The Reading Gap in the Dominican Republic: Education System or Socioeconomic Vulnerability?

Background The Dominican Republic consistently ranks last among Latin American countries in international reading assessments, yet the relative contributions of socioeconomic conditions versus school system quality remain unclear. This study examined reading performance differences between public and private school students and explored the influence of socioeconomic factors on these outcomes. Methods A total of 1,168 students from second grade to the beginning of secondary school were assessed using standardized instruments evaluating psycholinguistic precursors of reading (phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, short-term verbal memory, and alphabetic knowledge), oral language skills (vocabulary, grammatical comprehension, and oral comprehension), and reading performance (fluency and comprehension). Group differences were analyzed using t-tests and Welch’s t-tests; socioeconomic predictors were identified via linear regression; and ANCOVA was used to estimate system-level effects after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Results Significant performance differences favoring private school students were found across nearly all variables, with medium to large effect sizes, particularly in reading fluency. Family income was the most consistent predictor of reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Controlling for SES substantially reduced or eliminated most differences between systems, especially in comprehension and linguistic skills, suggesting that SES accounts for a substantial portion of the variance associated with the educational gap. However, medium effect sizes persisted in decoding fluency, indicating a possible residual impact of the educational system. At the transition between 2nd and 3rd grade, 40% of public-school students lacked functional reading ability. Conclusions Socioeconomic conditions account for much of the reading gap between public and private school students in the Dominican Republic, though residual system-level effects persist in decoding fluency. These findings highlight the urgent need to universalize pre-primary education, strengthen early reading instruction, and implement tiered support systems such as Response to Intervention in public schools.