When recent NAEP results came out, the bleak headline was that American students are not getting better at reading comprehension. When the NAEP folks convened a panel of reading experts in early April, the primary grades got called out as one potential culprit. So what needs re-evaluating in K-3 literacy? One reasonable place to look is at oral reading fluency and the foundational skills that feed word decoding.

For three weeks in the summer, children who are entering kindergarten in Portland, Oregon, get ready and get excited to start school. While it’s no substitute for pre-K, getting a preview helps ease the transition for kids, and offers parents a sense of connection. Special correspondent Lisa Stark of Education Week reports.

This study provides the first national insight into trends and disparities in the academic skills of children at school entry for students who began kindergarten between 2010 and 2017.

This study examines academic skills at kindergarten entry from 2010 and 2017 using data from over 2 million kindergarten students. Results indicated kindergarteners in 2017 have slightly lower math and reading skills than in 2010, but that inequalities at school entry by race/ethnicity and school poverty level have decreased during this period.

This study investigates the impact of a teacher professional development (PD) program in rural Rwanda, part of a randomized controlled trial of Save the Children’s early literacy intervention, “Literacy Boost.”

In this first edition of the “Research Insights” series, we visit the early childhood education space across NNERPP. Here we find three districts offering different versions of a kindergarten transition program for their students.

On this podcast, Megan Kuhfeld, a research scientist at NWEA, joins Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Mike Petrilli to discuss her recent, sobering findings about the reading and math skills of children entering kindergarten.