Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) have recently been a key focus in studying early childhood development and its long-term effects on a child’s life. Chronic childhood trauma, or what experts call adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can disrupt a child's...
Reading Proficiency
13% Return on Investment in Birth-5 Programs: Economic Gains in Early Childhood Development
Research from Professor James Heckman shows that investing in high-quality birth-to-five programs for children can deliver a 13% per year return on investment. Professor James Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University...
The 30 Million Word Gap: Early Years Make a Difference
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) reports that children’s vocabulary skills are linked to their economic backgrounds. “By 3 years of age, there is a 30 million word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families.” A...
Early Literacy Connection to Incarceration
Illiteracy and crime are connected. The Department of Justice states, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure. Over 70% of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.” Additional...
The State of the Child in Tennessee: Kids Count Report on Child Well-Being
The Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth (TCCY) is an independent state agency created by the Tennessee General Assembly to advocate for improvements in the quality of life for Tennessee children and families. TCCY is a state KIDS COUNT affiliate, and partial...
“COVID-19 Slide” in Students: Academic Impact of School Closures
Research projections suggest that there will be academic impacts on students from COVID-19 school closures. According to Northwest Evaluation Association’s Collaborative for Student Growth brief, “Preliminary ‘COVID slide’ estimates suggest students will return in...
Imagination Library Helps Prevent Summer “Slide”
“One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by.” ― Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle For most across Tennessee, it is just about "back to school time" and the official end of summer is just around the corner. Reading with children over the...
Beyond the Books: A Former Kindergarten Teacher Provides Perspective
by Holly Kizer It is easy for us to hear about early childhood education and assume all children have books in their homes and parents who read their favorite bedtime stories with them. I would have the same misperception had I not spent two years teaching...