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375 students from 24 randomly selected classes of a three-tier secondary school system were tested in a longitudinal study for their text-picture integration and pure reading competence as well as verbal and spatial intelligence at grades 5–7. Data were analyzed according to the integrated model of text and picture comprehension using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. Results indicate that text-picture integration comprises higher spatial cognitive demands than pure reading. School tiers differed in terms of competency levels, but also in terms of growth rates of text-picture integration competence. Differences between lower tiers and higher tiers for text-picture integration competence became smaller from grade to grade, whereas developmental trajectories of reading competence ran parallel to each other. The study reveals that the skills for the conjoint processing of text and pictures develop in a way that might help especially poorer students in lower school tiers to catch up with their mates in higher tiers as compared to the competence of pure reading. Text-picture integration seems to provide gradually better opportunities for less capable learners to compensate for previous lags in their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]