The acquisition of any human skill, physical or mental, depends on the interplay among a wide variety of factors. Earlier research and our own observations of Moroccan society suggested the possibility that certain social features of children's lives would be related to literacy acquisition in school. Therefore, our research was designed so that these factors might be directly and empirically studied. It was assumed that some of the factors found to affect reading achievement in the West might be related similarly to literacy in Morocco, but we also wanted to study factors specific to Morocco, such as Quranic preschooling. In this chapter, then, we present findings concerning the impact of family socioeconomic status, level of parental education, urban or rural context, gender, and preschooling on 5 years of literacy development in the primary school sample.

Socioeconomic status

Family socioeconomic status, or SES, is often regarded as a powerful factor affecting school achievement. Whether in the United States, Europe, or the Third World, it is taken as common knowledge that children of the middle and upper classes achieve better in school than do classmates who are economically less fortunate.