To delay kindergarten, or not to delay kindergarten: a new study tackles the question
USA Today has thrown a new log on the fire in the debate over whether delaying kindergarten is helpful to children. An article yesterday says nearly a million young children could have been misdiagnosed for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) because they’re simply too young to handle kindergarten. The newspaper had exclusive access to a [...]
Follow children’s lead to help them succeed
The American Center for Children and the Media and Teachers College hosted a fun and provocative discussion this morning between Ellen Galinsky, author of the book Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs and Lisa Guernsey, the director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation. The book [...]
Passionate Republican support for Early Learning Challenge Fund
With a big week looming in health care reform, many questions remain about the fate of President Barack Obama’s early learning initiatives. Susan B. Neuman, a former assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education in former President George W. Bush’s administration, acknowledges in a piece for Roll Call that while her affiliation with the Repulican [...]
Head Start and Teacher Training: An Issue Worth Examining
A recent television report scratched the surface of the many issues journalists ought to start exploring when looking at the planned expansion of the federally funded Early Head Start and Head Start. The story reported on the lack of qualifications of Head Start teachers in Orange County, Florida and noted that many teachers involved in [...]
A Tale of Too Long Hair in Kindergarten
With all the learning and socialization that needs to take place in kindergarten, it’s hard to imagine a school district getting caught up in a struggle over how long a child’s hair can be. It’s even harder to imagine a child being ordered to learn in isolation because of his hair. Yet that’s exactly what [...]
Oklahoma Pre-K in the Spotlight
Following up on the attention paid to the new Bill Gormley study of the effects of the state’s $7,000 per year prekindergarten program I came across this ABC television report from May. It shows the power of television when done well. I particularly liked the video of a kindergartner who had attended pre-k writing letters [...]
Asking The Tough Questions: Why Pre-K Follow-up is Critical
Ann Doss Helms of the Charlotte Observer posed some interesting questions in a Sunday story on Bright Beginnings, a pre-kindergarten program in Charlotte-Mecklenberg schools with a big promise — to transform the lives of at-risk children and help them succeed later on. Her story found the $23 million a year program has not kept its [...]
Better Early Start Urged From Cal State Chancellor
Charles B. Reed, who oversees 46,000 faculty and staff and 450,000 students on 23 California campuses, weighed in on the future of the littlest Californians in an op-ed piece that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News. Reed has his hands full managing young adults at the country’s largest senior system of public higher education. [...]
The Price We Pay
Teachers College Prof. Henry Levin and Clive Belfield of Queens College (formerly of TC) are getting attention for “The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education,” an interesting book they edited that tries to calculate the costs to the economy of school failure. It’s worth checking out because part of it tries [...]
WashPost Jay Mathews on Dropout Solutions
I admire the way Jay Mathews, the Washington Post’s education columnist and reporter, takes on the real stuff of education and does so in a plain-spoken, non-wonky, real-world way that is always interesting. Good example is a column he did focusing on Levin and Belfield’s new book (see previous entry). A book on the economics [...]
