West Virginia's longstanding commitment to early learning efforts is evident across early learning programs. The state is one of a very small handful of states in the nation with free, full-day, five-day kindergarten for all children AND voluntary universal pre-k to all four year old children (and three year old children with special needs). West…

The number of English language learners has grown in the Northeast & Islands Region over the past decade. While the total student population shrank 3.5 percent between 2001/02 and 2009/10, the population of English language learner students grew 7.6 percent and now constitutes 6.1 percent of students in the region, up from 5.5 percent in…

The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), was first launched in 1997 as a periodic longitudinal study of program performance. Successive nationally representative samples of Head Start children and their families,…

The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) was appointed in 2002 and carried out its work under the auspices of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). NELP's primary goal was to identify interventions, parenting activities, and instructional practices that promote the development of children's early literacy skills. The National Institute…

New Jersey's urban--or "Abbott"--schools have improved at the preschool and elementary school level, but lag when it comes to middle and high school performance. These are the key findings of an Abbott Indicators Project report entitled, "The Abbott Districts in 2005-06: Progress and Challenges." The report was prepared by…