Putting Families First: Digital Strategies for Early Literacy, Part Two

In the 2012-2013 academic year, the edtech market totaled $8.38 billion, a marked increase from previous years. No doubt, the market is still growing. However, when it seems like a new educational app, game, or device hits stores every week, it’s imperative that education leaders don’t just chase the newest shiny object.

On Day Two of the New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center summer institute on language development and family engagement in the Digital Age, keynote speaker Ralph Smith provided city, state, and program leaders with insights on how to avoid the chase and meaningfully integrate technology in their efforts. Smith, who directs the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, confessed that — despite progress made across the country — he felt the achievements of his program and similar efforts were not enough. Smith asked the audience, “How could so many people know as much as we do, spend as much as we do, care as much as we say we do, and accomplish so little?” He offered technology as a tool for helping further move the needle for children and families, but advised that the truly disruptive power of technology can only be realized if we can imagine a very different world. According to Smith, this world would consist of less fragmentation and competition among those serving children and families. Program providers and those in philanthropy, research, and evaluation would work together to improve outcomes for all children and their families. Ultimately, Smith challenged the leaders present to do more than just “continue meeting in rooms like this.”

Before breaking out into groups to discuss Smith’s call to move the needle, leaders heard from Rebecca Parlakian of Zero to Three (ZTT), who offered one avenue for creating transformative change: actually listening to parents. According to results from a recent national parent survey conducted by ZTT, parents indicated that they often don’t know who to trust when choosing resources. They also reported feeling judged on their parenting skills and generally unsupported. Treating parents as experts on their own children and involving them meaningfully in program design, could help make programs meant to serve them more effective.

A panel that followed echoed this sentiment. Tony Raden (Ounce of Prevention Fund), Kristen Burns (Grable Foundation), Claudia Haines (Homer Public Library), Jeanette Betancourt (Sesame Workshop), and Ellen Galinsky (Mind in the Making/Bezos Family Foundation) discussed successes and lessons learned from scaling their programs. Their remarks coalesced around the need to involve parents as early as possible and the tension of balancing standardization with an ability for communities to customize and meet their unique needs.

In early literacy, this tension is especially present in communities where many families include dual language learners (DLLs), given the unique needs prompted by a diversity of language and culture among these families. Leaders broke into groups, led by DLL experts, and discussed these needs and potential solutions. The session revolved around issues of inequity regarding access to and quality of educational content, cultural and linguistic insensitivity, and solutions to solving the academic achievement gap between DLLs and their monolingual counterparts. Some key takeaways include:

• Language is both language and culture: With numerous direct translation applications available, such as Google Translate, many under-resourced schools and programs have utilized these tools as the primary way of bridging linguistic barriers. However, the approach oversimplifies the importance language plays in creating culturally appropriate materials. We need to ensure that the content of the materials presented to DLLs is reflective of the culture that they are a part of. For example, it is not just the words in a story that need translation — it is the entire story: plot, characters, and values that all needs to be applicable to the culture.

• Lack of access to materials come in multiple forms: We often think of language as the only barrier for DLLs when they want to access content. However, limited resources and lack of access extend not just to literacy, but also time, data on cell phones, transportation to a library or computer, and much more. The solution is two-fold — As advocates for DLLs, we need to aim to 1) seek out culturally relevant content and 2) present it in a way that all families can actually get it (i.e. a low-data downloadable file that they can access on their mobile device).

• Take a more collaborative approach and retool the workforce: This applies to increasing the number of bilingual/ESL certified teachers in the workforce, utilizing parents of DLLs in the process of creating content, and creating opportunities for educational technology developers to gain insights into the local communities and their needs. We need to employ a collaborative approach if we truly want to make headways in boosting academic outcomes for DLLs.

• Asset-based thinking should replace deficit-based thinking: In addition to speaking another language, research shows that bilingualism has cognitive, social emotional, and economical advantages. However, three states — California, Massachusetts, and Arizona — still have English-only policies in their K-12 education system. Lawmakers and advocates in California and Massachusetts are currently making promising headway to repeal those measures. Beyond explicit English-only policies, deficit-based terms such as Limited English Proficient (LEP) are still used often and continue to apply a stigma surrounding DLLs. Moving forward, it is important that schools embrace multilingualism and adopt an asset-based thinking toward DLLs and their families.

Following the breakout session, leaders regrouped and shared their conclusions after two days of learning and intense discussion. Staying true to the institute’s goals around technology and engagement, leaders texted in their biggest takeaways and were immediately shown responses in a word cloud. The words they texted most frequently shone largely on the screen: equity, collaboration, and partnership. If leaders hope to, as Ralph Smith urged, move insights from “meetings like this” into the community, these takeaways will surely guide their vision.