OECD Citation for Early Reading Together®

The December 2017 OECD publication 'Educational Opportunity for All: Overcoming Inequality throughout the Life Course' available here, is from the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation.

Quoting from here:

Equitable educational opportunities can help to promote long-lasting, inclusive economic growth and social cohesion. Successful education and skills policies can empower individuals to reach their full potential and enjoy the fruits of their labour, regardless of their circumstances at birth. However, as this report shows, far too many children, students and adults from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds fall behind. In many countries, substantial learning gaps exist between students at opposite ends of the socio-economic scale, and these differences tend to increase in the transition into adulthood. All countries have ample room for improvement to ensure better learning outcomes for all. Early childhood education has been identified as an important element in future success, and requires investment, as do family and community-based support and programmes for children from families that have not attained a high level of education and skills.

An excerpt from page 70 of the OECD publication:

Box 3.4. Examples of inclusive ECEC policies
In an effort to promote social cohesion, some governments have implemented inclusive ECEC policies that cater to disadvantaged children, parents and communities. The 2012 OECD report, Starting Strong III: A Quality Toolbox for Early Childhood Education and Care, gives examples of such programmes that have been successfully designed and implemented. These programmes aim to increase the quality and the amount of education children receive, while also remaining affordable, accessible and equitable. Starting Strong III highlights programmes that aid a range of vulnerable groups. These groups include young parents, parents with low levels of education, low-income parents and communities, migrants, infants, and indigenous people.

An excerpt from page 71:

Skills targeting has been a successful initiative for vulnerable families in New Zealand and Canada
Programmes in both Canada and New Zealand have sought to target particular skills that disadvantaged families and children struggle with. The Parent-Child Mother Goose programmes in British Columbia provide a safe place for families and children to develop socio-emotional skills, literacy, and language support. The Early Reading Together® programme in New Zealand also supports literacy and language development through home-based learning for children ages zero to six. This project specifically targets parents from "diverse language/literacy, cultural, educational and socio-economic backgrounds" (OECD, 2012). The programme relies on volunteer professionals, and has been proven to increase parental reading comprehension and literacy. In turn, these gains enable parents to read and explore language more frequently with their children at home.

Posted: Monday 6 August 2018