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• The Book Bag

The Importance of Reading to Children at an Early Age.

• Massachusetts Defines High-Needs Children – When she describes Massachusetts’ successful application for a federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant, Commissioner Sherri Killins of the Department of Early Education and Care often talks of identifying – and serving – all of the commonwealth’s young children with high needs…The Massachusetts definition of high needs includes children with multiple risk factors:
  • Children and parents with special needs, Children whose home language is not English, Families and children involved with multiple state agencies, English language learners, Recent immigrants, Children whose parents are deployed and who do not live on a military base, Low-income households, Parents with less than a high school education, Children who are homeless or move more than once a year  Source: Eye on Early Education 3/6/1

• The Income-Based Achievement Gap Widens – Mention the achievement gap, and discussion often turns to a gap based on race. Yet the gap between white and black children in the United States has actually narrowed over the last several decades, The New York Time Reports, while the gap based on income is widening.  “We have moved from a society in the 1950s and 1960s, in which race was more consequential than family income, to one today in which family income appears more determinative of educational success than race,” Sean F. Reardon, a Stanford University sociologist, tells the Times. Source: Eye on Education 3/1/12
• Toddler Reading: How to Raise a Bookwork Did you know that only 45 percent of toddlers are read to on a daily basis? The National Center for Education Statistics points out that children under the poverty line are the most at risk; only 28 percent are read to regularly. While it might not sound like a big deal—fostering a love of learning in early childhood could have a bearing on your child’s reading ability later on in life.If you understand the importance of raising a reader, you know that your efforts need to start now.  Source: Education.com 3/12
• Breaking the Cycle of Childhood Poverty – America stands as a beacon of hope and the possibility of a better life — but it is also a nation where nearly 1 in 4 children live in poverty…It is widely known that the effects of childhood poverty follow children through adolescence and into adulthood. If children are not enrolled in early education programs, they are 50 percent more likely to be placed in special education and 25 percent more likely to drop out of school. They are 60 percent more likely to never attend college, 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime, and 40 percent more likely to become a teen parent.  Source: The Huffington Post 2/6/12
• Campaign for Early Childhood Educational System – (MI) -Educators say 90 percent of a child’s brain is developed by age five which makes early education a crucial element.  “We can’t wait until children are five to start creating environments that will promote success,” said Mississippi Head Start Association executive director Nita Thompson.  With most kids going straight into education for the first time at age five, educators say the K thorough 12 system is too often left picking up the slack where early development should have played a role.  Source: NBC Affiliate 2/3/12
• How to Raise A Reader Kids become lifelong readers for all kinds of reasons… In some cases, parents influence kids’ appreciation of books by sharing their own love of literature and modeling reader behavior — always having a book to read, taking books on vacation, reading before bedtime, making regular trips to the library and bookstore, etc. Source: Commonsensemedia.org 1/10/12
• Make Each Day an Opportunity to Practice Literacy Skills…Research shows that children have a better chance of becoming fully literate adults if reading is encouraged in the home… Simple things such as reading and telling stories to a child at 18 months are powerful stimuli for brain development in the early years. Source: Inside Toronto 1/10/12
• Low Income Communities are Entering Kindergarten without the Basic Literary Skills for Lifelong Success Did you know that children growing up in poverty experience a “30 million word gap” [that is to say, they enter Kindergarten knowing 30 million fewer words], compared to their middle class counterparts (Hart & Risely, 1995). This is a powerful reminder that one of the most profound differences, within the great class divide in America, is in children’s early language acquisition and reading readiness skills…Holyoke, is one of Massachusetts’ poorest cities…in 2011, only 21% of third grade students tested could read proficiently…Source: La Prensa 12/16/11
• New England Mayors Help Each Other Address Early Education Goals – Mayor Menino welcomed his peers to Boston and discussed why he believes early literacy should be a top priority for all levels of government. “We’re aiming our resources at the wrong place,” said Menino at a December 13 opening session. “We need to focus on young families, intervening early when children are born. When kids get off to a good start, the later issues take care of themselves.” Source: National League of Cities 12/19/11
• MA Wins Early Learning Challenge Grant – Massachusetts is one of nine states awarded grants from the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (ELC), the Obama administration announced today.  Thirty-five states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico applied for this $500 million competitive grant program that will be jointly administered by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Massachusetts is eligible for $50 million over four years to develop new approaches to raising the bar across early learning programs and closing the school readiness gap. Source: Eye on Education 12/16/11
• Inequities Among Boston’s Schools - .. To ensure more students are skillful readers by fourth grade -  Johnson instituted a new reading program two years ago and added two key benchmarks to monitor progress along the way. But less than three dozen schools last spring met Johnson’s goal of having at least 75 percent of their first-graders reading at grade level…Source: Boston Globe 12/11
  
• Chamber of Commerce report Ready, Set Go! Why Business Should Support Early Childhood Education
• What Can Parents Do to Help Their Children Succeed in School? Students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child ‘every day or almost every day’ during the first year of primary school have markedly higher scores..than students whose parents had reported that they read a book with their child ‘never or almost never.’  On average, the score difference..is well over half a school year.  Source: PISA in Focus 2010/2011
• How About Better Parents? There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement. Source: NYT Op-Ed 11/11
• Governor Patrick Announces New Strategies to Close Persistent Achievement Gaps in Education -Next steps to focus on Gateway Cities, building on success of Governor’s landmark 2010 Achievement Gap Act.  Governor Deval Patrick today announced several new strategies aimed at closing the most persistent achievement gaps among Massachusetts students during the Patrick-Murray Administration’s Education Summit at University of Mass, Boston. The Governor outlined significant progress made in closing achievement gaps since the Achievement Gap Act was signed in 2010, and laid out key initiatives that the Administration will pilot in the Commonwealth’s Gateway Cities to ensure that all students are prepared for success in the classroom and beyond. Source: Press Release Mass.Gov. 11/11
• Half of MA Fourth Graders Below Proficient in Reading on National Assessment of Educational Progress The results of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress were announced yesterday, and, once again, Massachusetts topped the country in fourth grade reading. ..To this we would add that the building blocks of literacy begin at birth, in the oral language development embedded in a child’s earliest interactions. Source: Strategies for Children 11/11
• The First 2,000 Days Are Critical These words form the underlying message of a fascinating segment on NBC’s Education Nation about the science of early brain development,…“There are only 2,000 days between the newborn baby and when that child will show up in kindergarten,” added the institute’s co-director, Dr. Andrew Meltzoff. “It is urgent that we use the best scientific info to make sure we support all our children so they can succeed in school. Our children can’t wait.” Source: Strategies for Children 10/11.
• MA Developing Kindergarten Readiness Assessment “Kindergartners – who are not expected to know how to read or write – would not be filling in bubble sheets ..Instead, teachers would measure students’ early knowledge of literacy and math by carefully observing and questioning them during classroom activities, …“It’s too late to wait until third grade to see how students are doing,’’ Sherri Killins, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, tells the Globe. Source: Strategies for Children 10/11.
• MCAS results paint mixed picture. More Massachusetts 10th-graders this past spring cleared the MCAS graduation hurdle, but scores for third-grade reading – a critical indicator of future school success – dropped again, according to the latest test results released yesterday. In 2011, 39% of Massachusetts third graders scored below proficient in reading, compared with 37% in 2010, according to MCAS results. Performance has remained stagnant since 2001. And the achievement gap widened for African-American, Latino and low-income children.  Source: Boston Globe 9/9/11

• No Improvement in MA Third Grade Reading The results of the 2011 MCAS reinforce the need to focus on ensuring that children can read proficiently by the end of third grade, a critical benchmark that strongly predicts their chances of future success. Research indicates that 74% of children who read poorly in third grade have a substantially reduced likelihood of graduating from high school.  Source: Strategies for Children 9/8/11

• Good Communication in Early Years Key to Success at School, UK Study Shows — A team of researchers in the UK has shown that although social background has a noticeable effect on a child’s readiness for school, what parents do with their children, even before they begin to talk, is actually much more important. Source: ScienceDaily 7/2/11

• A love of reading ensures flying start at school. Parents who foster a love of reading in their children early on are ensuring they get off to a flying start at school, a research claims.”One message coming through loud and clear is that how a child learns in their very early years is critical for smooth transition into the educational system.” Source: India Times 7/3/11

• Early childhood education can improve future well-being A recent study by researchers from the Human Capital Research Collaborative and the University of Minnesota shows that the quality of education that children receive when they are young greatly impacts their adulthood. In order to obtain these results, researchers used the Chicago Longitudinal Study.  Source: FunEducation 6/13/11.

• RX: Read to Your Baby The children’s book, as it turns out, is a valuable tool for both parent and doctor. “Using the book, the pointing and identifying, is a way of helping parents understand the job of naming the child’s world, helping the child learn that everything has a name,” Dr. Klass said. “It’s a big cognitive, developmental and communicative step. It’s a huge step for a baby.” Source: New York Times 4/15/11

• Skills Your Baby Learns from Story Time. Your baby’s story time can be fun and exciting — and vastly beneficial to her development. Here’s how you can help Baby grasp important skills for her future. Why Read to Babies. Thirty-five percent of American children start kindergarten without sufficient language skills, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. But reading aloud to your baby helps. Source: Parents.com 3/11

• Stats on Reading, Literacy & Education More than three out of four of those on welfare, 85% of unwed mothers and 68% of those arrested are illiterate. About three in five of America’s prison inmates are illiterate.   It’s estimated that more than $2 billion is spent each year on students who repeat a grade because they have reading problems. Over one million children drop out of school each year, costing the nation over $240 billion in lost earnings, forgone tax revenues, and expenditures for social services.

• Making Sure Mass. 3rd Graders Are Strong Readers BOSTON — When it comes to reading proficiency, third grade is a critical benchmark.  If students don’t have strong reading skills by the time they finish third grade, they’re more likely to lag behind academically in later years, according to a growing body of educational research. Yet 37 percent of Massachusetts third graders read below grade level, and that number jumps to 57 percent among children from low-income families.  So state lawmakers recently introduced legislation aimed at ensuring that all Massachusetts children are proficient readers by the end of third grade.  Source: WBUR Sacha Pfeiffer 2/14/11

• A Guide to Reading With Your Child by the American Association of Pediatrics. Start talking, singing, and reading with your child from the beginning. He will learn that reading is a fun activity you share together. Source: HealthyChildren.org

• More Evidence of Long-Lasting Benefits. The latest look at longitudinal data from a large Chicago preschool program makes a major contribution  to the substantial body of evidence that investing in high-quality early education for low-income children yields a high rate of return in increased productivity and reduced social costs. The cost-benefit analysis looks at young adults, age 26, who had attended the Chicago Child-Parent Centers (CPC) preschool program. The researchers estimate an 18% annual return, due to higher rates of college attendance, employment in higher-skilled jobs, lower rates of remediation, depression and incarceration. Spread over a lifetime that comes to $11 for every dollar invested.  Source: Eye On Early Education, Irene Sage 2/14/11

• Dialogic Reading How we read to children is as important as how frequently we read to them.  To get children involved, researchers have developed a method of reading called Dialogic Reading. When most adults share a book with a child, they read and the child listens. In dialogic reading, the adult helps the child become the teller of the story. The adult becomes the listener, the questioner, the audience for the child. Dialogic reading is based upon three main techniques – asking “what” questions, asking open-ended questions, and expanding upon what the child says.  Source: Multnomah County Library

• Ed Reforms and Race to the Top offer chance for improvement At this time last year, the Legislature handed Governor Patrick powerful tools to convince federal funders that the state could lead the way in education reform. A few months later, Massachusetts emerged from a competitive field with a $250 million Race to the Top education grant. That, it turns out, was the easy part. Source: Boston Globe 1/5/11

• Mom’s Voice Plays Special Role in Activating Newborn’s Brain— A mother’s voice will preferentially activate the parts of the brain responsible for language learning, say researchers from the University of Montreal and the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Centre. Source: ScienceDaily 12/10

• TV Watching is Bad for Babies’ Brains Babies who watched 60 min. of TV daily had developmental scores 1/3 lower at 14 months than babies who weren’t watching that much TV. Source: USNews 12/10

• Improving Mothers’ Literacy Skills May be the Best Way to Boost Children’s Achievement.  The researchers based this conclusion on their finding that a mother’s reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors, such as neighborhood and family income. Source: National Institute of Health 10/10

• Urban 8th Graders in MA Face High Drop-Out Rates BOSTON — A new education “early warning system” shows that 36 % of eighth graders in Massachusetts urban public schools are at risk of dropping out of high school. Source: WBUR 11/10

• Educational Videos Drain Baby Brains Videos aimed at improving infant and toddler language skills are not as beneficial for language as they claim to be..Source: Science Now

• Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children Publishers are scaling back on picture books as more parents favor text-heavy chapter books for their young children. Source: New York Times 10/10

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