Don’t know much about Vocabulary
The edusphere is abuzz about this NY Times piece on early vocabulary growth that ran over the weekend. Though the piece focuses on the current controversy surrounding test-based admissions to the top high schools in NYC, it’s mostly based on the famous Hart and Risley book in which the authors conclude that children from families on welfare hear 32 million fewer words and 560,000 fewer encouragements than children of professional families between birth and age 4 — and that these differences lead to subsequent differences in vocabulary and achievement.
To reinforce the importance of this early vocabulary growth, the article quotes a charter school principal saying that the “word deficit” is the greatest challenge the school faces and quotes E.D. Hirsch saying that ”there is strong evidence that increasing the general knowledge and vocabulary of a child before age six is the single highest correlate with later success”.
This all leads Robert Pondiscio to write that “Demography isn’t destiny. Vocabulary is destiny”.
Ok, stop. Just stop.
Read the rest at the link below…
(Source: edpolicythoughts.com)
