Avoiding the Summer Slide

For many children, summer means swimming pools, sports camps, vacations and riding bikes around the neighborhood. With a two- to three-month long break from school, most kids don’t engage in as many intellectually stimulating activities and don’t read as much as they do during the school year, which can have a profound impact on their academic achievement from the previous year.

The Third Grade Milestone

Colorado recently took a major step toward ensuring all children can read by third grade when Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the READ Act. The law focuses on identifying and providing services for students who have reading deficiencies in kindergarten through third grades to better prepare students for more reading-intensive schoolwork and future success beyond third grade.

CLI and the Common Core

This newscast from a Denver television station describes how schools in Colorado and across the country are preparing to embrace the Common Core State Standards, a nationwide effort to align curriculum across state lines and focus more extensively on higher-order skills, such as critical thinking and communication.

Learning from Leaders

Recently, the Education Writers Association held their annual national seminar, “Learning from Leaders,” here in Philadelphia. The event brought together education reporters, experts, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, policymakers, district administrators, and educators to discuss important topics in education.

EWA Site Visit to Powel Elementary

Last week in Philadelphia, Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI), hosted a morning site visit for about 20 reporters from the Education Writers Association (EWA) at Samuel Powel Elementary, one of CLI’s i3 schools. Like many of CLI’s partner schools, it is implementing CLI’s effective literacy practices to create school-wide culture of literacy. 

Coaching: It’s Not Just for Athletes

Working with an instructional coach does not mean a teacher is poorly trained, incompetent, or incapable of teaching. In fact, it is one of the best methods to help teachers develop exceptional instructional skills, practices, and strategies in the classroom, and to improve student achievement.

CLI and Target, Collaboration at Work

Last week at Brennemann Elementary School, Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) Executive Director, Kelly Hunter, Ed.D., had the opportunity to host Laysha Ward, President, Community Relations, Target in a kindergarten CLI Model Classroom .  

Investments in Early Childhood Education Pay Off, Now and Later

More and more people are discovering what we’ve known all along: that smart investments in educating our youngest children pay off. In this era of limited dollars and economic challenges, early childhood advocates are increasingly making a case that the benefits of early childhood investments don’t take a generation to yield fruit—they pay off right away.