Matthew effect

The Matthew effect in education is a process in which early advantages compound: learners who start ahead often gain skills faster, while those who struggle fall further behind.

Cumulative advantage: A process in which an initial advantage increases the likelihood of further gains. The educational Matthew effect is a cumulative-advantage process: early skill helps produce later learning.
Gospel of Matthew: The first book of the New Testament, presenting the life and teachings of Jesus. The effect takes its name from a saying in this Gospel about abundance and loss.
Early literacy intervention: Instruction or support designed to strengthen children's reading skills in the early years of schooling. Early support can interrupt widening reading gaps before they become harder to reverse.
Compensatory education: Educational support intended to offset disadvantages that limit students' learning opportunities. It counters the compounding pattern by directing additional resources toward learners who start behind.
Reading development: The process by which people acquire and refine the skills needed to read. Reading growth supplies the feedback loop through which early proficiency can accelerate later progress.
Matthew 25:29: A verse in the Gospel of Matthew stating that those who have will receive more. Its wording supplied the name later applied to cumulative advantages in education and other fields.
Reading recovery: A short-term, one-to-one literacy intervention for young children who struggle to read. This named intervention targets early reading difficulty, when focused instruction may alter later trajectories.
Summer learning loss: A decline or slower growth in academic skills during school vacations, varying across learners and subjects. Unequal learning during breaks can widen achievement gaps through a distinct route from classroom feedback.
Word recognition: The ability to identify written words accurately and efficiently. Accurate recognition makes reading easier, giving skilled readers more opportunities to practice.
Robert K. Merton: An American sociologist who studied scientific institutions, norms, and the distribution of recognition. Merton developed the Matthew effect to describe how established scientists accrue disproportionate credit.

Linked from 9 pages