Dive Brief:
- The "30 million word gap" describes the disadvantages faced by impoverished children who grow up hearing 30 million fewer spoken words than their more affluent peers, and in communities like Napa County, CA, children of non-English speaking immigrants are often among those most affected.
- To address the inequity, the Napa County Office of Education piloted a multilingual interactive digital platform called Footsteps2Brilliance with preschool students, seeing English language skills increase by 250%.
- The platform works on various tech devices, including smartphones, and the district has since partnered with a nonprofit to fund distribution of the platform to all parents of pre-school age students.
Dive Insight:
Napa County Superintendent of Schools Barbara Nemko said that "almost every family" has a device, and that the district helps parents download the software and understand how to use it.
Napa County's solution seems to be successful, but it's only been able to work because district parents have apparently handed their smartphones over to their 4-year-olds so that the kids can use the platform. For poor families, a broken or dropped device can have serious, non-school-related consequences. And if a home lacks Internet access, or a phone/tablet to access the program, no alternative support structure is in place.
Previously, literacy experts and advocates have clashed over whether tablets support the development of literacy in young students, with critics saying that the use of e-readers discourages kids from reading traditional books.
Yet there are many positive takeaways districts can learn from Napa's experience. Their public partnership with the private nonprofit Napa Learns foundation is what led to district-wide distribution, highlighting the importance of collaboration and transparency related to student and school needs.