Today’s Literacy Headlines

Only 35 percent of America’s 4th graders read proficiently, and access to educational opportunity and literacy in the United States remains overwhelmingly defined by ZIP code, race, socioeconomics, and ethnicity. In failing to set so many students up for future success, we have not only cheated our children, but we have failed our teachers. They have been fighting a constant battle to help their students thrive in a system set up to fail them, generation after generation. Teaching remotely for many months has not lightened those stress loads nor revised the necessary objectives ahead. Here’s an urgent two-point plan to fix what’s been fundamentally broken for generations as we think about what classrooms should look like in the 2021-22 school year ahead and beyond.

Whether a part of online or in-person classes, videos are a teaching tool that can enable students to learn new concepts and skills and engage in practice activities, all at their own pace. What actually happens when students watch instructional videos in class, however, doesn’t always lead to the expected outcome. From my own experience in a classroom and through my interactions with these teachers, I’ve discovered some strategies to help students learn from videos, regardless of the educational setting. It turns out that I had missed a huge step in the learning process. I had never taught my students how to learn from a video. First, think about your objectives for the video.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and libraries last spring, nothing felt the same. But one thing that didn’t change was the curiosity of kids. Even as their lives were upended by the new virus, they wanted to know more about it, and more about the workers who kept the world spinning while the rest of us stayed home. Those who make books for kids felt the same curiosity. While many adults coped with the lockdown by taking up new hobbies or baking bread, some authors and illustrators found that leaning into the situation with creativity was a better fit. A year into the pandemic, those projects are beginning to hit bookshelves. They include everything from hopeful picture books and tributes to scientists and essential workers to historical perspectives on public health.

For many elementary school teachers, teaching students how to read is a central part of the job. But the majority of states don’t evaluate whether prospective teachers have the knowledge they’ll need to teach reading effectively before granting them certification, according to a new analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality. According to NCTQ’s evaluation of state licensure tests for teachers, 20 states use assessments that fully measure candidates’ knowledge of the “science of reading,” referencing the body of research on the most effective methods for teaching young children how to decode text, read fluently, and understand what they’re reading. For special education teachers, a group that regularly works with students with reading difficulties, just 11 states’ certification tests meet this standard.

Digital picture books have been a godsend during the pandemic. With libraries shuttered and bookstores a nonessential trip, many parents have downloaded book after book on tablets and smartphones to keep their little ones reading. But when the pandemic is over, many parents will face a dilemma. Should they revert back to print or stick with e-books? Do kids absorb and learn to read more from one format versus the other? A new analysis of all the research on digital picture books, published in March 2021, helps to answer this question. The answer isn’t clear cut: paper generally has an edge over digital but there are exceptions. Digital books can be a better option with nonfiction texts and for building vocabulary. Some digital storybooks were better; researchers found that certain types of story-related extras seemed to boost a child’s comprehension but they were rare.

April has long been known as “Autism Awareness Month,” but advocates are pushing this time around for a federal designation of the month focused on acceptance instead. The Autism Society of America is spearheading an effort calling on local, state and federal leaders across the nation to name April “Autism Acceptance Month.” The group is seeking support from members of Congress and the White House for the designation. The Autism Society notes that advocates have been using the term “acceptance” over “awareness” for some time, but the government has been slow to adjust. Other groups including Easter Seals and the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities are supporting the effort. “It’s not enough to know that someone has autism, we need to accept and push for inclusion so that individuals can fully participate in our social fabric,” said Christopher Banks, president and CEO of the Autism Society.

Marianne Carus, the German-born, Sorbonne-educated founder of Cricket, the lively and erudite monthly magazine often called “The New Yorker for kids,” died on March 3 at her home in Peru, Ill. She was 92. Ms. Carus began Cricket in 1973 after years of dismay over what she considered the sorry state of children’s reading material, including the books that her own three children brought home from school. “Good literature is literature you cannot put down,” she explained.. “And children for some reason did not get the best literature in the schools or in their homes.”

The history of vaccines is a deserving addition to Don Brown’s Big Ideas That Changed the World graphic nonfiction series, and the arrival of “A Shot in the Arm!” couldn’t be more timely. Narrated by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), this fascinating and enlightening journey takes us around the world and introduces us to a range of scientific superstars of germ theory and vaccination development. One of the book’s shining moments is a clever infographic depiction of how vaccines help antigens more efficiently fight certain pathogens.

The right to be taught how to read is a birthright of all Americans, argues attorney Mark Rosenbaum. And schools have a responsibility to teach them, says reading expert Nell Duke. They are allies in a series of legal cases to try to establish the “right to read,” and they join podcast co-hosts Karin Chenoweth and Tanji Reed Marshall in this second installment of a series of podcasts about reading instruction. (The first was a conversation with reading researcher Alfred Tatum.) Among other things, they discussed the three legal cases Rosenbaum has brought.

After a dreary year spent largely at home in front of the computer, many U.S. children could be looking at summer school—and that’s just what many parents want. Although the last place most kids want to spend summer is in a classroom, experts say that after a year of interrupted study, it’s crucial to do at least some sort of learning over the break, even if it’s not in school and is incorporated into traditional camp offerings. Several governors, including in California, Kansas and Virginia, are pushing for more summer learning. And some states are considering extending their 2021-22 academic year or starting the fall semester early. Many cities, meanwhile, are talking about beefing up their summer school programs, including Los Angeles, Hartford, Connecticut and Atlanta—the latter of which considered making summer school compulsory before settling for strongly recommending that kids who are struggling take part.

As the nation continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and at-home learning continues, there will be a need to help students, especially the nation’s most vulnerable students, complete unfinished learning for weeks, months, and even years to come. Research shows targeted intensive tutoring can help historically underserved students to catch-up to meet high standards. District leaders should follow the research and invest in evidence-based methods to support students to get back on track. Targeted intensive tutoring, often referred to as high-dosage tutoring, consists of having the same tutor to work over an extended period of time (e.g., all year, every school day) on academic skills, such as math or reading.

After making a major shift to remote learning at the beginning of the pandemic, some teachers had to adjust to another unfamiliar environment when their school buildings reopened: teaching students online and in-person at the same time. Engaging, monitoring and supporting two sets of students with very different needs is a complex juggling act that some teachers have described as their biggest challenge ever. From the beginning, it was clear that teachers needed support. The Learning Accelerator interviewed educators around the country in order to develop concrete guidance on the subject and capture and share specific strategies that have helped teachers and students succeed. Here are three pieces of advice from teachers at Personalized Learning Prearatory at Sam Houston Elementary School in Dallas.

For some students, executive functioning challenges are present in school every day, even when there is a consistent and predictable routine. Now imagine the challenges that students with executive functioning deficits encounter when navigating the ever-changing schedule of hybrid learning. The thoughts and frustrations can pile on with inconsistent days, variable schedules, and flexible routines, possibly leading to withdrawal, maladaptive behaviors, and an increased risk of school failure. However, there are solutions and accommodations to decrease undesired behaviors and disorganized thoughts associated with executive functioning challenges in the hybrid learning model.

Book fairs at Lake George (NY) Elementary School are the social event of the year. But after the COVID-19 pandemic moved schools online last March, the Lake George Elementary book fair—like many across the country—was canceled. When the district reopened for in-person learning in the fall, school library media specialist Bridget Crossman wanted to re-create that community engagement. The school library was off-limits to visitors, so Crossman held the book fair outside. During the past year, both Follett and Scholastic Book Fairs were forced to reimagine their models. With Follett’s eFair program, librarians receive curated lists and an array of tools, such as social media posts, email templates, and mailers. Books are sorted and bagged for each student to minimize work for the librarian. Scholastic’s virtual fairs include interactive author and video content. Follett and Scholastic also now ship books directly to families.

As President Biden pushes to get students back in schools, there’s one crucial question: How much social distance is necessary in the classroom? The answer (to that question) has huge consequences for how many students can safely fit into classrooms. Public schools in particular are finding it difficult to accommodate a full return if 6 feet of social distancing is required — a key factor behind many schools offering hybrid schedules that bring students back to the classroom just a few days a week. The CDC’s current guidance for schools recommends seating or desks be “at least 6 feet apart when feasible.” But a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggests that 3 feet may be as safe as 6 feet, so long as everyone is masked. The authors compared infection rates at Massachusetts schools that required at least 3 feet of distancing with those that required at least 6 feet, and found no significant difference in the coronavirus case rates among students or staff in the two cohorts.

With the right support, students who cannot rely on natural speech to communicate can do well in integrated classrooms. Students who cannot rely on speech to be understood don’t have to be educated in segregated classrooms. And for educators who have students who require communication supports, training or preparation doesn’t have to be complex. With schools increasingly educating students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms, educators will likely come across people who need or use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in their classroom as part of a co-teaching model or with assistance from a paraprofessional. Here are four ways educators can prepare for students who need AAC.

In the U.S., an estimated 15 percent of children ages 3 to 17 have developmental delays or disabilities; in children’s first years, some of these delays may be evident in late acquisition of skills like crawling, walking and talking. Research shows that early help from experts in the form of speech, physical or occupational therapy and support from pediatric specialists can have profound results for children and often help them meet the same milestones as their peers. In some cases, infants and toddlers who get early support make so much progress they no longer need services or qualify for special education when they start school. Now, the pandemic has forced in-person therapies for infants and toddlers online and onto devices, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some experts say remote therapy for young children has returned early intervention to an important piece its original mission: training parents to be experts who can support their children’s development.

Five educators share strategies for introducing primary sources to students, including English-language learners.

Children’s book creator LeUyen Pham remembers the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as a time of contrasts and confusion. Unanswerable questions swirled everywhere. So Pham did what authors do. She wrote. At first she wrote without a plan, observing what she saw in her neighborhood and in the world. Soon, a pattern emerged. A juxtaposition between what was happening outside and inside, both literally and figuratively. It was almost like a nursery rhyme, said Pham, who has illustrated more than 100 books and was a 2020 Caldecott honoree. Within months, she turned her jotted-down ideas into the text and art for Outside, Inside, a picture book published in January. The book never says words like “coronavirus” or “quarantine,” yet through digitally illustrated scenes of families, workers and neighborhoods pulled from real life in 2020, it’s a literary time capsule that can help kids and adults reflect on their experiences during the pandemic.

A study by researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) provides new evidence about the pandemic’s impact on learning among students in the earliest grades, showing distinct changes in the growth of basic reading skills during different time periods over the past year. Results from a reading assessment given to first- through fourth-graders nationwide show that the students’ development of oral reading fluency – the ability to quickly and accurately read aloud – largely stopped in spring 2020 after the abrupt school closures brought on by COVID-19. Gains in these skills were stronger in fall 2020, but not enough to recoup the loss students experienced in the spring.

Everyone is worried about the year of lost learning but there’s less consensus among politicians and policymakers on what to do about it. Proposals are circulating for summer school, afterschool, remedial instruction, giving students an extra year of school and a somewhat fuzzy concept of “acceleration.” Yet some of the strongest research evidence points to an intensive type of tutoring as a way to help children catch up. Education researchers call it “high-dosage” tutoring and it has produced big achievement gains for students in studies when the tutoring occurs every day or almost every day. In the research literature, the tutors are specially trained and coached, adhere to a detailed curriculum and work with one or two students at a time. The best results occur when the tutoring takes place at school during the ordinary school day.

Many authors and illustrators have provided access to their work and engaged with children remotely, allowing deeper connections to form between creator and mentor, child and text. Through recorded read-alouds, students can listen to authors read their own texts. Through virtual visits to schools and recorded interviews, authors and illustrators give students an opportunity to ask questions about the texts they are studying, writerly processes, and craft moves. With growing access to texts and their creators across multiple platforms, mentor texts can be selected with responsiveness to students and their communities.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), signed into law by President Joe Biden on Thursday, includes billions in funding for public education, libraries, early childhood programs, and internet connectivity resources. There is nearly $130 for K-12 schools, much of it earmarked for helping to safely open school buildings. The bill also allocates more than $1 billion for summer enrichment and after school programs, as well as $3 billion for education technology. Child Care and Development Block Grants and Stabilization Fund will receive $39 billion and Head Start programs $1 billion, both of which present partnership opportunities for libraries.

Most school leaders expect the 2021-22 school year will be largely in person. Now they’re planning supports for students to make up for the harmful academic and social impacts of the last year. Among the ideas: increasing summer learning opportunities and other ways of extending learning time. In theory, school districts nationwide will have much more funding than they usually do to spend on these efforts. The Biden Administration’s COVID-19 recovery bill directs more than $122 billion to states and school districts. Districts must spend at least a fifth of their share to address learning loss. The law specifically name-checks summer learning, extended-day programs, comprehensive after-school programs, and extended school-year programs as evidence-based approaches to try—even as mounting research suggests that it’s a fifth strategy, sustained tutoring programs integrated into the regular school day, that seems to produce the largest results.

[Video] Though it can seem daunting, getting students outdoors for even 30 minutes offers many benefits, during the pandemic and beyond. This checklist can help get you started.

Shelby County Schools officials are moving forward with a plan to hold back for a year second grade students who are behind in reading. The district will put the policy in place just before a new state law mandates retention of third graders lagging in reading. The school board approved the policy in 2019 to begin this fall and set the stage by tracking students’ reading skills throughout the school year and improving reading instruction. Educators consider third grade a critical year. Students who aren’t proficient by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school, research says. The Memphis district is trying to boost struggling students before they reach that year.

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation announced the winners of the 2021 Ezra Jack Keats Awards this week. The winner of the writer award is Tricia Elam Walker for Nana Akua Goes to School. Heidi Woodward Sheffield won the award for illustrator for Brick by Brick, which she also wrote. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the awards, given to early-career creators whose work depicts the multicultural world in the spirit of Keats, the author and illustrator of the Caldecott-winning The Snowy Day.

Norton Juster, who wrote one of children’s literature’s most beloved and enduring books, “The Phantom Tollbooth,” died on Monday at his home in Northampton, Mass. He was 91. “The Phantom Tollbooth,” first published in 1961, is the story of a bored boy named Milo who, when a tollbooth inexplicably appears in his room, passes through it into a land of whimsy, wordplay and imagination. The book was illustrated by the man Mr. Juster shared a duplex with at the time, Jules Feiffer, who was early in his renowned career as a cartoonist and author. It has sold almost five million copies, has been reissued multiple times and was turned into an animated film and a stage musical.

A former special education teacher shares how to identify and support struggling readers in middle and high school — even in a remote learning environment. The reasons that students remain struggling readers in middle and high school are frequently based on myths and misconceptions. The first big myth, based on reading assessment measures, is that comprehension is the problem. The majority of reading assessments and standardized tests for older students focus on reading comprehension measures without determining gaps in the essential components that lead to comprehension: decoding, fluency, and vocabulary. A low comprehension score doesn’t tell teachers what they need to know to intervene, yet the proposed solution is often more reading “strategies.” This is generally unsuccessful because, as stated by Dr. Anita Archer, “There is no reading strategy powerful enough to compensate for the fact that you can’t read the words.”

Reading books aloud to children stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding of the world. It helps them develop language and listening skills and prepares them to understand the written word and then be able to write, often considered to be the highest form of critical thinking. The Reading Group, a collaborative working group of Opportunity Santa Fe, an initiative of the Santa Fe Community Foundation, is guided by the phrase “learning to read, reading to learn.” Made up of people from multiple educational organizations within the city and state, one of this year’s projects is dedicated to developing home libraries. This fall, we were awarded a Molina Foundation “Families Learning Together” grant of 55,000 books and magazines for children and young people valued at more than $400,000.

Bobby is a sixth grader at North Brookfield Elementary School in western Massachusetts. He’s crazy about the Loch Ness monster. He’s into math and Minecraft. And he likes online learning. “It’s a lot easier to focus,” he says. “I can be in my room and be a lot more comfortable doing stuff.” President Biden has said that his goal is to have the majority of K-8 schools operating in-person by the end of his first 100 days in office. That’s a welcome goal for the many parents who worry about their children falling behind while learning virtually during the coronavirus pandemic. But some are realizing that their children do better in online school. By most accounts, it’s the case for students who focus better when they are not around classmates.

It started with the closure of a single high school in Washington state on Feb. 27, 2020. A school employee’s relative had gotten sick and tested positive for the coronavirus. The school underwent a deep cleaning and reopened two days later. One month later, nearly every school building in the United States was shut down, an unfathomable moment. Schools scrambled to stand up a remote learning program—some virtual, some by passing out packets of learning materials. Now, one year in, most of America’s schoolchildren still are not back in classrooms full-time, learning from teachers standing in front of them. From the arrival of the coronavirus in the U.S. to the growing wave of teachers receiving their first doses of a vaccine, here’s a look at how a full year of living and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded.

One year after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered classrooms around the country and the world, U.S. parents are guardedly optimistic about the academic and social development of their children, an NPR/Ipsos poll finds. But 62% of parents say their child’s education has been disrupted. And more than 4 out of 5 would like to see schools provide targeted extra services to help their kids catch up. This includes just over half of parents who support the idea of summer school. Fully 29% of parents told us they were likely to stick with remote learning indefinitely. That included about half of the parents who are currently enrolled in remote learning. Perhaps in response to this interest, many schools, states and districts are looking at continuing to offer a remote public school option, districtwide or even statewide to make it more efficient.

As educators, how do we build literacy-rich environments to grow happy readers? After years of achievement roadblocks, Yorkville Grade School, a Title 1 elementary school in a consolidated unit district 50 miles west of Chicago, made a shared decision to place growing happy readers at the top of the priority list. We refocused on books, and students rediscovered book joy. This unified centering on books, choice, and voice can transform the way a school lives and breathes. Here are some tips that can help you and your school grow happy readers.

How might we truly personalize instruction and blow up the whole notion of “grade levels” so that elementary students can learn at their own pace, and get what they need as they recover from the pandemic? So that, every single day, every single pupil experiences just the right amount of challenge without feeling either bored on the one hand or overwhelmed on the other? And in a way that ensures that the farthest-behind kids don’t stay that way, but make it back to grade level within a reasonable amount of time? These are great questions, but there are no easy answers. If there were, every school in America would be doing personalized learning already. But for elementary-age children especially, it’s really quite hard to figure out how to let them “move at their own pace.”

Because English learners are far from monolithic, it’s dangerous to paint them with one brush, especially when it comes to teaching reading. It is critical that we consider students first, before considering content. It’s also important that language acquisition be addressed in balance with reading instruction. All states have language standards to support linguistic development. ELs may not have had the same opportunities with English as native English speakers, but they have other experiences with language, including speaking and hearing another language since birth. And in addition to language, students enter classrooms with backgrounds and experiences that influence their ability to read. Additional factors come into play when teaching reading to English learners. If a child has already “cracked the code” in their first language (L1)—so that they understand the connections between sounds and symbols—reading instruction will differ from that of a child who has not yet cracked the code in their L1.

In the fall of 2020, amid the pandemic, I held weekly virtual writers workshops with two small groups of young authors (6- to 8-year-olds and 9- to 12-year-olds) from all over the U.S. and across Canada. Participating students spoke English, Spanish, and French in the home, presented neurotypically and with neurodiversities, and varied in their motivation to write. The time we spent together was not about teaching any prescriptive form of writing or preparing for standardized writing assessments. Instead, I hoped to cultivate authoring joy while connecting virtually across country and state lines. This remote learning workshop shone a light on the need for writing circles. Time spent in writing circles facilitates strong communities, gives students a lift, and reinforces the need for authentic communication. An online writing group—which could be adapted for in person learning—builds confidence in students’ ability to express their ideas.

Texas educators are going back to class to learn how to best teach children to read. As part of House Bill 3 that passed in the last legislative session, teachers in certain grades are required to participate in reading academies. Reading academies are “year-long, intensive, job-embedded trainings and coaching fellowships aligned to the science of teaching reading,” according to the report. “With HB 3, every teacher in grades K-3 and every principal is required to attend a reading academy by 2022-23. Reading academies have the potential to be the most effective reform to improve literacy outcomes for students in Texas.” Reading Interventionist Amanda Childress at Johnston-McQueen Elementary School in Longview ISD is participating in the training virtually. Though she has an extensive background in teaching reading, Childress said the program can still help educators. The program is doing a great job teaching the science of reading, Childress said.

The business that manages Dr. Seuss’ work and legacy said today that it plans to stop publishing six of the author’s children’s books, due to racist stereotypes and offensive content in the stories. The decision, announced on the author’s birthday, which schools have long celebrated, could have big consequences for many classrooms and libraries. Dr. Seuss, who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel, remains a beloved staple in the early reading canon—despite growing concerns about racist and xenophobic tropes embedded throughout his books written for young kids. But Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which advocates against banning books, said this isn’t exactly censorship. Librarians have several options in situations like this, Caldwell-Stone said: They can keep the book in circulation, they could move it to a research collection, or they could weed it out altogether. “Often, the decision is to keep the book in the collection, but it may not be surfaced in storytimes or displays,” she said. How libraries approach the Dr. Seuss books is going to differ, she said, based on individual guidelines for collection curation and community demand for certain books.

[Just] confirmed as the 12th U.S. secretary of education, Dr. Cardona rose through a public school system where he eventually returned to pay it forward – as teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and Connecticut state education commissioner. He built a reputation along the way as an inclusive leader who remembers his roots – a unifier whose leadership, colleagues say, lies in his profound ability to collaborate, juggling competing views like he used to juggle worlds as a native Spanish-speaker in mostly white Meriden. Education secretaries may not run schools directly, but they can set a tone. And, steering clear of an ideological divide within the Democratic party, the Biden administration choice of Dr. Cardona as a conciliatory tone-setter was a smart move, says Jonathan Zimmerman, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Fierce divisions seem to drive a wedge into so much of American life at this moment and how we view government. Now a prominent team of educators says one part of the solution likely starts with what’s being taught in our schools. They’re out with a new plan that calls for revamping history and civics classes in schools. This approach, they say, can be both patriotic and reckon with difficult legacies. The goal is to engage students in a process of inquiry, working with primary sources to really help them dig into a broad understanding that integrates perspectives. Harvard Professor Danielle Allen, a principal investigator for the group Educating For American Democracy project, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

Six Dr. Seuss books — including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” — will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said. “These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises told The Associated Press in a statement that coincided with the late author and illustrator’s birthday. “Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” it said. As adored as Dr. Seuss is by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way Blacks, Asians and others are drawn in some of his most beloved children’s books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations.

The creator of the extraordinarily popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series has been one of the few children’s book authors to host in-person events throughout the pandemic, even if they weren’t his usual raucous affairs. For Kinney, virtual events are just not enough. “I have to see kids,” he said. “I’m not embarrassed to say it’s a psychological need.” The socially distanced author visit has become a mainstay of Kinney’s schedule. Early in the pandemic, he would sit in a chair on the sidewalk and put his books into passing cars with a nine-foot grabber. By October, he had upped his game with the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End” Drive-Thru Pool Party Tour. Families would stay in their cars and drive through an elaborate series of stages, tunnels and tents, complete with an underwater vignette, a tiki hut and a lifeguard dunk tank. Kinney ended the pool party by delivering signed copies of his book with a six-foot pool skimmer. All attendees were required to wear masks and stay in their cars.

In the fall and winter of 2020, New America embarked on a snapshot study to gather data on how—or if—people were discovering, accessing, and using their public libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on materials that libraries made available online. Our findings, which include data from a national survey of 2,620 people, highlight the need for more inclusivity, more focus on providing internet access, and more awareness-raising initiatives with local organizations and schools. The stories in this report—of libraries developing mobile Wi-Fi options, creating digital navigator programs to support digital literacy, launching more online programs, and making use of outdoor spaces—show the possibilities of transformation and partnership. The report concludes with eight recommendations for investment in library transformations, expansion of policies such as E-Rate and the Emergency Broadband Benefit to provide better internet access at home, and more collaboration with local schools and organizations.

When Marilyn Pryle, a teacher in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, began scheduling silent reading time for her ninth- and 10th-grade students during the first 10 minutes of each class, it became “one of the most profound and rewarding shifts in classroom teaching I have made in my career,” she writes for MiddleWeb. Now, instead of skimming entire books at the last minute, Pryle’s students “read, and can’t stop reading,” she writes. “They often finish their books in two weeks, or less. They want to know what will happen, so they read during study hall, at home, and during our classes.” It’s a shift that Pryle, who is an author and last year’s Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, believes reinforces what many educators already know: if we want students to read—perhaps even grow to love reading—time for in-class reading needs to be prioritized in the school day.

Many districts, including the one where I work, are making plans to begin teaching in the physical classroom after being fully online since last March. Teacher vaccinations and decreasing COVID-19 infection rates in the community are now making that move a possibility. Many schools are considering an option that has several names—concurrent, hybrid, hyflex—and most include teaching students who are in our physical classroom at the same time we are teaching some who are online. What better way to learn how to do this kind of teaching than from those who have been at it for months?

I understand that Theodor Seuss Geisel was a product of his times. But racism, bigotry, and hatred should never be celebrated, even in the writing of some of our most celebrated authors. As the country gears up for National Read Across America Day on Tuesday, Dr. Seuss’ birthday, I want to encourage school districts across the state, including the Cobb County School District (where my son is a student), administrators, and teachers to truly reconsider and maybe even do away with its emphasis on Dr. Seuss. Instead, let us use this day to broaden our literary repertoire and dig into stories and children’s books that highlight diverse characters, that illuminate diverse authors, and that truly allow our students—all of our students—to see themselves reflected in healthy, positive, and uplifting ways.

Twenty percent fewer kindergartners are on track to learn how to read than their peers were at this time last year, and most haven’t made much progress since the fall, according to new assessment data released Wednesday. Thirty-seven percent of this year’s kindergartners are on-track in early reading skills, compared to 55 percent during the 2019-20 school year, just prior to the pandemic. Among first graders, 43 percent are on target, compared to 58 percent last year. “Teachers are working hard. They’re doing what they can,” said Paul Gazzerro, director of data analysis at Amplify, a K-8 curriculum provider that collected the data from about 400,000 students across 1,400 schools in 41 states. “We’re just not seeing the bounce back that we’re hoping for.” While all students are performing worse than they would have in a normal year, the gaps are especially pronounced for Black and Hispanic students. The results provide further evidence of the crushing effect school closures have had on young children’s early reading development — to the point they might not catch up, Gazzerro said. Amplify’s experts, however, said that while teachers tend to resort to lower-level instruction when children fall behind, it’s important to “double down” with grade-level material and that K-1 provides a key window to close the gap.

Hands-on learning strategies help English language learners participate in discussions—whether in-person or online. In Mary Modaff’s third-grade classroom, Amina, an immigrant from Bosnia, was demonstrating a push caused by air to her classmates. As she placed a paper airplane in front of a hair dryer, she told her classmates over video, “It goes there, and there, with one. Push.” Mary had the class watch the video again, this time pausing after Amina’s words. She asked, “Who can build on Amina’s claim? What is her evidence that there is one push?” Students talked about her clip, in the chat and out loud. Amina, often hesitant and shy in the whole group, was radiantly, keenly present. Mary was creating virtual interaction between students by bringing together home and school experiences to develop language skills and science understanding. She aligned her teaching to the new vision of the 2020 English Language Development Standards from WIDA, already recommended for adoption in Wisconsin and poised for adoption in all 40 states in the WIDA Consortium.

As parents home-schooling during the Covid epidemic have discovered, explaining science to kids is hard. It can expose the deficiencies in our own understanding — what exactly is a gene anyway? — or leave us unable to communicate what we do know, in language accessible to young children. (How do you define DNA for someone who doesn’t know what a molecule is?) These are problems that authors, illustrators and editors of children’s science books wrestle with all the time. The solutions they have found have never been more varied or creative, offering many routes into the world of science for all sorts of young readers, and their grown-ups.

A year ago, the kindergartners learning English in Tanya Gan Lim’s class were thriving. Back then, she’d bring in props and pictures to help her students learn the language and sound out words. Then she’d lavish them with praise, even if they stumbled, to build their confidence. Lim teaches in Prince George’s County Public Schools, just outside Washington, D.C. She is used to planning every minute of class, but that’s harder to do now that class time is punctuated with frozen screens, garbled audio and children wandering away from the camera. Sometimes, her kindergartners don’t have supplies. Lim, a former English learner herself, says it is harder to build relationships and engage her students virtually. And Lim worries about her students when they go to their regular, online classes for the rest of the day. “In the mainstream classrooms, they feel shy, they don’t want to talk, they don’t want to make mistakes,” she says.

In every classroom I’ve taught in, I have created space to engage children in the histories of Black people. But I found myself still looking for more communities and outlets for this celebration and research over the years. To solve the problem, I created a Black history club. I wanted to share what I know about the accomplishments, beauty, struggles, successes, determination, activism, fight, injustices, and persistence of Black people with elementary-age students who will go on to share it with others. The kids meet every Thursday to talk about Black histories they’ve found and want to explore. For an hour every week, they discuss everything from defining what Black history is to wondering who the Black Panthers are to learning about the origins of hip-hop. This didn’t happen overnight or after one meeting. It has taken time and space to create opportunities for them to be who they say they are: young historians. The recipe for creating a young historian is pretty simple. It takes just five ingredients—resources, time, opportunities, space, and students—and a bit of preparation.

Mo Willems became a quarantine hero with his live videos teaching kids to doodle. A year later, the children’s author and illustrator is preparing for a one-year anniversary “Lunch Doodle with Mo Willems” on March 15 — and introducing kids to a new kind of art. Willems’ next book, “Opposites Abstract,” was inspired by his work as education artist-in-residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C. With “Opposites Abstract,” Willems colorfully illustrates concepts like dark and light and hard and soft. He hopes this different kind of art will inspire kids.

The day will come when all teachers return to the classroom for hybrid or full in-person learning. If you are one of the many early childhood teachers taking first steps back into the classroom after teaching remotely, you may be wondering how you will establish routines, set up norms, and strive to create a community mid-year. Here’s a look at how one first grade teacher creates routines and fosters a safe, nurturing environment for her students.

Central to turning around public education in Detroit—a city that has suffered from crushing debt, contracting student enrollment, and cratering student achievement—is reengaging the parents who had been largely cut out of district decision-making. That’s the bet that Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and Assistant Superintendent of Family and Community Engagement Sharlonda Buckman have made. Their initiatives have focused on bringing families back into the district fold by giving them a voice in how the school system goes about improving education and the resources to support their children’s schooling.

As someone who has spent 27+ years buying books for public libraries, I have always been astounded by how hard it is particularly to find titles about and by Native voices. And when you ask people about Native representation that typically refer to Westerns, Little House on the Prairie, or The Indian in the Cupboard, all of which rely on harmful stereotypes and most of which are not in any way, shape or form written by someone who is tribally enrolled in a Native tribe. None of these titles are good representation and many of them are, in fact, harmful representation. So I was very excited to hear that author Cynthia Leitich Smith would be starting her own publishing imprint called Heartdrum. Smith is herself a Muscogee Creek author and has been long active in the publishing business, so she is the perfect person to head up an initiative like this.

Reading aloud daily demonstrates a commitment to literacy in an authentic and nonthreatening way. When students see teachers sharing literacy in this way, it allows them to simply enjoy a good book. Too often, children view reading as an arduous task because teachers have coupled reading with comprehension questions at the end of each chapter. Modeling reading strategies is a great way for educators to demonstrate what good readers do when they don’t know a word, understand a plot twist, or agree with a character in the story (even if they really do). Read-alouds promote student choice and leadership. Before starting a new novel, students can nominate books that interest them. This allows teachers to ensure that students are exposed to books that have characters that look like them, or it can challenge students to consider the perspectives of others who are different.

We have two daughters, one in fourth grade, the other in second. Our fourth grader, whom I’ll refer to as “Em,” loves reading. She stays up late to finish a chapter of whatever series she’s enjoying at the moment, and is always eager to search for the next installment online. Our second grader, “Tess,” is the opposite. She’s at the point now where she can sound out most words, but getting her to do the nightly reading assigned by her teacher is torture, and any time we suggest that she read by herself, she refuses. She’d rather play dress-up. I feel like we did right by her sister but failed her! How do we encourage Tess to be more interested in reading?

A glimpse into the lives of six New York City third graders reveals that remote learning can feel discouraging and difficult for students and their caregivers, but it can also include moments of joy and connection. Third graders occupy a gray area when it comes to managing remote learning independently. While many can navigate devices more easily than those in younger grades, others have some difficulty, and reading can still pose significant barriers. As a result, these students’ days are largely intertwined with their caregivers — in these six cases, their mothers. These moms spend hours supporting and worrying about their children, grappling with how hands on they can or should be, while perhaps juggling other children and, in several cases, their own jobs.

Most picture books are recommended for kids ages 4 to 8. That’s already too narrow. But picture books are tossed out even faster since many schools expect kids to read by the end of kindergarten. Don’t let this happen. First, appreciate what picture books, the real wizards of the literary world, do. With remarkable economy, they excel at the twin arts of visual and textual storytelling. Anyone who has ever read a picture book to a child has witnessed this magic firsthand. You’ll be reading along aloud and the child will laugh, not at anything you’ve read but at something she has read in the pictures. While you are reading one story, told in words, she is reading another, told through art. The illustrator doesn’t merely reflect the words on the page; she creates an entire narrative of her own, adding details, creating secondary story lines.