Latino Preparation Gap
The Facts:
• Indicators of reading difficulty are often evident before children enter kindergarten. Reports have found young Latino 4-year olds having limited vocabulary in Spanish or English and tending to be less able than their peers to perform such basic early literacy tasks as writing their first name or recognizing the letters of the alphabet.
• Research has shown that once children are behind it is difficult for them to catch up and the gap often widens. Nationally, 85% of Latino 4th graders are reading below proficient level.
What are some of the factors contributing to the Latino preparation gap?
What are the most essential components of language and early literacy development?
What roles do parents/other family members and community environments play in the development of these skills?
Share your opinions and ideas.
• Indicators of reading difficulty are often evident before children enter kindergarten. Reports have found young Latino 4-year olds having limited vocabulary in Spanish or English and tending to be less able than their peers to perform such basic early literacy tasks as writing their first name or recognizing the letters of the alphabet.
• Research has shown that once children are behind it is difficult for them to catch up and the gap often widens. Nationally, 85% of Latino 4th graders are reading below proficient level.
What are some of the factors contributing to the Latino preparation gap?
What are the most essential components of language and early literacy development?
What roles do parents/other family members and community environments play in the development of these skills?
Share your opinions and ideas.
posted by Word Smith at 10:24 AM
3 Comments:
The Latino literacy "gap" puzzles me greatly. I work with a large number of languages in my classroom, sometimes up to eight, yet it is the Latino group that falls behind. The Asian language students excel, but Latinos, whose language is far closer in form and structure to English fall behind. Even without immersion into the Latino culture, I can read Spanish fairly well because they are close enough.I would imagine that it would be the same for today's students and they are immersed. I only took 5 years of Spanish 35 years ago. Our school is trying to figure this out too.Can anybody explain this?
The rapid growth of Hispanics in the United States is a significant phenomenon for our society. Of note is the large presence of young Hispanics. About one-fourth of the newborns in our country are now Hispanic. These children can no longer remain invisible – they represent the future of our nation.
The mission of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics is to explore the circumstances of the youngest Hispanics and to develop recommendations for expanding and improving early childhood education for these children and their families.
By working together, and focusing on Hispanic children in the early childhood years, we have an opportunity to close the “achievement gap” and ensure successful and bright futures for all children. There are promising approaches for improving education in the primary grades, in pre-kindergarten, and in programs for infants and toddlers.
I recently met with executives from Scholastic to talk about the findings and recommendations from the Task Force’s national report, Para Nuestros Niños: Expanding and Improving Early Education for Hispanics. I invite you to view the videocast of this meeting and post your questions, ideas and opinions.
Dr. Eugene Garcia, Task Force Chair.
www.ecehispanic.org
necesidad de comprobar:)
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