From l979 to l985, data were gathered from approximately 600 students in 24 Dutch elementary schools to determine changes occurring in the interrelationships among the reading skill components of decoding, reading comprehension, and spelling ability. Information for each student was obtained from reading performance test scores recorded at the end of sixth grade. Results indicated that the decoding speed of students continued to develop over time, and that this reading skill component achieves a more independent status at the end of elementary education. Findings also showed that although the reading skill components were still correlated at the end of elementary school, the causal relationships among decoding speed and reading comprehension and spelling, respectively, seemed to lose a great deal of strength, whereas comprehension and spelling were more highly correlated. The best predictors of decoding speed and comprehension in sixth grade were the measures of the same reading skill components in the earlier grades. In addition, reading performance scores in the earlier grades played an important role in determining the level of secondary education for which the child was eligible. (FL)