To look inside Julie Celestial’s kindergarten classroom in Long Beach is to peer into the future of reading in California. During a recent lesson, 25 kindergartners gazed at the whiteboard, trying to ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. When Humberto Estratalán’s daughter ...

Experts explain how best to prepare very young children to read. Children who are reading on their own as early as age 2 or 3 are the outliers, literacy experts said. Recently, a friend gave me a hand ...

It’s that time of year when kindergartners proudly march across the stage to receive a certification of completion, enjoy the summer, and look ahead to 1st grade. This transition once represented a ...

This story is part of a special series on transitional kindergarten in California. California is now offering TK to all 4-year-olds. What does quality TK look like? Who should staff it? And a new ...

My post doc after finishing my degree in 1984 was teaching first grade at the bilingual elementary where I had done dissertation research. As I headed out into the real world, a widely admired ...

Create an account or log in to save stories. Rising concern over childhood reading skills has led to a reckoning on how reading is taught. Minnesota school leaders see hope in the changes underway, ...

In the past, when someone new came into his kindergarten classroom to provide unsolicited “support,” the author’s immediate thought was always, “OK, great, what are they trying to sell me?” A literacy ...

Dugan is one of many parents in the city who feel trapped as their schools go all in on AI. “You’re just teaching children ...