Equalizing Opportunity

Dramatic Differences in Children’s Home Life and

Health Mean That Schools Can’t Do It Alone

By Richard Rothstein school with unequal skills and abilities, in both cognitive and
noncognitive domains. This is not a reason for educators to

P
ublic discourse about education pays great attention throw up their hands. Rather, in addition to efforts to improve
to the stubborn persistence of an achievement gap school practices, educators, along with community partners,
between poor and minority students and their wealth- should exercise their own rights and responsibilities as citizens
ier white peers—and public schools come under great to participate in redressing the inequalities with which children
criticism for their apparent inability to close that gap. Some of come to school.
this criticism may be justified. But there is more to the story than Income is more unequal and lower-class* families have less
school reform. No society can realistically expect schools alone access to medical care in the United States than in any other
to abolish inequality. If students come to school in unequal industrial nation. The gap in average achievement probably can-
circumstances, they will largely, though not entirely, leave
*Throughout this article, the term “lower class” is used to describe the families of
children whose achievement will, on average, be predictably lower than the
illustrated by nenad jakesevic

Richard Rothstein is a research associate at the Economic Policy Insti-

achievement of middle-class children. American sociologists once were comfortable
tute, former national education columnist with the New York Times,
with this term, but it has fallen out of fashion. Instead, we tend to use euphemisms
and author of several books, most recently Grading Education: Getting
like “disadvantaged” students, “at-risk” students, “inner-city” students, or students
Accountability Right, which he coauthored with Rebecca Jacobsen and of “low socioeconomic status.” None of these terms, however, captures the central
Tamara Wilder. This article is adapted with permission from Class and characteristic of lower-class families: a collection of occupational, psychological,
Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the personality, health, and economic traits that interact, predicting performance (not
Black-White Achievement Gap, published in 2004 by the Economic only in schools but in other institutions) that, on average, differs from the
Policy Institute and Teachers College Press. performance of families from higher social classes.

4 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2009

not be narrowed substantially as long as the U.S. maintains such the time children are 3 years old. This difference is exacerbated
vast differences in socioeconomic conditions. Although some during the years that children spend in school, but the growth in
lower-class children can overcome these handicaps, and the gap occurs mostly in the afterschool hours and during the
although more effective schools can help narrow the gap a little, summertime, when children are not in classrooms.1 So children’s
it is fanciful to think that, on average, children from such differ- out-of-school time offers an enormous—but needlessly
ent social classes can emerge at age 18 with comparable aca- neglected—opportunity to narrow the gap.
demic abilities. To better understand just how great the challenge is, this
Nonetheless, many of the curricular and school organiza- article reviews some of the key differences between lower- and
tional reforms being pursued today have merit and should be middle-class families in childrearing and children’s health. For
intensified. Repairing and upgrading the scandalously decrepit a more detailed look at these issues, see Class and Schools:
school facilities that serve some lower-class children, raising Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the
salaries to permit the recruitment of more qualified teachers for Black–White Achievement Gap, the book from which most of
lower-class children, reducing class sizes for lower-class children this article is drawn. Schools will not be able to address all of
(particularly in the early grades), insisting on higher academic these differences on their own. But we, as a nation, can—and
standards, holding schools accountable for fairly measured per- if we are serious about giving all children equal opportunities
formance, creating a well-focused and disciplined school cli- to succeed, we must.

Most of the social class difference in

average academic potential exists by
the time children are 3 years old.

mate, doing more to encourage lower-class children to intensify Since the publication of Class and Schools, a growing number
their own ambitions—all of these policies, and others, can play of national leaders, from across the political spectrum and with
a role in narrowing the achievement gap. varied expertise, have advocated for combining school improve-
Such reforms are extensively covered in public discussions of ment with improvements in the social and economic conditions
education, so it is not necessary for me to review them here. My that prepare children to succeed in school. These leaders have
focus is the great importance of reforming social and economic sponsored a platform, “A Broader, Bolder Approach to Educa-
institutions if we truly want children to emerge from school with tion,” to which all Americans are invited to add their names at
equal potential. www.boldapproach.org. Yet despite this growing chorus pro-
Readers should not misinterpret this emphasis as implying claiming that schools alone cannot be expected to significantly
that better schools are not important, or that school improve- narrow the achievement gap, opposition to the “Broader, Bolder
ment will not contribute to narrowing the achievement gap. Approach” persists. Therefore, it is necessary to reiterate the
School reform, however, is not enough. The social and economic research establishing the importance of narrowing the gap in
conditions that lower-class children face must also be addressed. readiness to learn, if we are to succeed in narrowing the gap in
For example, the growing unaffordability of adequate housing learning.
for low-income families has a demonstrable effect on average
achievement. Children whose families have difficulty finding Social Class Differences in Childrearing
stable housing are more likely to be mobile, and student mobil- To take full advantage of school, children should arrive every day
ity is an important cause of low student achievement. It is hard ready to learn. But children differ in how ready they are, and
to imagine how teachers, no matter how well trained, could be these differences are strongly influenced by their social class
as effective with children who move in and out of their class- backgrounds. Parents of different social classes, on average, tend
rooms as they are with children whose attendance is regular. In to raise children somewhat differently. For example, more edu-
schools with high mobility, the nonmobile students are affected cated parents read to their young children more consistently and
too, as classroom dynamics are disrupted and teachers must encourage their children to read more to themselves when they
review material. are older.2
And yet, evidence indicates that schools, on average, are How parents read to children is as important as whether they
doing a great deal to combat the achievement gap. Most of the do; more educated parents read aloud differently. When low-
social class difference in average academic potential exists by income parents read aloud, they are more likely to tell children

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2009 5

to pay attention without interruptions or to sound out words or are more likely to engage in conversation with each other as if
name letters. When they ask children about a story, questions their infants, and even their older children, were not present.
are more likely to be factual, asking for names of objects or These parents make less of a deliberate effort to name objects
memories of events.3 Parents who are more literate are more and develop children’s vocabularies.
likely to ask questions that are creative, interpretive, or connec- Twenty years ago, two researchers from the University of Kan-
tive. They ask questions like, “What do you think will happen sas visited the homes of families from different social classes to
next?” and “Why do you think this happened?” and “Does that monitor conversations between parents and toddlers. The
remind you of what we did yesterday?”4 Middle-class parents researchers found that, on average, professional parents spoke
are more likely to read aloud to have fun, to start conversations, over 2,000 words per hour to their children, working-class par-
and to provide an entrée to the world outside. Their children ents spoke about 1,300, and parents on welfare spoke about 600.
learn that reading is enjoyable and are more motivated to read So by age 3, children of professionals had vocabularies that were
in school.5 nearly 50 percent greater than those of working-class children
Stark social class differences arise not only in how parents and twice as large as those of welfare children. Indeed, by 3 years

Middle-class parents are more likely

to read aloud to have fun, to start
conversations, and to provide an
entrée to the world outside.

read but in how they converse. Explaining events in the broader old, the children of professionals had larger vocabularies than
world to children in dinner talk, for example, may have as much the vocabularies used by adults from welfare families in speaking
of an influence on test scores as early reading itself.6 Through to their children. Cumulatively, the Kansas researchers estimated
such conversations, children develop broader vocabularies and that by the time children were 4 years old, ready to enter pre-
become familiar with contexts for reading in school.7 Educated school, a typical child in a professional family would have accu-
parents are more likely to engage in such talk and to begin it mulated experience with 45 million words, compared with only
with infants and toddlers, conducting pretend conversations 13 million for a typical child in a welfare family.10
long before infants can understand the language. Typically, Deficits like these cannot be made up by schools alone, no
middle-class parents “ask” infants about their needs, then pro- matter how high the teachers’ expectations. For all children to
vide answers for the children (“Are you ready for a nap, now? achieve the same goals, those from the lower class would have
Yes, you are, aren’t you?”). Instructions are more likely to be to enter school with verbal fluency similar to that of middle-class
given indirectly, such as, “You don’t want to make so much children.
noise, do you?”8 This kind of instruction is really more an invi-
tation for a child to work through the reasoning behind a com- Social Class Differences in Children’s Health
mand and to internalize it. Soon after middle-class children Childrearing practices play a role in school performance, but
become verbal, parents typically draw them into adult conver- vast differences in children’s health, and health care, are also
sations so children can practice expressing their own important. Overall, lower-income children are in poorer health,
opinions. suffering from undiagnosed vision problems, lack of dental care,
Working-class parents typically maintain firmer boundaries poor nutrition, and more.
between the adult and child worlds, and are less likely to conduct
conversations with preverbal children. Except when it is neces- Vision
sary to give a warning or issue other instructions, these parents Lower-class children’s higher incidence of vision problems has
less often address language directly to infants or toddlers. Unlike the most obvious impact on their relative lack of school success.
middle-class parents, working-class parents are less likely to Children with vision problems have difficulty reading and seeing
simplify their language (using “baby talk”) to show preverbal what teachers write on the board. Trying to read, their eyes may
children how to converse before the children are naturally ready wander or have difficulty tracking print or focusing. Tests of
to do so. If children need instruction, the orders are more likely vision show that these problems are inversely proportional to
to be direct, undisguised in question form.9 Working-class adults family income; in the United States, poor children have severe

6 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2009

vision impairment at twice the normal rate.11 Juvenile delin- Oral Health
quents especially have extraordinarily high rates of such prob- Children without dental care are more likely to have toothaches;
lems; difficulties in seeing and focusing may contribute to their untreated cavities are nearly three times as prevalent among
lack of mainstream success.12 Foster children, who experience poor children as among middle-class children.21 Although not
even more stress than most disadvantaged children, also have every dental cavity leads to a toothache, some do. Children with
unusually high vision failure rates.13 toothaches, even minor ones, pay less attention in class and are
Fifty percent or more of minority and low-income children more distracted during tests, on average, than children with
have vision problems that interfere with their academic work.14 healthy teeth.
A few require glasses, but more need eye-exercise therapy to cor-
rect focusing, converging, and tracking problems. In one experi- Lead Exposure
ment where therapy or lenses were provided to randomly Children who live in older, unreno-
selected fourth-graders from low-income families, children who vated buildings have more lead dust
received optometric services gained in reading achievement exposure, which harms cognitive

Low-income children with asthma

are about 80 percent more likely than
middle-class children with asthma to
miss more than seven days of school
a year from the disease.

beyond the normal growth for their age, while children in the functioning and behavior.22 High lead levels also contribute to
control group, who did not get these services, fell further hearing loss.23 Low-income children have dangerously high
behind.15 blood lead levels at five times the rate of middle-class children.24
Children who are believed to have learning disabilities are Although lead-based paint was banned from residential con-
also more likely to have vision impairment. Disproportionate struction in 1978, low-income children more likely live in build-
assignment of low-income black children to special education ings constructed prior to that date and in buildings that are not
may reflect, in part, a failure to correct their vision. Often, when repainted often enough to prevent old layers from peeling off.
children seem to have puzzling difficulties learning to read, the Urban children are also more likely to attend older schools, built
explanation is no more complex than that they cannot see. when water pipes contained lead.25
(Sometimes, vision difficulties remain undiagnosed in middle-
class children as well, but more often, the failure to diagnose is Asthma
a problem of the poor.) Lower-class children, particularly those who live in densely
Lower-class children are more likely to suffer from vision populated city neighborhoods, are also more likely to develop
problems because of their less adequate prenatal development; asthma.26 A survey in New York City found that one of every four
typically, middle-class pregnant mothers have better medical children in Harlem suffers from asthma, a rate six times as great
care and nutrition.16 Visual deficits also arise because poor chil- as that for all children.27 A Chicago survey found a nearly identi-
dren are more likely to watch too much television, an activity that cal rate for black children and a rate of one in three for Puerto
does not train the eye to develop hand-eye coordination and Ricans.28 The disease is provoked in part from breathing fumes
depth perception.17 Middle-class children are also more likely to from low-grade home heating oil and from diesel trucks and
have manipulative toys that develop visual skills.18 buses (school buses that idle in front of schools are a particularly
serious problem), as well as from excessive dust and allergic
Hearing reactions to mold, cockroaches, and secondhand smoke.29
Lower-class children also have more hearing problems.19 These Asthma keeps children up at night; if they do make it to school
may result from more ear infections that occur in children whose the next day, they are likely to be drowsy and less attentive.
overall health is less robust. If poor children simply had as much Middle-class children typically get treatment for asthma symp-
medical treatment for ear infections as middle-class children, toms, while low-income children get it less often. Asthma has
they could pay better attention and the achievement gap would become the biggest cause of chronic school absence. 30 Low-
narrow a bit.20 (Continued on page 45)

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2009 7

Equalizing Opportunity Birth Weight
(Continued from page 7) Low-income children are more likely to be born prematurely or
with low birth weights and to suffer from cognitive problems as
income children with asthma are about 80 percent more likely a result; low-birth-weight babies, on average, have lower IQ
than middle-class children with asthma to miss more than seven scores and are more likely to have mild learning disabilities and
days of school a year from the disease.31 Children with asthma attention disorders.38 Thirteen percent of black children are born
refrain from exercise and so are less physically fit. Drowsy and with low birth weight, double the rate for whites. 39 Even if all
more irritable, they also have more behavioral problems that children benefited from equally high-quality instruction, this
depress achievement.32 difference alone would ensure lower average achievement for
blacks.
Medical Care
Children without regular medical care are also more likely to Nutrition
contract other illnesses—some serious, others minor—that keep Poor nutrition also directly contributes to an achievement gap

Poor nutrition directly contributes to the

achievement gap. Iron deficiency anemia
also affects cognitive ability; 8 percent
of all children suffer from anemia, but
20 percent of black children are anemic.

them out of school. Despite federal programs to make medical between lower- and middle-class children. Low-income kinder-
care available to low-income children, there remain gaps in both gartners whose height and weight are below normal for children
access and utilization.33 Many eligible families are not enrolled their age tend to have lower test scores.40 Iron deficiency anemia
because of ignorance, fear, or lack of belief in the importance of also affects cognitive ability; 8 percent of all children suffer from
medical care. anemia, but 20 percent of black children are anemic.41 Anemia
Even with health insurance, low-wage work interferes with also makes it more probable that children will absorb lead to
the utilization of medical care. Parents who are paid hourly which they have been exposed.42 Compared with middle-class
wages lose income when they take their children to doctors. children, the poor also have deficiencies of other vitamins and
Parents who work at blue-collar jobs risk being fired for excessive minerals.43 In experiments where pupils received inexpensive
absence, so are likely to skip well-baby and routine pediatric care vitamin and mineral supplements, test scores rose from that
and go to doctors only in emergencies. treatment alone.44

L
Use of Alcohol ike social class differences in childrearing, each of
Youngsters whose mothers drank during pregnancy have more these differences in health—in vision, hearing, oral
difficulty with academic subjects, less ability to focus attention, health, lead exposure, asthma, use of alcohol, smok-
poorer memory skills, less ability to reason, lower IQs, less social ing, birth weight, and nutrition—has only a tiny influ-
competence, and more aggression in the classroom.34 On into ence on the academic achievement gap when considered
adolescence, these children continue to have difficulty learn- separately. But together, they add up to a cumulative disadvan-
ing.35 Fetal alcohol syndrome, a collection of the most severe tage for lower-class children that can’t help but depress average
cognitive, physical, and behavioral difficulties experienced by performance.
children of prenatal drinkers, is 10 times more frequent among To make significant progress in narrowing the achievement
low-income black children than middle-class white children.36 gap, three tracks should be pursued vigorously and simultane-
ously. First, school improvement efforts that raise the quality
Smoking of instruction in elementary and secondary schools are essen-
Children of mothers who smoked while pregnant do worse on tial. Second, comprehensive early childhood, afterschool, and
cognitive tests and their language develops less well. They have summer programs must be implemented, so that lower-class
more serious behavioral problems, are more hyperactive, and children can have the same enriching experiences as their
commit more juvenile crime. 37 Because secondhand smoke middle-class peers. And third, we must change our social and
causes asthma, children whose mothers smoke after pregnancy economic policies—and especially our approach to health
also are more likely to have low achievement. care—so that all children can attend school more equally ready

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2009 45

to learn. adults on welfare use when speaking to children). See of Poverty on Children,” Children and Poverty 7, no. 2
Geoff Nunberg, “A Loss for Words,” Fresh Air from WHYY, (1997): 55–71.
For nearly half a century, the associa- NPR, September 3, 2002, www-csli.stanford.
24. GAO, Lead Poisoning.
edu/~nunberg/vocabulary.html; and Gerald W. Bracey,
tion of social and economic disadvan- “The 13th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public 25. Paul Barton, Parsing the Achievement Gap: Baselines
tage with a student achievement gap has Education,” Phi Delta Kappan 85, no 2 (2003): 148–164. for Tracking Progress (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing
Service, Policy Information Center, 2003); and Justin Blum,
been well known to economists, sociolo- 11. Lisa Egbuonu and Barbara Starfield, “Child Health and
“High Lead Levels Found in Water at 9 D.C. Schools,”
Social Status,” Pediatrics 69, no. 5 (1982): 550–557; and
gists, and educators. Most, however, have Barbara Starfield, “Child Health and Socioeconomic
Washington Post, February 25, 2004.

avoided the obvious implication of this Status,” American Journal of Public Health 72, no. 6 26. Christopher B. Forrest et al., “The Impact of Asthma on
(1982): 532–534. the Health Status of Adolescents,” Pediatrics 99, no. 2
understanding: raising the achievement 12. Antonia Orfield, Frank Basa, and John Yun, “Vision
(1997): e1; and Neal Halfon and Paul W. Newacheck,
“Childhood Asthma and Poverty: Differential Impacts and
of lower-class children requires amelio- Problems of Children in Poverty in an Urban School Clinic:
Utilization of Health Services,” Pediatrics 91, no. 1 (1993):
Their Epidemic Numbers, Impact on Learning, and
ration of the social and economic condi- Approaches to Remediation,” Journal of Optometric Vision
56–61.
tions of their lives, not just school Development 32 (2001): 114–141. 27. Associated Press, “Study: 1 in 4 Harlem Children Has
Asthma,” New York Times, April 21, 2003; and Roger D.
reform. ☐ 13. Trudy Festinger and Robert Duckman, “Seeing and
Vaughan (associate professor, Mailman School of Public
Hearing: Vision and Audiology Status of Foster Children in
Health, Columbia University), personal correspondence,
New York City,” Journal of Behavioral Optometry 11, no. 3
April 22, 2003.
(2000): 59–67.
Endnotes
28. Steven Whitman, Cynthia Williams, and Ami Shah,
14. The normal incidence of vision problems in children is
1. Meredith Phillips, “Understanding Ethnic Differences in Sinai Health System’s Improving Community Health Survey:
about 25 percent. Clinicians and researchers have found
Academic Achievement: Empirical Lessons from National Report 1 (Chicago: Sinai Health System, 2004); and Scott
incidences of more than 50 percent in some communities,
Data,” in Analytic Issues in the Assessment of Student Ritter, “Asthma Hits Record Rate among Minority Kids,”
although there has been no systematic nationwide survey
Achievement, NCES 2000-050, ed. David W. Grissmer and Chicago Sun-Times, January 8, 2004.
of vision problems by race or social class. See Marge
J. Michael Ross (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Christensen Gould and Herman Gould, “A Clear Vision for 29. Halfon and Newacheck, “Childhood Asthma.”
Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2000);
Equity and Opportunity,” Phi Delta Kappan 85, no. 4
Richard L. Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen, “The Impact 30. Philip J. Hilts, “Study Finds Most States Lack System for
(2003): 324–328; Antonia Orfield, interview with author,
of Summer Setback on the Reading Achievement Gap,” Monitoring Asthma,” New York Times, May 22, 2000.
November 11, 2003; Orfield, Basa, and Yun, “Vision
Phi Delta Kappan 85, no. 1 (2003): 68–75; and Doris R.
Problems”; Robert Duckman (College of Optometry, State 31. Halfon and Newacheck, “Childhood Asthma.”
Entwisle and Karl L. Alexander, “Summer Setback: Race,
University of New York), interview with author, December
Poverty, School Composition, and Mathematics 32. Forrest et al., “Impact of Asthma.”
29, 2003; Paul Harris, interview with author, December 12,
Achievement in the First Two Years of School,” American
2003; and Paul Harris, “Learning-Related Visual Problems 33. Robert J. Mills and Shailesh Bhandari, Health Insurance
Sociological Review 57 (1992): 72–84. One study (Roland
in Baltimore City: A Long-Term Program,” Journal of Coverage in the United States: 2002, U.S. Census Bureau:
G. Fryer Jr. and Steven D. Levitt, “Understanding the
Optometric Vision Development 33, no. 2 (2002): 75–115. Current Population Reports (Washington, DC: Government
Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of
School,” NBER Working Paper 8975 [Cambridge, MA: 15. Harris, “Learning-Related Visual Problems.” Printing Office, 2003).
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2002]) found no 34. Susan Astley, “FAS/FAE: Their Impact on Psychosocial
growth of the achievement gap during the summer, but 16. Surprisingly, there is no experimental evidence on the
relationship between prenatal care and vision, and little Child Development with a View to Diagnosis,” in
this claim is at odds with most of the research literature. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, ed. Richard
good research evidence generally on the relationship
2. Suzanne M. Bianchi and John Robinson, “What Did You between socioeconomic conditions and children’s vision. In E. Tremblay, Ronald G. Barr, and Ray DeV. Peters (Montreal,
Do Today? Children’s Use of Time, Family Composition, the following discussions, I was guided by personal Quebec: Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood
and the Acquisition of Social Capital,” Journal of Marriage correspondence and conversations with academic and Development, 2003), www.child-encyclopedia.com/
and the Family 59, no. 2 (1997): 332–344; and Sandra L. clinical optometrists, including Professor Robert Duckman documents/AstleyANGxp.pdf; and Roger W. Simmons et
Hofferth and John F. Sandberg, “How American Children (State University of New York), Dr. Paul Harris, Dr. Antonia al., “Fractionated Simple and Choice Reaction Time in
Spend Their Time,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 63, Orfield, and Professor Harold Solan (State University of Children with Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol,” Alcoholism:
no. 2 (2001): 295–308. New York). I also relied on the advice of Dr. Barbara Clinical and Experimental Research 26, no. 9 (2002):
Starfield at Johns Hopkins University. Sara Mosle, a former 1412–1419.
3. Larry Mikulecky, “Family Literacy: Parent and Child
teacher in a low-income school (and now a journalist and 35. Gale A. Richardson et al., “Prenatal Alcohol and
Interactions,” in Family Literacy: Directions in Research and
historian), stimulated this line of inquiry for me when she Marijuana Exposure: Effects on Neuropsychological
Implications for Practice, ed. L. Ann Benjamin and Jerome
showed me her unpublished article, “They Can’t Read Outcomes at 10 Years,” Neurotoxicology and Teratology
Lord (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education,
Because They Can’t See.” See also Festinger and Duckman, 24, no. 3 (2002): 309–320; and Ann P. Streissguth et al.,
Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1996),
“Seeing and Hearing”; Harris, “Learning-Related Visual “Maternal Drinking During Pregnancy: Attention and
www.ed.gov/pubs/FamLit/parent.html.
Problems”; Orfield, Basa, and Yun, “Vision Problems”; and Short-Term Memory in 14-Year-Old Offspring—A
4. See also Pia Rebello Britto and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Harold A. Solan et al., “Effect of Attention Therapy on Longitudinal Prospective Study,” Alcoholism: Clinical and
“Concluding Comments,” New Directions for Child and Reading Comprehension,” Journal of Learning Disabilities Experimental Research 18, no. 1 (1994): 202–218.
Adolescent Development 92 (2001): 91–98. Britto and 36, no. 6 (2003): 556.
Brooks-Gunn report on a survey that included only poorly 36. Ernest L. Abel, “An Update on Incidence of FAS: FAS Is
17. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Not an Equal Opportunity Birth Defect,” Neurotoxicology
educated single African American mothers. Within this
Education Statistics, 2002, NCES 2003-060 (Washington, and Teratology 174 (1995): 437–443.
group, more expressive language use during book reading
DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational
predicted children’s achievement, but the survey does not 37. Astley, “FAS/FAE.”
Research and Improvement, 2003), table 117.
lead to any reliable conclusions regarding whether the use
of expressive language is related to social class. 18. Orfield, interview with author. 38. Maureen Hack, Nancy K. Klein, and H. Gerry Taylor,
“Long-Term Developmental Outcomes of Low Birth Weight
5. Mikulecky, “Family Literacy.” 19. Egbuonu and Starfield, “Child Health.” Infants,” The Future of Children 5, no. 1 (1995): 176–196.
6. Mikulecky, “Family Literacy.” 20. Some medical authorities state that antibiotics have 39. Kathryn Hoffman, Charmaine Llagas, and Thomas
been overprescribed for young children’s ear infections and Snyder, Status and Trends in the Education of Blacks, NCES
7. Catherine Snow and Patton Tabors, “Intergenerational
that painkillers alone sometimes may suffice. However, 2003-034 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Transfer of Literacy,” in Family Literacy: Directions in
without good access to personal pediatricians who know a Education, Office of Educational Research and Improve-
Research and Implications for Practice, ed. L. Ann Benjamin
child’s history, parents themselves cannot determine ment, 2003), 15.
and Jerome Lord (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
whether antibiotics or painkillers are the proper treatment
Education, Office of Educational Research and Improve- 40. Robert Karp et al., “Growth and Academic
in any particular case. See Lawrence K. Altman, “Doctors
ment, 1996), www.ed.gov/pubs/FamLit/transfer.html. Achievement in Inner-City Kindergarten Children,” Clinical
and Patients Start to Curb Use of Antibiotics,” New York
8. See Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, Times, March 4, 2004. Pediatrics 31, no. 6 (1992): 336–340.
and Family Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 41. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),
21. U.S. General Accounting Office, Oral Health: Dental
2003) for a general discussion of these childrearing pattern Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance 2001 Report (Washington,
Disease Is a Chronic Problem Among Low-Income
differences. DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Populations, GAO/HEHS-00-72 (Washington, DC: GAO,
9. Shirley Brice Heath, Ways with Words: Language, Life, 2000), 8, figure 1. 2002).
and Work in Communities and Classrooms (Cambridge, 42. Larry J. Brown and Laura P. Sherman, “Policy
22. Egbuonu and Starfield, “Child Health”; U.S. General
MA: Cambridge University Press, 1983). Implications of New Scientific Knowledge,” Journal of
Accounting Office, Lead Poisoning: Federal Health Care
10. Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, Meaningful Differences in Programs Are Not Effectively Reaching At-Risk Children, Nutrition 125 (1995): 2281S–2284S.
the Everyday Experience of Young American Children GAO/HEHS-99-18 (Washington, DC: GAO, 1999); Ulric 43. America’s Second Harvest, Differences in Nutrient
(Baltimore: Brookes Publishing, 1995); and Betty Hart and Neisser et al., “Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns,” Adequacy among Poor and Non-Poor Children (Medford,
Todd R. Risley, “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million American Psychologist 51, no. 2 (1996): 77–101; and Ulric MA: Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy, 2003),
Word Gap by Age 3,” American Educator 27, no. 1 (2003). Neisser, “Never a Dull Moment,” American Psychologist www.secondharvest.org; and Kathy Koch, “Hunger in
The Hart-Risley findings have sometimes been misreported 52, no. 1 (1997): 79–81. There is scientific controversy America,” CQ Researcher 10, no. 44 (2002): 1034–1055.
as meaning that the vocabularies of children of regarding how much lead exposure is harmful to children.
professionals were larger than the vocabularies of adults 44. Neisser et al., “Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns.”
23. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Greg J. Duncan, “The Effects
on welfare (not than the much smaller vocabularies that

46 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2009