These are some of the statistics that I kept in mind while developing the Owning Words for Literacy(TM) series:
- First-grade children from higher-SES (socio-economic status) groups know about twice as many words as lower SES children (Graves, Brunetti, & Slater, 1982; Gravers & Slater, 1987).
- High school seniors near the top of their class know about four times as many words as their lower-performing classmates (Smith, 1941).
- High-knowledge third graders have vocabularies about equal to lowest-performing 12th graders (Smith, 1941).
Most chilling however, is the finding that once established, such differences appear difficult to ameliorate (Biemiller, 1999; Hart & Risley, 1995). From Beck, McKeown, & Kucan. (2002). Bringing Words to Life (an outstanding book, by the way!)
“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”
B.B. King
