Many students lose knowledge and skills over the long summer break, and research suggests that low-income students fall further behind over the summer than their higher-income peers. Voluntary summer learning programs may provide an opportunity to stem summer learning loss and give struggling students additional learning opportunities. The Wallace…

Prior research has determined that low-income students lose more ground over the summer than their higher-income peers. Prior research has also shown that some summer learning programs can stem this loss, but we do not know whether large, district-run, voluntary programs can improve students' outcomes. To fill this gap, The Wallace Foundation…

Prior research has determined that low-income students lose more ground over the summer than their higher-income peers. Prior research has also shown that some summer learning programs can stem this loss, but we do not know whether large, district-run, voluntary programs can improve students' outcomes. To fill this gap, The Wallace Foundation…

"Free To Grow"--a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)--supported efforts by Head Start agencies and their community partners to strengthen the families and neighborhood environments of high-risk preschool children living in low-income communities. The goal was to reduce the children's vulnerability to substance…

The Wallace Foundation is funding a multiyear demonstration project to determine whether voluntary, district summer learning programs can stem summer learning loss for low-income students. Six districts--Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester, New York--were selected for the demonstration project and…

The 2012 Transmedia Demonstration Stations program study is part of the multiyear CPB-PBS "Ready To Learn" summative evaluation initiative by Education Development Center, Inc., (EDC) and SRI International (SRI). Through a series of related studies, the authors are documenting, and, whenever possible, measuring the impact of PBS KIDS…

MDRC is conducting the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project under a contract with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As part of the multisite Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project, MDRC,…

In 2006-2007 a non-profit reading institute initiated a reading reform programme in the United States in which demonstration classrooms were established in 13 of the lowest performing schools in Mississippi, a state recognised for its high rate of poverty and low academic achievement. This qualitative study describes the experiences of 12 highly…

Recent efforts to improve K-12 educational outcomes have had mixed success. One possible reason is that many students entering kindergarten lack the basic skills to succeed in school. In 2007, with support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Hawai'i launched its P-3 (preschool through third-grade) initiative, the early childhood component of the…

Accessing Curriculum through Technology Tools (ACTTT), a model development project, was developed and tested by staff of the Center for Best Practices in Early Childhood (the Center), a research and development unit within the College of Education and Human Services at Western Illinois University. The major goal of ACTTT was to develop,…

Father involvement enhances children's well-being. A growing body of research supports this conclusion, showing that children with involved fathers exhibit greater school readiness, increased cognitive development, higher levels of empathy, and other positive characteristics (Administration for Children and Families 2004a). Research also indicates…

In February 2007, First 5 LA contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) and its subcontractors, Juarez and Associates, American Institutes for Research (AIR), and Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Center, to conduct the First 5 LA/LAUP Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS). The authors conducted the study…

In commencing this Hearing, the Honorable Michael N. Castle, Chairman, Subcommittee on Education Reform, Committee on Education and the Workforce, states that Head Start is a good program that can be made stronger. He acknowledges that, despite the many success stories in the program, the Subcommittee has also heard troubling stories about program…

The federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) has launched a five-year initiative that will support state efforts to build comprehensive early childhood service systems. This initiative--the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (SECCS) Initiative--provides planning and implementation grants to the state and territory Maternal and…

School and district administrators, as well as policymakers, are increasingly recognizing that early education and intervention services for young children have a direct and positive impact on later school performance and quality of life. But which programs and services should be operated and funded? To answer that question, this book highlights…