Latest news with #EarlyChildhoodLongitudinalStudy
New York Times
2 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Bolster the Building Blocks of Kindergarten
To the Editor: Re 'Expectations for Kindergarten Have Risen, Putting Boys at a Disadvantage,' by Claire Cain Miller (The Upshot, June 9): When kindergarten-age children — both boys and girls — get to build with blocks, paint, sing, playact, construct things and ask their urgent real-world questions ('How do squirrels balance like that?'), they are successful in school. A kindergarten curriculum should meet their needs. Right now, it's reversed. Children are expected to meet the stated goals of an imposed curriculum. No wonder boys rebel. Children flourish when they are taught in ways that engage their active bodies and inquisitive minds and encourage their participation in group life. That's the best preparation for a full, happy and productive future, as well as the best preparation for first grade. Julie DiamondNew YorkThe writer is a retired kindergarten teacher and the author of 'Kindergarten: A Teacher, Her Students and a Year of Learning.' To the Editor: We're able to see and understand the educational challenges explored in this article only because of national data sources like the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten. Yet shockingly, as the article points out, DOGE recently canceled the latest study, cutting off what would have been our first national look at the educational attainment of post-pandemic kindergartners, following them up as first- and third-graders. This study delivers the only national longitudinal data we have on young children's development, learning, readiness and educational experiences. It informs what children know when they enter school, helps diagnose where and why students are falling behind, and ensures that public dollars go to strategies that actually work. Without studies like this, federal policymakers, state authorities and school communities are at a significant disadvantage — working hard to strengthen early childhood education and set students on a path to success, but without all the information needed to guide smart, targeted improvements. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Education researchers struggle to pick up the pieces after Trump cuts
The educational research community is looking to pick up the pieces after the Trump administration has canceled dozens of studies and ended hundreds of jobs. In line with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hundreds of federal contracts have been canceled with education research groups, accused by the administration of either being useless or simply too 'woke.' Longitudinal studies on early childhood education and artificial intelligence literacy are among those that have taken significant hits. The industry has not given up on the prospect of future collaboration with the Trump White House but fears the long-term effects the cuts could have as teachers are already struggling with learning loss and sinking test scores. 'We've had a number of projects canceled, including some very long-standing research projects, namely the Regional Education Labs that WestEd has been part of for almost its entire history, so 59 years,' said Jannelle Kubinec, CEO of WestEd, adding studies relating to reading, chronic absenteeism and math and numeracy have also been terminated. 'In some cases, those are just suspended, and we're asking ourselves, what's next? I think the end of these came quite abruptly. So, we didn't have a transition plan in place,' Kubinec added. The Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences, its research arm, faced $900 million in cuts under DOGE's directive, decimating employment both in the agency and among other research groups whose workers relied on federal contracts. The Department of Education said the contracts failed to focus on student achievement and were rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) directives. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which has been conducted in 1998, 2011 and began in 2023 to follow kindergarteners through third grade, was abruptly put on hold amid the contract cancelations. 'I think they were actually with the field staff to go out and begin collecting information on first graders' when the contract was canceled, said Rachel Dinkes, president and CEO of Knowledge Alliance. 'We are probably past the point of being able to collect information on the first grade cohort, which is really the first national look at a generation of young children post-pandemic.' If things can get turned around, Dinkes said, they are 'not too late to collect information on them in third grade.' An analysis from Grant Watch of which words were found the most in the terminated grants discovered projects with 'Black' in the description or title were most frequently eliminated, The Hechinger Report reported. Other words commonly used in the canceled contracts were 'climate,' 'student,' 'network,' 'justice,' 'identity,' 'teacher' and 'undergraduate.' 'Across the board, we're really talking about a complete capacity downsize. It's people, it's money, it's spaces, it's resources. So, it's definitely a lot all at once […] Outside of contract cancelations and risk, a lot of the harm is yet to come,' said Jinann Bitar, higher education research and data analytics at EdTrust. Along with interruptions in longer studies, the turbulence in the field has led to hesitation in researchers wanting to start a career in this area, as there are few safe spaces for the studies left. 'This is going to be gut-stopping for current researchers, but it's actually going to be almost impossible to overcome for early-career researchers if they don't have anywhere stable to be in the meantime on their research,' said Bitar. Kubinec said there are 'some opportunities through philanthropy' for funding that his and other organizations are pursuing, but that it's 'not like funding education research is top of mind for most foundations.' And, as in several other areas of the federal government, the DOGE cuts are being challenged in court, though definitive relief, if it ever comes, is a long way off. The most recent point of excitement among the community came with the Education Department's hiring of Amber Northern, senior adviser to the education secretary with a focus on reforming the Institute of Education Sciences. 'I think we'll have a lot more knowledge of the direction of the department after she assumes this role,' said Dinkes, noting many groups are looking forward to meeting her. 'She is a very thoughtful researcher, and I'm excited for her to start there and see where this story continues to go,' she added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Education researchers struggle to pick up the pieces after Trump cuts
The educational research community is looking to pick up the pieces after the Trump administration has canceled dozens of studies and ended hundreds of jobs. In line with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hundreds of federal contracts have been canceled with education research groups, accused by the administration of either being useless or simply too 'woke.' Longitudinal studies on early childhood education and artificial intelligence literacy are among those that have taken significant hits. The industry has not given up on the prospect of future collaboration with the Trump White House but fears the long-term effects the cuts could have as teachers are already struggling with learning loss and sinking test scores. 'We've had a number of projects canceled, including some very long-standing research projects, namely the Regional Education Labs that WestEd has been part of for almost its entire history, so 59 years,' said Jannelle Kubinec, CEO of WestEd, adding studies relating to reading, chronic absenteeism and math and numeracy have also been terminated. 'In some cases, those are just suspended, and we're asking ourselves, what's next? I think the end of these came quite abruptly. So, we didn't have a transition plan in place,' Kubinec added. The Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences, its research arm, faced $900 million in cuts under DOGE's directive, decimating employment both in the agency and among other research groups whose workers relied on federal contracts. The Department of Education said the contracts failed to focus on student achievement and were rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) directives. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which has been conducted in 1998, 2011 and began in 2023 to follow kindergarteners through third grade, was abruptly put on hold amid the contract cancelations. 'I think they were actually with the field staff to go out and begin collecting information on first graders' when the contract was canceled, said Rachel Dinkes, president and CEO of Knowledge Alliance. 'We are probably past the point of being able to collect information on the first grade cohort, which is really the first national look at a generation of young children post-pandemic.' If things can get turned around, Dinkes said, they are 'not too late to collect information on them in third grade.' An analysis from Grant Watch of which words were found the most in the terminated grants discovered projects with 'Black' in the description or title were most frequently eliminated, The Hechinger Report reported. Other words commonly used in the canceled contracts were 'climate,' 'student,' 'network,' 'justice,' 'identity,' 'teacher' and 'undergraduate.' 'Across the board, we're really talking about a complete capacity downsize. It's people, it's money, it's spaces, it's resources. So, it's definitely a lot all at once […] Outside of contract cancelations and risk, a lot of the harm is yet to come,' said Jinann Bitar, higher education research and data analytics at EdTrust. Along with interruptions in longer studies, the turbulence in the field has led to hesitation in researchers wanting to start a career in this area, as there are few safe spaces for the studies left. 'This is going to be gut-stopping for current researchers, but it's actually going to be almost impossible to overcome for early-career researchers if they don't have anywhere stable to be in the meantime on their research,' said Bitar. Kubinec said there are 'some opportunities through philanthropy' for funding that his and other organizations are pursuing, but that it's 'not like funding education research is top of mind for most foundations.' And, as in several other areas of the federal government, the DOGE cuts are being challenged in court, though definitive relief, if it ever comes, is a long way off. The most recent point of excitement among the community came with the Education Department's hiring of Amber Northern, senior adviser to the education secretary with a focus on reforming the Institute of Education Sciences. 'I think we'll have a lot more knowledge of the direction of the department after she assumes this role,' said Dinkes, noting many groups are looking forward to meeting her. 'She is a very thoughtful researcher, and I'm excited for her to start there and see where this story continues to go,' she added.
Boston Globe
31-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Why boys are behind in school from the start
But over the last two decades, as those gaps have narrowed, the gender gaps have become more consequential. Kindergarten has become significantly more academic because of a national law passed in 2001, with children expected to spend more time sitting still and learning math and reading — and many boys do not enter with the skills to meet those expectations. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Adding to that, childhood has changed in recent years in ways that could have set back boys further. The isolation of the pandemic delayed young children's development, parents are increasingly stressed, and children are spending more time on screens. These factors affect all children, but they may have been particularly hard on boys, who scientists have shown are more vulnerable to hardship. Related : Advertisement Taken together, these changes set boys on a disadvantaged path throughout school. Jayanti Owens, who studies inequality in schools at the Yale School of Management, has found that boys' behavior at ages 4 and 5 predicted the amount of schooling they finished by their mid-20s. Advertisement Skills build on themselves, so children who don't master kindergarten phonics or counting could remain behind in future grades. And children who struggle with academics or behavior risk developing negative perceptions of themselves as learners. 'That instigates a cycle where a boy doesn't think, 'I'm smart,' doesn't think, 'I'm good at school,' and if you're told enough times that you're not good at what the teacher is expecting of you, you start to manifest that,' Owens said. Two first grade students work on a computer exercise in a dual language classroom at Alfred J. Gomes Elementary School in New Bedford, Mass., on May 9. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Kindergarten readiness data show that many children enter unprepared. But consistently, fewer boys are ready than girls, by about 10 percentage points. The newest national data come from the federal government's National Survey of Children's Health, which since 2016 has included a survey of parents of children ages 3 to 5. It asks such questions as how many letters children can identify, how long they can focus on a task and how often they lose their temper. In 2022 and 2023 combined, 58 percent of boys and 71 percent of girls were considered on track. Some states test children at the beginning of kindergarten and generally find that fewer than half of students are ready for kindergarten, and often only about a third of boys. Test scores from Ohio show how big a role race and family income also play in kindergarten readiness. White girls were most likely to be ready, and Hispanic boys least likely. Just over half of children from economically stable families were prepared, but only a quarter from low-income families. Advertisement Perhaps the most comprehensive study, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, gathers information from children, parents, and teachers, and follows children over time. It has found that when children start school, cognitive gaps are small — slightly favoring girls in reading and boys in math — but that gaps in skills like studiousness, persistence, and self-control are bigger. (Data about the latest cohort of children in the study, which is conducted by the Education Department, have not been released, and a contract for the study was canceled by the Trump administration.) Related : Researchers at the University of Virginia compared kindergarten in 2010 and 1998. They found that in just over a decade, teachers had allocated much more time to academic subjects and desk work, and less time to art, music, and activities like blocks or dramatic play. The share who said students should learn to read in kindergarten increased to 80 percent from 31 percent. Amanda Nehring, a kindergarten teacher in Crystal Lake, Ill., said the expectations for kindergartners had become more like what had been asked of first or second graders. Third grade students work on a problem at the Brooke Roslindale Charter School, in August 2023. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff She's had to give up playtime for math and literacy because that's what students are tested on. But some students, often boys, now struggle so much that support staffers pull them out of class for 'movement breaks.' In report cards in May, she had to record whether students could write the alphabet with a pencil. Nearly all the girls could, but just a quarter of the boys. Yet they knew their letters, she said, and could build them with Play-Doh or write them with a crayon. 'It's not that they don't get it,' Nehring said. 'Boys are just as capable, but we don't provide them with the means to show this.' Advertisement Faced with these pressures, some teachers seem to have less tolerance for boys' behaviors, researchers said. They rate boys below girls -- even when they perform similarly on tests or exhibit the same behaviors, and especially if they are Black or Hispanic. And since the pandemic, children are entering kindergarten with fewer skills than before. Young boys' development seems to have been particularly affected. A big change is increased time spent on screens. While it affects all young children, kindergarten teachers said that boys are having more trouble than ever paying attention. Nehring has always rewarded her class with pajama and movie days — but in recent years, she said, kindergartners had lost the ability to sit through a movie. 'They only want quick little YouTube shorts or TikTok,' she said. 'You get 10 minutes max. We had to show 'Encanto' in three parts. It's boys and girls, but much more often my boys are the first to go.' Researchers say there are ways to support young boys. Starting them in kindergarten a year later could help close gender gaps in maturity. Male kindergarten teachers could be role models who know what it's like to be a boy in school. A powerful way to help boys — and girls too — is to bring back more play into the early years of school, because it's how young children learn best, researchers and teachers said. Movement, music, time outside, games with peers and activities like puzzles all help children build skills like self-regulation and executive function. Play-based preschool has been shown to shrink gender gaps. Advertisement Pat Shaw, the director of a bilingual preschool in Davidson, North Carolina, said she gets pressure from local kindergartens to teach academic topics. Instead, her students make butter when they learn about cows, cover the floor with an art project when they learn about the solar system, and dig for bones in the sandbox when they learn about dinosaurs. 'Everything is very hands-on, and boys like that,' she said. 'Which isn't to say girls don't — girls do too — but girls come with those kinds of traits that teachers like. Boys need more time to play. So I just love to keep them engaged.' This article originally appeared in .
