The Simple View of Reading (SVR) describes reading as the product of decoding (D) and listening comprehension (LC; Gough, Hoover, & Peterson, 1996). However, the SVR has been challenged, and evidence has proved it to be too simple to explain the complexities of reading comprehension in the elementary school years. Hypotheses have been advanced that there are cognitive-linguistic factors that underlie the common variance between D and LC, which are malleable, although there is no clarity at this point regarding what these are. We propose that one such group of malleable cognitive factors is executive function (EF) skills. Further, we posit that EF skills play equally strong roles in explaining reading comprehension variance in emergent bilinguals (EBs) and English monolinguals (EMs). We used multigroup structural equation modeling to determine the contribution of these constructs (D, LC, and EF) to reading comprehension in 425 EBs and 302 EMs in Grades 2 through 4. The shared variance between D and LC was explained by direct and indirect effects in the models tested, with strong indirect effects for the EFs of cognitive flexibility and working memory through D and LC, respectively, for both language groups. The indirect effect of cognitive flexibility though LC on reading comprehension was considerably larger for EBs than for EMs. Considerations for a more nuanced view of the SVR and its implications for practice are discussed. [This is the in press version of an article published in "Reading Research Quarterly." For the published version of this article, see EJ1298084.]