SAT scores for high school students using Vocabulary Workshop

VocabularyWorkshop on Supplements for Kids page.



I've mentioned that Christopher has a lot of fun with Jerome Shostak's Vocabulary Workshop.

ASIDE: I've just noticed that Sadlier Oxford also publishes a VocabularyWorkshop (pdf file) series for grades 2 - 5. The grade school books are are identified by colors - Levels Purple, Green, Orange, and Blue, after which you start with Level A in grade 6.

I haven't seen one of the grade school books, but if they're similar to the upper level books, you don't need the teacher's edition.

The upper level books all open with a diagnostic test that gives you a nice idea of what your child's vocabulary is like. I was distressed because Christopher missed 14 out of 50 terms on the Level A diagnostic test, but then he missed only 4 out of 50 on the Level B test. Great!

I've been looking at the website this morning, and found this study of SAT scores commissioned by Sadlier Oxford:

pull:
Program users, on average, exceeded the national [verbal score] norm by 18 points while scoring almost 14 points below the national average in Mathematics.


...taken holistically, the following data provide encouraging support for the effectiveness of the VocabularyWorkshop program as one component of the language-arts instructional program for secondary-level students. Users of Sadlier-Oxford’s VocabularyWorkshop program typically outperformed the national norms for the SAT. More importantly, students in these schools generally showed SAT achievement levels either: (a) above those prior to instituting the program, (b) superior to that of comparable students who did not use these materials, or (c) higher in verbal area of the assessments than in mathematics portion. Each of these three possible outcomes is seen as providing a positive indicator of the success of the program in improving students’ verbal skills.

A secondary analysis of the following data was conducted to supplement the school-by-school data. Scores for all schools providing 2002-2003 SAT data were combined across sites to assess an “overall” program effect. It is important to stress once again that these analyses do not result from a controlled study in which students were all tested at the same time following a specified “treatment.” Students across the SAT sites were juniors or seniors who had used VocabularyWorkshop for a period of time ranging from one to several years.

Nevertheless, it seems appropriate to present such a set of combined data. Across the 16 schools, the following summary scores resulted:


SAT Verbal Mean = 525.1
(national average: 507)
SAT Mathematics Mean = 505.2
(national average: 519)


Note that the national average scores for the 2002- 2003 school year were 507 in Verbal and 519 in Mathematics. Program users, on average, exceeded the national norm by 18 points while scoring almost 14 points below the national average in Mathematics. Given that these data are based on a broad range of schools and almost 3,000 students, the 20-point advantage of VocabularyWorkshop users in the Verbal area of this important collegeadmission examination is impressive.