Kindergarten teachers administer a variety of assessments that can yield a wealth of information about their students’ skills. While planning for the 2021-22 school year, educational leaders in Dedham Public Schools (DPS) decided to take a fresh look at their approach to early literacy assessment.
EarlyBird Education, developer of the EarlyBird game-based early literacy assessment, has raised $3.5 million in funding, led by venture capital firm Lobby Capital. In addition, David Hornik, founding partner at Lobby Capital and founder of the Lobby Conferences, will join the EarlyBird Education Board of Directors.
Thirty-nine states now mandate screening for dyslexia. However, finding an appropriate early literacy assessment to screen pre-readers for reading difficulties can be very challenging, and many are not able to screen effectively and provide educators with the data needed to drive instruction. There are a number of factors to consider when evaluating tools for dyslexia and early literacy screening.
EarlyBird Education has been named a winner for the K-12 Newcomer Award in the inaugural Supes’ Choice Awards, the only education industry award judged exclusively by school district superintendents.
The Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESAwards), the largest edtech competition and community in the world, has chosen EarlyBird Education as a 2021 Regional Semi-Finalist. EarlyBird Education is one of nine companies from the United States and Canada selected to participate in the East Coast Semi-Finals.
At St. Michael’s School, kindergarten literacy screening is an important part of educators’ efforts to identify students at risk for reading difficulties and support a preventive approach to instruction. “There was not always a direct path, however, for teachers to connect data from screeners to instructional planning,” said Susan Schatz, Ph.D., a literacy coach at the preK-8 school in San Diego County, California.
In March 2021, kindergarten teachers at Helen A. Thompson Elementary School in MSAD #11 were among the first in the state to begin using a game-based early literacy assessment called EarlyBird. Two months later, the district decided to expand EarlyBird to all kindergarten classrooms district-wide.
After participating in a pilot trial of the new EarlyBird game-based early literacy assessment, schools and districts across the United States have chosen to adopt EarlyBird for the 2021-22 school year. Developed and scientifically validated at Boston Children’s Hospital in partnership with faculty at the Florida Center for Reading Research, EarlyBird brings together all the relevant predictors of reading in one easy-to-administer assessment, and provides teachers with customized action plans and resources for each student.
Two-thirds of U.S. fourth graders are not reading at a proficient level, and reading difficulties are often identified too late for students to catch up with their peers, even with intervention. To help schools identify children at risk for reading difficulties before they start struggling with reading, EarlyBird Education today announces the nationwide release of the EarlyBird game-based screener.
What if a short digital game for young children could help lower the high school drop out rate? That’s a long-range goal of a new effort by a team from Boston Children’s Hospital in collaboration with Florida State University, which has developed a 15 to 20-minute game that tests children’s early literacy skills and generates a red flag for those in need of extra support.
