Reading Rockets: Today's Reading News

A recently released children's book tells the story of how Duke Ellington brought swing to the holiday classic, 'The Nutcracker.' Also, Texan vampires go up against werewolves and were-armadillos in a popular young adult novel. These are just some of the books that top librarian Loriene Roy's list of holiday books. She speaks to host Michel Martin.

Investigators who this year found rampant cheating among Atlanta public school teachers and principals released another report on Tuesday detailing widespread wrongdoing in another Georgia county.

When Shandra Lindstrom began volunteering at Glen Acres Elementary in September, some of her students couldn't read a single page aloud. Months later, the students are flourishing. Lindstrom is one of 250 volunteers who took part in the Read to Succeed program this semester. The program was announced in August as a partnership between United Way of Greater Lafayette and Greater Lafayette Commerce.

The final budget deal funding the U.S. Department of Education through Sept. 30 of next year reflects the Obama administration's success in fending off House Republican efforts to scrap programs such as Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, and School Improvement Grants, all administration priorities. But not everyone is happy about the choice to continue those programs, some of which reflect the administration's emphasis on competitive grants to finance education initiatives. House Republicans had pushed to eliminate such programs to make room for big, $1 billion increases to major formula-funded programs for disadvantaged children and students in special education.

A comprehensive alignment of preschool through third grade (P-3) education is critical in ensuring that children develop a solid foundation in literacy, math, and social-emotional skills, according to a new report that offers recommendations for high-quality P-3 initiatives. The Importance of Aligning Pre-K through 3rd Grade, released by the Pre-K Coalition, details best practices for improving early learning.

This may end up being the season of The Great Children's (e-)Book Debate. Now that e-readers are taking hold of the adult market, merchandisers are turning to the children's market. I asked Holly Kreider, director of early childhood literacy at Raising a Reader, for her thoughts on how a possible explosion in children's e-reading might, or might not, effect literacy. Among the youngest children Kreider echoed the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that those under 2 not be allowed screen time. For older children though, the answer is less clear.

As 2011 comes to a close, we took a few minutes to review the progress — and pitfalls — of early childhood education news over the year. So before we jump into another year of news and analysis, here's a look at some of the major stories featured on Early Ed Watch this year. The top stories include the Early Education Challenge, pushing quality in Head Start, Promise Neighborhoods, and more.

As the 3,919 students who participated in the first year of Indiana's new, wide-reaching school voucher program near the end of the first semester in their new schools, the program faces up to its next challenge: A state court hearing opens today on a lawsuit arguing the program violates Indiana's constitution.

New York elementary and middle school students this spring will face reading exams that last half an hour longer this spring, officials announced Monday. The exams will last three hours — up from 2 1/2 hours from this year's tests — and will take place over three days, instead of two, as previously announced.

Parents Kira Turner and Robert Butler know reading is important to learning, so they set aside time each night to read to their son, Dominic Butler, 4. The preschool Dominic attends, Discovery Gardens Preschool in Prescott, also takes part in a new Yavapai College program called Raising a Reader, which sends books home with students each week for parents to read to them, then return next week for new books.

Everyone knows that getting into private preschool in New York City can be absurdly cutthroat and wildly expensive, but getting into public pre-K is not any easier. For parents like us, options are limited. Private pre-K can run more than $30,000 a year at the fanciest schools. If home schooling is daunting, and if not schooling feels wrong, the only other choice, it seems, is to join the many parents who have taken matters into their own hands and formed co-ops.

Last November, I told you about the Kindergarten PAVEd for Success early literacy program in Mississippi, which a federal study had found could boost disadvantaged kindergarteners' literacy skills by as much as a month of schooling. Unfortunately, the latest follow-up report from the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast, housed at the SERVE Center of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has found that this early boost doesn't hold. The K-PAVE program trains teachers to build on the basic kindergarten curriculum over a 24-week period with a set of academically themed vocabulary words and activities, as well as interactive reading and adult-child conversations.

Various proposals in Gov. Terry Branstad's education reform blueprint are being run up the flagpole. Many Iowans appear to be saluting at least one: an effort to ensure that third-graders can read. The measure would require students to demonstrate proficiency in literacy before they can be promoted to fourth grade. But any investment that seeks to improve literacy should not automatically be focused on schools. In fact, money may be better directed toward the more than 500 libraries in Iowa communities which have seen state funding drastically reduced the last few years — even while usage increases. The majority of children who struggle with reading come from low-income families, and much of what libraries offer is free. They level the playing field so any family, regardless of income, has the opportunity to check out books for children to read.

Scholastic, the American publisher of the Harry Potter novels, is set to introduce another major successor to that blockbuster franchise by J. K. Rowling. "Infinity Ring," a seven-book series on time travel with an online game component, will begin its rollout in September. Like "The 39 Clues," the new series is intended for children ages 8 to 12 and will explore historical events in both the print books and online game. Scholastic's latest series will be released at a time when many preteenagers own or have access to e-readers. Children reading "Infinity Ring" could skip paper entirely, reading the books and playing the online game on a smartphone or a tablet.

As a book reviewer, I receive as many as 2,000 children's and teen books each year from publishers. In the midst of all of this reading, a few books for children and teens become my favorites each year. They're the ones that I found most memorable as a reader, reviewer and children's/teen librarian at a public library. This year, four books stand out from the crowd for me.

Pennsylvania, long regarded as a leader in coordinating its early learning services, didn't win. Neither did Oklahoma, famous for its state-funded pre-K program. Instead, the winners included North Carolina, a state suffering big cuts in early childhood funding this year, as well as California, which doesn't yet have a fully functional quality rating system for child care and pre-kindergarten programs. These were among the surprises this morning as two federal departments announced nine states as winners of the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, a $500-million competition for four-year grants to improve coordination of early learning programs and promote school readiness for disadvantaged children.

Community schools focus not only on academics but also, through partnerships with outside organizations, child and youth development, family support, health and social services, and community development. Using public schools as hubs, community schools bring together many different partners to provide a range of opportunities for students and their families during class time and when class is over — and even on weekends. Community schools, by directly dealing with many of the out-of-school issues that affect how students do in school — such as violence, family mobility, etc. — help to create the conditions that allow young people to actually concentrate on academics.

Parents learned about various remediation methods which are being used to help children with reading disabilities during a special presentation hosted by the Hasbrouck Heights school district. Maria Kimmens, of the Children's Dyslexia Center of Northern New Jersey which has a location on Division Avenue in the borough, addressed the parents about Orton Gillingham Literacy strategies which are used at the center, provided background on dyslexia and its forms, and shared some exercises parents can do with their kids to further help them in their remediation. She explained multi-sensory strategies which help make abstract concepts concrete helping them in their remediation such as using something as simple as one's fingers to help break down words and sound them out.

The goal of having every Iowa child learn to read presents the greatest opportunity for consensus within Gov. Terry Branstad's expansive education reform proposal, state and national education policy leaders said Thursday. The measure was the topic of an all-day conference in Des Moines attended by roughly 100 state educators, legislators and community leaders.

No Child Left Behind is in shambles. In a report released Thursday, the Center on Education Policy found that 48 percent of the nation's public schools failed to meet NCLB goals in 2011. This is up from 39 percent in 2010 and 29 percent in 2006. Furthermore, there is a great disparity in the performance among states. For instance, 11 percent of Wisconsin schools fell short of advancement goals; in Florida, that number was 89 percent.