Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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A difference of 20 million words
This weekend I’m in Chicago for a seminar on early childhood education put on by the Hechinger Institute for Education and the Media, at Columbia University. Early childhood is a white hot issue in education, with research showing more and more how important learning in ages 0 to 5 is to a child’s future success in school.
Best stat so far — Debra Pacchiano, a Chicago-based researcher, said one study showed children from families in poverty (on welfare) had heard 10 million words by age three, compared to 30 million words that middle class kids had heard by that age.
Ohio’s public policy involvement with early childhood education pretty much begins and ends with the federal Head Start program. Meanwhile, a few states are experimenting with with “universal” state-paid pre-school for all four year olds and many others are talking about trying that or other bold programs.
I’ll post more about this later.
Permalink | | Categories: Teaching and Learning, Young Children
