The quiet crisis in language development
 

The achievement gap may best be viewed not as a test score “snapshot” but as a corrosive, cumulative process of lost learning opportunities.

This process begins early, and the effects can be devastating, even before a student enrolls in school, says Todd Risley, an education researcher at the University of Alaska/Anchorage and author of  Meaningful Differences in the Lives of Young Children. Risley, who studies early vocabulary development in infants and toddlers, has focused on the number of words children are exposed to at home and has found disturbing differences between different socioeconomic groups. Through direct observation at the homes of a wide range of families, Risley found that by the time children from low-income households are 4 years old, they have been exposed to perhaps 40 million fewer words than their more privileged peers. Further, the “extra” talk that more-advantaged children are exposed to is usually more complex, contains more varied vocabulary and is filled with more positive reinforcement than the fare that often dominates language exchange in taciturn households.

“What’s happening to babies and toddlers might be critically important to what’s happening in third grade,” Risley told leaders of the AFT teachers division at its October meeting in Washington, D.C. While infants and toddlers in homes receiving public assistance might hear 600 spoken words an hour, the children of professional parents might be exposed to as many as 2,100 words per hour. “Extra talking is strongly correlated to differences in vocabulary size at the age of beginning reading,” he stressed.

And more important than hour-by-hour variations is the fact that these differences are cumulative: The growth slope of language acquisition for 4-year-olds appears flat when compared to students from wealthier households. When it comes to learning opportunities among infants and toddlers, “110 hours a week is what the child has [to learn], and whether those hours are empty or full are almost always determined by the caregiver.”

Among Risley’s other findings:

• For each family, the number of words parents speak to their children is consistent across time.

• Some parents express approval and encouragement more than 40 times in an hour of family life and other parents fewer than four times an hour.

• Talking patterns were not related to race, but they were related to socioeconomic status (SES). Parents receiving public assistance tend to be taciturn while professionals are talkative; working-class parents vary from the most talkative to the most taciturn.

Tom Mooney, co-chair of the teachers division and an AFT vice president, called Risley’s findings powerful, disturbing and research that thus far has not been reflected in education yardsticks tied to school accountability. Until these differences in language acquisition are addressed, “We are spitting into the wind with various accountability systems,” Mooney warned.

A summary of research by Risley and collaborator Betty Hart, a professor at the University of Kansas, was featured in the Spring 2003 issue of American Educator. The article is available at www.aft.org/american_educator/spring2003/catastrophe.html.

The myth of the homework burden

You’ve probably seen stories in the popular press featuring students and parents complaining bitterly about the nightly homework burden. A new report from the Brookings Institution, however, says the notion that U.S. students are buried in homework is simply wrong.

Data from various sources indicate that “the typical student, even in high school, does not spend more than an hour a day on homework,” according to the study from the institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy. In fact, students’ homework loads haven’t changed much in the past two decades. Moreover, most parents think the amount of homework is about right and should be increased, if anything.

Some studies have found an increase in homework among younger students (ages 6 to 8) during the past decade, but most of that is because many students who had no homework before are now being assigned a modest amount.

The report argues that it’s important to get a handle on the true situation with homework because various studies have shown that homework is positively associated with student learning. More striking than too much homework are the vast numbers of students who do none. For example, a Michigan study that focused on students up to age 12 found that only 62 percent of 9- to 12-year-olds spend any time studying at home—down from 82 percent in 1981.

International comparisons also counter the too-much-homework myth. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study included data on homework practices in 20 nations. U.S. students were tied for next to last, doing only about half as much homework as their counterparts in France, Italy, Russia and South Africa.

The report also indicates that parents generally are satisfied with the amount of homework teachers assign. One survey found that 64 percent said the amount was “about right,” 25 percent said “too little” and 10 percent said “too much.” It’s not that there aren’t students who get too much homework, but the distressing examples that receive so much publicity are “outliers” that don’t represent the typical student.

The report, “Do Students Have Too Much Homework?” is available online at www.brookings.edu/gs/brown/20031001homework.htm.

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