What it takes to make a student

Hello

I hope your holiday was a good one, filled with family, friends and neighbors. There is no let up now until the new year so please remember to take some time for yourself......and breathe!

There was a great article in the recent Sunday New York Times that addresses the achievement gap between middle class kids and children from lower income families. Researchers have been trying for awhile to figure out what the difference is, especially now with the federal mandate of "No Child Left Behind". This mandate comes up for re-authorization soon. In this article "What it takes to make a student" the writer discusses the advent of charter schools in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the country and how they are increasing the performance of children from the most at risk households.

The article also calls out the research that found that the parents of middle class kids made 487 "utterances" per hour to their child compared to 178 utterances an hour in welfare homes. Additionally, the study found that by age three, children with middle class parents heard 500,000 encourgements and 80,000 discouragements from their parents and children in welfare homes heard 75,000 encouragements and 200,000 discouragements.

This article points out the importance of parents as their children's first teachers and what a profound difference they can make in their children's future. It also points out the need for high quality early learning experiences for all children, whether it is in the home, a child care center or with other family members, friends or neighbors. Supporting parents as their children's first teachers and making sure there is access to high quality early learning is vitally important to all of us but especially important to our children. Thanks for caring.

Please let me know your thoughts and opinions on this article.

Jeanne