Language Use and School Performance

Language Use and School Performance presents the results of a study undertaken during 1969-1970 to investigate the link between language use and school performance. A basic theme of this report is that early school experience is probably the most important stage in a child's educational career. The emphasis is on the acquisition and use of language at home and in the primary school. Comprised of seven chapters, this book seeks to clarify everyday school decisions made by school personnel based on the child's performances in particular classroom and testing situations that influence his/her educational career early in life. The discussion begins by focusing on the placement of students in two kindergarten classes in two southern California school districts. More specifically, the chapter examines the practices used by teachers to assign students to classes having particular characteristics; to place them in ability groups within classes; and to promote them to the next grade. Subsequent chapters explore how teachers accomplish classroom lessons; intelligence testing as a social activity; standardized tests as objective/objectified measures of a child's "competence" in school; and tests and experiments with children. The final chapter outlines some basic theoretical issues in the assessment of the child's performance in testing and classroom settings. This monograph will be a valuable resource for educators, sociologists, and psychologists.