s Gospel, the rich students get richer and the poor students get poorer. Hence, in 1983, Walberg and Tsai first coined the term the “Matthew effect ” to describe the fact that, without intervention, some students rapidly develop and build on strong literacy foundations, and other students languish behind their more fortunate peers. This idea has been tested in the growth patterns of students with reading and other disabilities and has received strong, but not universal, sup-port (e.g., Kieffer, 2008; Leppanen, Niemi, Aunola, &amp