Many of our children continue to live in book deserts, neighborhoods bereft of reading materials. It is an educational problem that, at times, may seem unsolvable. In this article, my colleagues and I approach the problem from a perspective of a small win, a term first coined by organizational theorist Karl Weik. Small wins act like…

Persistent concerns about income and social inequality have raised questions about how to address opportunity gaps in access to literacy learning for low-income young children. Recognizing the need to strengthen learning opportunities, this study examines how specially designed hybrid spaces within the 'everyday' place of a neighborhood laundromat…

The early years are times of wonder for children. Curious about everything, they seek to explore and understand their world. During these early years, they attempt to interpret their world and make meaning through pretend play, drawing, and conversations with those closest to them. Although these first steps toward literacy may not look much like…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the influence of a book distribution program targeted at enhancing children's exposure to information books. The research examined whether a flood of information books in early childhood settings, placing libraries in a central role, could affect growth in language, content-related…

We examine the influence of income segregation on a resource vital to young children's development: a family's access to books in early childhood. Income segregation reflects the growing economic segregation of neighborhoods for people living in privilege (1%) compared with those in poverty or near-poverty (20%). After describing recent…

Recognizing the academic benefits of access to print for young children, book distribution programs abound in the United States. Designed to promote book ownership for low-income families, programs have unique delivery systems, leading to a largely fragmented policy. This article describes an urban city's effort to build a coordinated book…

This study examines the effectiveness of scaling up a vocabulary intervention, pre-K-first grade, using a structured adaptation of the World of Words that allowed teachers some autonomy over its implementation. The purpose was to determine whether such an adaptation could maintain fidelity and promote positive child outcomes. Classrooms (pre-K…

This study examines a community-wide effort to promote greater access to books through the mechanisms of physical and psychological proximity. It addresses the seasonal summer slide through an innovative book distribution program in neighborhoods identified as book deserts. Four low-income neighborhoods were provided with vending machines used to…

Preschoolers can learn vocabulary from educational videos, but children from low-income backgrounds often do not learn as effectively as their higher income peers. We investigated whether adding attention-directing cues to media (Study 1) and slowing the pacing of media (Study 2) supported vocabulary learning for preschoolers from low-income…

Previous studies have often compared and contrasted differences among media presentations, including traditional storybooks and videos and their potential for incidental word learning among preschoolers. Studies have shown that children learn words from a variety of media, and that repetition is an important source for incidental learning. Yet, to…

"Data-drive instruction can distort the way reading is taught, harming the students who need high-quality instruction the most," Susan B. Neuman concludes from her research team's two years of observation in nine low-income New York City schools. She describes how some students are reminded that they are "failures" every day by…

Opportunity to learn reflects the quality of resources, school conditions, and curriculum necessary to enable students to achieve. It has long been recognized that such opportunities differ significantly for low-income students compared to their middle-income peers and contribute powerfully to education inequities across our country. This article…

Educational media is ubiquitous in the lives of young children, promising high-quality programming to equip them with vocabulary knowledge and school readiness. To meet the needs of preschool-aged dual-language learners (DLLs), many educational programs are marketed to promote vocabulary learning in two languages. In this study, we use a content…

Educational media is ubiquitous in the lives of young children, promising high-quality programming to equip them with vocabulary knowledge and school readiness. To meet the needs of preschool-aged dual-language learners (DLLs), many educational programs are marketed to promote vocabulary learning in two languages. In this study, we use a content…

This study examines the potential of educational media to provide preschool-aged dual language learners (DLLs) with vocabulary in a new language. Drawing from dual-coding theory, the current study investigated how three distinct instructional contexts with varying degrees of incidental-intentional vocabulary exposure on screen might facilitate…