LitLab

08/16/2021

Young Black dads are ushering in a new age of progressive fatherhood. Will America drop a...

06/16/2021

Our friends at Worldreader have made BookSmart’s entire library of hundreds of quality children’s books available free through Labor Day. Just click the link to get started.

Available in English, Spanish, and more, you can read as many books as you want at your own pace, or follow along with their weekly list. This week, BookSmart is featuring titles such as Who Can Fly Without Wings? and Dive! We hope you enjoy this awesome resource!

The BookSmart reading solution brings the power and joy of reading to schools, educational programs, and homes. Download now and start reading today.

06/10/2021

As we begin to gradually reopen, we can’t forget the serious impact that remote learning has had on students across the country. Over 97% of educators have reported seeing some learning loss and more than half say they are delayed by over 3 month in their social-emotional progress.

We know that we can’t solve these issues in just a few months, but tools like kidappolis can help give struggling students and families the tools they need to get back to grade level. Consider accessing kidappolis: School Edition (CODE: FREE) and sharing with friends and families in need as well. We are also constantly updating the app with new resources and content so now is a great time to get started. To learn more, visit litlab.org/kidappolis.

05/27/2021

Grateful as always to the Johnson Foundation and Taproot Foundation!

At the Franklin and Catherine Johnson Foundation, providing specialized volunteer support bolsters their grantees' infrastructure and impact.

05/10/2021

"He's at risk of becoming one of the lost students of the coronavirus pandemic in the most disrupted American school year since World War II. By one estimate, three million students nationwide, roughly the school-age population of Florida, stopped going to classes, virtual or in person, after the pandemic began.

Remote learning — which these days Jordyn does for half the week — is clearly part of his struggle. His mother says she cannot afford Wi-Fi on her $12-an-hour salary as a security guard — a situation shared by many families in Mississippi, where about half of students do not have reliable broadband at home, the highest percentage of any state/

But his story is about much more than inadequate technology. It is also about the added disruption the pandemic has brought to one working-class family that was already struggling to make ends meet. And it underscores the limits of hybrid learning to reach those disengaged students.

Without home internet, Jordyn Coleman has had trouble staying connected to remote classes during the coronavirus pandemic.

04/26/2021

"Statewide, enrollment in K-12 public schools in California fell by almost 3%, or 160,000, students in 2020-21, according to annual data released Thursday by the California Department of Education. That’s the largest drop of the last 20 years, surpassing a 1% drop between October 2008 and October 2009.

Confronted with the struggles of remote learning, including requiring a 5-year-old to sit still in front of a computer for hours daily while simultaneously balancing work and toddlers, some kindergarten parents simply kept their children in preschool, which offered the in-person interaction that young children need. Some parents also opted to send children to private schools, many of which resumed in-person instruction far more quickly."

Causes for the slide in enrollment are myriad, complicated by existing trends including declining birthrates and people's continued exodus from the state, as well as the sudden economic chaos wrought by the pandemic.

04/22/2021

Sing and dance to Big Heart Beats album and other music about identity and belonging. Tuesday, April 27 is the first session of in the Classroom created in collaboration with . After that, Big Heart World's music classes will be the last Tuesday of the month through December! Any parent/caregiver or educator with preschoolers is welcome to join. Register: bit.ly/bigheartbeats

04/14/2021

is at the heart of children’s early development. We’re collaborating with NOGGIN and Sparkler on Big Heart World, a new initiative to help parents, caregivers, and educators grow kids’ big hearts. Find music videos, co-play activities, podcasts, and more — rooted in the science of social and emotional learning — at BigHeartWorld.org.

04/06/2021

“Club Mundo Kids,” a new TV series debuting on April 10, is the latest result of a push for programming that uses Spanish to reach Latino audiences.

04/02/2021

Fatigue among donors and workers is a concern.

03/25/2021

"It had been a year since the pandemic closed Indio High School and its 2,100 students began to disappear, first from the hallways and then from virtual classes as attendance dropped from 94 percent down to as low as 70 percent. The school was like hundreds of others hit hardest by covid-19 — mostly low-income and mostly Latino, with a vulnerable population that had suffered disproportionately from the virus and its injustices. Half of Indio’s students lived with family members who had gotten sick. A third lacked stable housing. A quarter had begun working full time or caring for younger siblings who were also home from school. At least 350 students were regularly failing to attend class, so Pimentel had decided to spend every Wednesday driving to homes across the Coachella Valley to find missing students and offer his help."

A California school official searches his district for the hundreds left behind by covid-19.

03/16/2021

"It's a lot easier to focus," says one sixth grader with ADHD. While some students fell behind while learning virtually during the pandemic, others focus better when they aren't around classmates.