THE WORD GAP AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON K-5 BLACK MALE ACHIEVEMENT AND BEYOND

Abstract

Despite numerous efforts to reduce or eliminate the disparities in achievement between black males and their white counterparts in schools, the achievement gap continues to exist. Black males at every level perform at a disproportionately lower rate on state achievement tests and day to day performance in general. This leads to many troubling statistics including higher discipline rates, higher dropout rates, and higher incarceration rates to name a few. When you begin to diagnose these outcomes and consider root causes there are many variables that began to surface as to the reason(s) for this occurrence. For the purpose of this study we will focus on vocabulary acquisition. The implications of a low vocabulary range from low academic performance in school to fewer job opportunities as an adult with many obstacles in between. The 30 Million Word Gap is a study which exposed this reality by studying the interaction and dialogue of families of low economic status to learn the conversation patterns and exposure to words for the children in these homes prior to entry into kindergarten. The findings coined the phrase The 30 Million Word Gap as it was found that children from low economic status homes knew 30 million less words than their more affluent peers by the time they arrived in grade school. The majority of the children in this study were black males. My case study at Lucky Day Elementary School focused on research based instructional strategies to increase vocabulary acquisition and ultimately reduce the word gap. While the study afforded students the opportunity to read books of interest in a structured and intentional manner, the results of the study were inconclusive with regards to impact on word acquisition.