Literacy and Reading

The National Journal's Expert Blog on Education is focusing this week on the new "Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge." I had a chance to provide some quick-hit answers, clarify what might be a misconception about the purpose of the program, and promote the idea of using more observation-based tools to zoom in on the need to foster more conversation and language-rich interaction between adults and children.

It used to be that e-books -- especially the black-and-white, text-heavy kind -- were primarily for adults. But with iPads and Nooks becoming more abundant, it is now possible to sit down on the couch with a young child and experience a beautiful picture book electronically. Could these interactive books help to engage struggling readers?

In 2011, the Obama Administration announced that $500 million will be dedicated to a competition between states to improve early education.

This week, our colleagues at the Federal Education Budget Project released an issue brief that helps to make sense of the funding situation for fiscal year 2011.

Every year or so, the National Association for the Education of Young Children writes or revises formal statements on controversial or timely topics in an attempt to provide sound advice to teachers, principals and directors. The subject on the table for discussion this year is the association's revised statement on the use of technology with young children. Comments are due to TechandYC@naeyc.org by May 31.

Ever since the association embarked on its update, the issue of screen time among young children has provoked heated debate among NAEYC members, some of which was on display during a packed and tense meeting during NAEYC's November conference. Some people in the early childhood community want to keep screen-based technology like video players and computers away from preschoolers and kindergartners, arguing that they distract children from hands-on play. Others see potential in video screens and digital technology when used appropriately under adult supervision.

When President Obama chose to focus on immigration reform in El Paso last week, minds turned to new policies that could address the rapidly rising Hispanic population in the United States.

But politicians say little about policy for immigrant kids in our public schools—despite current research indicating that the future of our workforce may depend on it. According to a recent study by Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, immigrants and their children will provide virtually all growth in the labor force over the next 40 years.

Infomercials for a questionable video series called Your Baby Can Read have been running on cable television for years, but they had not entered into debates about early literacy in any serious way until recently, when the Federal Trade Commission received a complaint arguing that they amount to deceptive marketing.

Earlier this month, I spoke on a panel titled “Teaching Teachers to Teach Reading” at the annual meeting of the Education Writers Association (EWA) conference in New Orleans. Here’s a quick recap:

The presentation gave me a chance to highlight findings from the Early Education Initiative’s latest report “Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensure and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten and the Early Grades,” emphasizing (for this particular panel) the differences in reading courses between K-5 and P-3 teacher preparation programs.

On April 9, 2011, Laura Bornfreund spoke on a panel titled "Teaching Teachers to Teach Reading" at the annual meeting of the Education Writers Association conference in New Orleans.

Bornfreund highlighted findings from the Early Education Initiative’s latest report “Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensure and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten and the Early Grades,” emphasizing (for this particular panel) the differences in reading courses between K-5 and P-3 teacher preparation programs.

Two weeks ago, we asked you to choose which pieces of new research you'd like us to explore here at Early Ed Watch. You had a choice of two research posters from among a list of 10 that were presented at the recent biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Montreal.