Alliance for Childhood Update

Last month, in partnership with the Forum for Education and Democracy, the Alliance for Childhood put on a briefing for Congressional staff members on the need to defend and restore play in kindergarten and preschool. The story was broadcast the next morning on Washington's NPR station.

Alliance partner Deborah Meier, who won a MacArthur Award for her creation of effective schools in East Harlem, spoke at the briefing about the importance of play-based learning in early education. In her blog on the Forum's web site, Meier called the evidence on the loss of kindergarten play "frightening" and wrote:

Can we literally have gone that far? We need some studies to see how reversible this is, and how it impacts children in later life. What we know now, thanks to the Alliance for Childhood, is that boys start out at even a greater disadvantage, are far more likely to be expelled and punished for inappropriate behavior, and that black boys will suffer -- once again -- the most. But that's the tip of the iceberg -- at heart it is influencing the intellectual achievement of all children.

In early June, in partnership with KaBoom!, the Washington D.C.-based play advocacy and playground building organization, the Alliance for Childhood produced a live one-hour "webinar" on the kindergarten report, Crisis in the Kindergarten, with an accompanying slide show that can be downloaded and used by educators and play advocates all over the country. You'll find a link on the Alliance home page. The report is also available in its entirety, along with an 8-page summary and other supporting documents.