2-216 - What have we learned from Ready To Learn?

Session Type: Exchange Symposium

Integrative Statement

The Ready To Learn initiative was created to harness the power of media to engage and educate America’s children, particularly those living in high-need, under-resourced communities. Ready To Learn has a mandate to create equitable education opportunities, with a priority to provide innovative solutions to closing learning gaps for children at risk for future academic failure. In this symposium authors will present different perspectives on the impact of Ready To Learn, and will discuss what Ready To Learn has taught, and can teach, the field of research in early childhood learning and development. We will present a discussion of how Ready To Learn resources have been successfully used in early childhood classrooms to increase student literacy and math knowledge. We will then report how families of young children use science media, and the potential of well-designed science media to support science learning, particularly given the lack of science instructional time in the classroom. The final paper will discuss recent efforts to analyze the impact of digital games designed under the Ready To Learn initiative on children’s learning of science concepts. Finally, the discussant, who conducted a meta-analysis spanning over twenty years of research studies on the impact of Ready To Learn on literacy, will offer comments on the exchange.

Sub Unit

• Technology, Media & Child Development

Chair

• Naomi Hupert, EDC

Discussant

• Lisa B Hurwitz, Lexia Learning

Individual Presentations

• Using Ready To Learn Media in the Preschool Classroom - Presenting Author: Phil Vahey, SRI Education; Non-Presenting Author: Regan Vidiksis, EDC; Non-Presenting Author: Jaime Gutierrez, EDC

• How do Families of Young Children Use Science Media? Findings From a Nationally Representative Survey - Presenting Author: Claire Christensen, SRI Education; Non-Presenting Author: Megan Silander, Center for Children and Technology EDC; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah Gerard, SRI Education

• Innovations in Evidence and Analysis: The PBS KIDS Learning Analytics Platform and the Research It Supports - Presenting Author: Jeremy Roberts, PBS; Non-Presenting Author: Charles Parks, UCLA-CRESST; Non-Presenting Author: Gregory Chung, UCLA-CRESST; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Redman, UCLA-CRESST; Non-Presenting Author: Katerina Schenke, UCLA-CRESST; Non-Presenting Author: Cosimo Felline, PBS