NEWS
November 4, 2013 | By Mary MacVean
With nearly half of California's children age 8 and under living in low-income households, the chances for their achievement later in life are significantly diminished without policy changes, a new study says. The report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the advocacy organization Children Now looks at children 8 and under around the country and lays out recommendations for investments in those children and their parents to give them a better shot at a productive adulthood. The challenges are daunting, statistics in the report show.
WORLD
June 2, 2013 | By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times
LIANGHE, China - When kindergarten was dismissed on that April afternoon, 6-year-old Ren Xinyi and her younger cousin hurried home. They were eager to check out a plastic bag they had spotted on the way to school that morning with their grandmother, who had taken it home without thinking twice. Xinyi looked inside and grabbed a blue pencil and notebook; 5-year-old Ren Zhaoning took out a children's yogurt drink and sipped half of the creamy white liquid before handing it to her cousin.
NATIONAL
May 31, 2013 | By Devin Kelly
A fight that broke out after a kindergarten graduation in Cleveland on Friday -- reportedly over spilled punch -- escalated into a brawl that led to eight arrests, authorities said. Families had gathered at Michael R. White Elementary School, a K-8 school, to celebrate the kindergarteners' promotion to first grade. About 11 a.m., a call came in reporting a large fight with shots fired, said Cmdr. Wayne Drummond of the Cleveland Police Department. Officers arrived to find people fighting in front of the school.
OPINION
March 13, 2013
Increasing access to preschool could be the most important federal investment to make in education right now - or not. Unfortunately, despite what President Obama would have the public believe, the evidence is complicated and somewhat mixed. In several recent speeches, the president has sketched out a plan to provide supplemental funding to states that offer a free year of pre-kindergarten for low- and moderate-income families. In doing so, though, he has echoed some of the most repeated but misleading claims made about preschool.
OPINION
April 15, 2012 | By Julie Flapan
Four years ago, while expecting a third child, my biggest concern about having a summer baby was the likely discomfort of being pregnant in the July heat. Little did I know then that having a son with a summer birthday would mean the difficult decision I am facing now that he is 4: whether to enroll him in kindergarten on schedule or hold him back for an extra year of preschool. "Holding back," also known as "redshirting," began as something parents did to maximize their children's athletic potential.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 8, 2012 | By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times
The children painted Valentines, formed hearts with Play-Doh and made their own books in a colorful classroom at Long Beach's George Washington Carver Elementary School. It may have looked like playtime, but the cognitive and academic skills of the 4- and 5-year-olds in her transitional kindergarten class are growing by leaps, said teacher Nancy Jarzomb. "They're learning the routines of school and building confidence," Jarzomb said as she worked with a small group using a play oven and food made of wood.