Help us fight the online preschool trend!
Tell your state education committee to reject online preschool and fund the REAL universal preschool that all kids need and deserve! This link will send your message directly to your state's education committee: https://ccfc.salsalabs.org/universalprek/index.html
dey and campaign for a commercial free childhood urge north carolina lawmakers not to fund online "preschool"
Read the letter here, sent by Defending the Early Years and Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood to North Carolina lawmakers, urging them to defeat a bill to fund a three-year pilot program featuring online "preschool."
RECENT NEWS: DEY and CCFC URGE TED2019 to LISTEN to Our Experts - Do not FUND ONLINE "PRESCHOOL"!
Recently DEY and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) were shocked to learn that The Audacious Project, housed at TED and designed to fund ideas for social change, plans to designate Waterford UPSTART, a Utah-based online “preschool” program, as one of the participants in its funding program for 2019. Award winners will be announced at TED2019 in Vancouver on April 16. Last year’s award winners averaged $63 million in new funding. In other words, awarding this grant would be a game-changer, and would bring this bad idea to children in underserved communities in every state of the Union. Our groups mobilized quickly to prepare a letter (see below), which we sent to The Audacious Project this morning, urging them to postpone this award and meet with us to discuss our concerns.
We pointed out that promoting online preschool will exacerbate inequalities for low-income kids and kids of color, which is surely contrary to the project’s mission. We included and discussed our Position Statement on Online Preschool, and “Young Children in the Digital Age,” by Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, which explains how children learn best from hands-on, experiential, relational learning. We have issued a press release about the letter, with quotes from Dr. Carlsson-Paige and Dr. Denisha Jones of DEY and from Josh Golin of CCFC. This is a pivotal moment. If this grant is awarded to UPSTART, online preschool will take hold in a way which we may not ever be able to undo, and millions of children will be denied the real early education they need and deserve. Please help spread the word that we must all stand up for children NOW.
Read our full letter to the Audacious Project below:
April 12, 2019
Anna Verghese
Executive Director
The Audacious Project
330 Hudson St
New York, NY 10013
Dear Ms. Verghese,
We are writing to urge The Audacious Project to postpone its plans to designate Waterford UPSTART, an online “preschool” program, as one of the participants in its funding program for 2019.
We understand that millions of families either cannot afford or lack access to quality preschool. And we appreciate that The Audacious Project is using its resources to create new opportunities for underserved families.
But online preschool is no substitute for real, place-based preschool staffed by caring, professional educators. We don’t believe your impressive list of funders and partners would be satisfied if their own children spent 75 minutes a week on a computer in isolation as a substitute for face-to-face preschool rooted in caring relationships and social interaction. And we believe, as we’re sure you do, that all children deserve high-quality early education, regardless of their family’s resources.
In October 2018, our organizations released a Position Statement on Online Preschool signed by more than 100 experts in child development and early education. We wrote:
All of our knowledge about human development demonstrates that children learn best through exploratory, creative play and relationships with caring adults. As the American Academy of Pediatrics notes, “Higher-order thinking skills and executive functions essential for school success, such as task persistence, impulse control, emotion regulation, and creative, flexible thinking, are best taught through unstructured and social (not digital) play.” By contrast, there is virtually no evidence showing that online preschool improves outcomes for kids.
It is understandable to think that, in the absence of publicly funded universal pre-K, doing something is better than nothing. But over the past two decades, 1:1 programs and other educational technology products marketed as cost-effective panaceas for educational inequality have failed to deliver on their promise to close the achievement gap. At the same time, an ever-widening “play gap” is threatening to put marginalized children even further behind their more resourced peers. And low-income kids and kids of color already spend more time on screens than their white and wealthier peers, putting them more at risk for negative emotional, physical, and academic outcomes. There is every reason to be concerned that online preschool programs will exacerbate these inequalities, widening achievement and wellness gaps rather than closing them. We are certain this is contrary to the mission of The Audacious Project.
We are also concerned that by propagating the myth that kindergarten readiness can be transmitted through online lessons, a major UPSTART expansion will mislead families about the relative value of digital education and hands-on learning for young children. Perhaps most concerning, investing in UPSTART may unintentionally set back the growing and needed movement for universal preschool. If UPSTART can, as they claim, really reach “every” family with this new funding, policymakers are likely to think “problem solved” and abdicate their responsibility to fund real preschool for children from low-income families.
We have enclosed our Position Statement as well as “Young Children in the Digital Age” by Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, which explains how children learn best from hands-on, experiential, relational learning. We would like to meet with you to discuss our concerns in greater detail, and we urge you to postpone this designation for UPSTART until after such a meeting has taken place.
Sincerely,
Josh Golin
Executive Director, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
Blakely Bundy
Co-Director, Defending the Early Years
Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin
Co-Director, Defending the Early Years
We pointed out that promoting online preschool will exacerbate inequalities for low-income kids and kids of color, which is surely contrary to the project’s mission. We included and discussed our Position Statement on Online Preschool, and “Young Children in the Digital Age,” by Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, which explains how children learn best from hands-on, experiential, relational learning. We have issued a press release about the letter, with quotes from Dr. Carlsson-Paige and Dr. Denisha Jones of DEY and from Josh Golin of CCFC. This is a pivotal moment. If this grant is awarded to UPSTART, online preschool will take hold in a way which we may not ever be able to undo, and millions of children will be denied the real early education they need and deserve. Please help spread the word that we must all stand up for children NOW.
Read our full letter to the Audacious Project below:
April 12, 2019
Anna Verghese
Executive Director
The Audacious Project
330 Hudson St
New York, NY 10013
Dear Ms. Verghese,
We are writing to urge The Audacious Project to postpone its plans to designate Waterford UPSTART, an online “preschool” program, as one of the participants in its funding program for 2019.
We understand that millions of families either cannot afford or lack access to quality preschool. And we appreciate that The Audacious Project is using its resources to create new opportunities for underserved families.
But online preschool is no substitute for real, place-based preschool staffed by caring, professional educators. We don’t believe your impressive list of funders and partners would be satisfied if their own children spent 75 minutes a week on a computer in isolation as a substitute for face-to-face preschool rooted in caring relationships and social interaction. And we believe, as we’re sure you do, that all children deserve high-quality early education, regardless of their family’s resources.
In October 2018, our organizations released a Position Statement on Online Preschool signed by more than 100 experts in child development and early education. We wrote:
All of our knowledge about human development demonstrates that children learn best through exploratory, creative play and relationships with caring adults. As the American Academy of Pediatrics notes, “Higher-order thinking skills and executive functions essential for school success, such as task persistence, impulse control, emotion regulation, and creative, flexible thinking, are best taught through unstructured and social (not digital) play.” By contrast, there is virtually no evidence showing that online preschool improves outcomes for kids.
It is understandable to think that, in the absence of publicly funded universal pre-K, doing something is better than nothing. But over the past two decades, 1:1 programs and other educational technology products marketed as cost-effective panaceas for educational inequality have failed to deliver on their promise to close the achievement gap. At the same time, an ever-widening “play gap” is threatening to put marginalized children even further behind their more resourced peers. And low-income kids and kids of color already spend more time on screens than their white and wealthier peers, putting them more at risk for negative emotional, physical, and academic outcomes. There is every reason to be concerned that online preschool programs will exacerbate these inequalities, widening achievement and wellness gaps rather than closing them. We are certain this is contrary to the mission of The Audacious Project.
We are also concerned that by propagating the myth that kindergarten readiness can be transmitted through online lessons, a major UPSTART expansion will mislead families about the relative value of digital education and hands-on learning for young children. Perhaps most concerning, investing in UPSTART may unintentionally set back the growing and needed movement for universal preschool. If UPSTART can, as they claim, really reach “every” family with this new funding, policymakers are likely to think “problem solved” and abdicate their responsibility to fund real preschool for children from low-income families.
We have enclosed our Position Statement as well as “Young Children in the Digital Age” by Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, which explains how children learn best from hands-on, experiential, relational learning. We would like to meet with you to discuss our concerns in greater detail, and we urge you to postpone this designation for UPSTART until after such a meeting has taken place.
Sincerely,
Josh Golin
Executive Director, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
Blakely Bundy
Co-Director, Defending the Early Years
Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin
Co-Director, Defending the Early Years
DEY AND CCFC'S STATEMENT OPPOSING PUBLIC FUNDING OF ONLINE PRESCHOOL SIGNED BY OVER 100 ECE EXPERTS AND ORGANIZATIONS
On October 10, 2018, Defending the Early Years (DEY) and Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) co-authored a statement about how online "preschools" deny children the hands-on, face-to-face school experiences that research shows is critical to both early learning and success in later life. In 2015, the state of Utah sponsored the first state-funded online “preschool” of its kind, called UPSTART. Since then, thousands of families have enrolled in the program and the company has expanded pilot programs to at least seven other states.
As educators and advocates we are deeply troubled by this growing trend to falsely market technology and machine learning as an acceptable way to teach young children. All of our knowledge about human development demonstrates that children learn best through playful, hands-on experiences with materials, the natural world, and relationships with caring adults. By adopting online pre-k, states are harming kids and families for the benefit of private industry. This practice disproportionately impacts children and families in under resourced areas, raising questions about privacy and masking gross financial inequities by inflating statistics that ‘all children’ have access to preschool. Over 100 leading early childhood experts and organizations have signed the position statement.
Click here to read the statement and see the signatories.
Click here to join the campaign and email your state representatives to reject public funding of online preschool. Tell your state legislators that online preschool should be prohibited. We need fully funded universal preschool instead.
Click here for the press release for Online Preschool.
As educators and advocates we are deeply troubled by this growing trend to falsely market technology and machine learning as an acceptable way to teach young children. All of our knowledge about human development demonstrates that children learn best through playful, hands-on experiences with materials, the natural world, and relationships with caring adults. By adopting online pre-k, states are harming kids and families for the benefit of private industry. This practice disproportionately impacts children and families in under resourced areas, raising questions about privacy and masking gross financial inequities by inflating statistics that ‘all children’ have access to preschool. Over 100 leading early childhood experts and organizations have signed the position statement.
Click here to read the statement and see the signatories.
Click here to join the campaign and email your state representatives to reject public funding of online preschool. Tell your state legislators that online preschool should be prohibited. We need fully funded universal preschool instead.
Click here for the press release for Online Preschool.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
#RejectOnlinePreK
Sample Tweets
|
Download a copy of the #RejectOnlinePreK visual to use with your Twitter or Facebook post. Click here.
Sample Facebook Post
|
CRITIQUE OF UPSTART ONLINE PRESCHOOL LESSON
In this one-minute example of an UPSTART lesson, the benefits are difficult to recognize and the problems abound. Presumably, this lesson is designed to help preschoolers practice letter/sound connections and read short words that follow a consonant/vowel/consonant pattern, even though most preschoolers are not yet ready to learn to read. Unfortunately, there is so much here that can be confusing to a young child. And remember, UPSTART recommends that children complete these lessons on their own, wearing headphones, so there will not be an adult present to help a child work through any confusions.
To begin with, the scene is very busy and is overloaded with distracting images.
There are random letters on top of nine animals. The letter/sounds do not have any correspondence to the animals. For example, the pigs do not have “p” but rather “o”, “a” and “e”. The hens have and “h” but they also have “b and “r”. The cows have “t”, “m” and “d”. These random letters have no connection to the animals they are on and continuously change throughout the activity.
The player clicks on a cow to make the word “pig”. Again, there is no logical connection to this. The cow makes a /g/ sound and then a “mmmm” sound for a moo. In fact all the animals make their animal sound along with the letter sound. That is confusing for someone who is learning about letter/sound correspondence. The words that are formed jump into a small grid on the right that is difficult to see amidst the visual clutter: pig, big, bag, bat. There is no picture to go along with the word that is formed. A picture would help the child connect the newly formed words to their meanings. As the words are quickly read aloud by the computer program, they are highlighted in yellow, but that is difficult to even see with all that is happening on the screen.
In the end, there is even more sensory over-stimulation as the lights flash and bells/whistles ring.
Any logical system for learning letters/sounds will always use a visual image that connects with the letter/sound that is being taught. C is cow, h is for hen, p is for pig, and so on.
What is a child really learning with a program such as this? It is hard to tell. Perhaps they are learning to click on random objects to make lights flash and bells ring.
Note: This sample lesson was featured in the Washington Post article "Preschool is good for children, but it is expensive, so Utah is offering it online." October 9, 2015.
resources
Disrupted Childhood: The Cost of Persuasive Design
https://5rightsframework.com/static/5Rights-Disrupted-Childhood.pdf
Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair on Screen Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjnFPo_mk6s
"We Tested Apps For Children. Half Failed to Protect Their Data"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/07/27/we-tested-apps-for-children-half-failed-to-protect-their-data/?utm_term=.3ca7a2e04b60
AppCensus: Learn the Privacy Cost of Free Apps // UC Berkeley, International Computer Science Institute
https://www.appcensus.mobi/
Sample privacy/security analysis of widely used "ABC Mouse" app (scroll over bolded parts)
https://www.appcensus.mobi/app/mobi.abcmouse.academy_goo/7040001
How Game Apps That Captivate Kids Have Been Collecting Their Data // The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/12/technology/kids-apps-data-privacy-google-twitter.html
Online Preschool: "Innovation"? Or Exploitation? // Invited presentation for Screen Time Action Network Conference, Boston, MA http://bit.ly/onlinepreschools
Six Ways and Counting that Big Data Systems are Harming Society // Dr. Joanna Redden, Data Justice Lab
https://theconversation.com/six-ways-and-counting-that-big-data-systems-are-harming-society-88660
Critical Perspectives on Social Impact Bonds and "Pay For Success" Contracts
http://bit.ly/sibgamble
Promises and Perils of Social Impact Bonds // Ken Saltman, Education Analysis Policy Archives (2017)
https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/download/2640/1918
Bonded Life: Technologies of Racial Finance: From Slavery to Philanthrocapitalism // (Kish & Leroy 2015)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09502386.2015.1017137
Asleep at the Switch: Schoolhouse Commercialism, Student Privacy, and the Failure of Policymaking // National Education Policy Center
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/schoolhouse-commercialism-2017
Transparency and the Marketplace for Student Data // Fordham Center for Law and Information Policy
https://www.fordham.edu/info/23830/research/10517/transparency_and_the_marketplace_for_student_data/1
The Structural Consequences of Big Data-Driven Education // Zeide, 2017
http://bit.ly/EdBigData
Raising the Ideal Child? Algorithms, Quantification, and Prediction
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443718798901
The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement
https://listen.datasociety.net/rise-big-data-policing-surveillance-race-future-law-enforcement/
Data Exploitation // Privacy International
https://privacyinternational.org/topics/data-exploitation
K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center
https://k12cybersecure.com/
Parent Coalition for Student Privacy
https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/
https://5rightsframework.com/static/5Rights-Disrupted-Childhood.pdf
Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair on Screen Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjnFPo_mk6s
"We Tested Apps For Children. Half Failed to Protect Their Data"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/07/27/we-tested-apps-for-children-half-failed-to-protect-their-data/?utm_term=.3ca7a2e04b60
AppCensus: Learn the Privacy Cost of Free Apps // UC Berkeley, International Computer Science Institute
https://www.appcensus.mobi/
Sample privacy/security analysis of widely used "ABC Mouse" app (scroll over bolded parts)
https://www.appcensus.mobi/app/mobi.abcmouse.academy_goo/7040001
How Game Apps That Captivate Kids Have Been Collecting Their Data // The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/12/technology/kids-apps-data-privacy-google-twitter.html
Online Preschool: "Innovation"? Or Exploitation? // Invited presentation for Screen Time Action Network Conference, Boston, MA http://bit.ly/onlinepreschools
Six Ways and Counting that Big Data Systems are Harming Society // Dr. Joanna Redden, Data Justice Lab
https://theconversation.com/six-ways-and-counting-that-big-data-systems-are-harming-society-88660
Critical Perspectives on Social Impact Bonds and "Pay For Success" Contracts
http://bit.ly/sibgamble
Promises and Perils of Social Impact Bonds // Ken Saltman, Education Analysis Policy Archives (2017)
https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/download/2640/1918
Bonded Life: Technologies of Racial Finance: From Slavery to Philanthrocapitalism // (Kish & Leroy 2015)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09502386.2015.1017137
Asleep at the Switch: Schoolhouse Commercialism, Student Privacy, and the Failure of Policymaking // National Education Policy Center
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/schoolhouse-commercialism-2017
Transparency and the Marketplace for Student Data // Fordham Center for Law and Information Policy
https://www.fordham.edu/info/23830/research/10517/transparency_and_the_marketplace_for_student_data/1
The Structural Consequences of Big Data-Driven Education // Zeide, 2017
http://bit.ly/EdBigData
Raising the Ideal Child? Algorithms, Quantification, and Prediction
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443718798901
The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement
https://listen.datasociety.net/rise-big-data-policing-surveillance-race-future-law-enforcement/
Data Exploitation // Privacy International
https://privacyinternational.org/topics/data-exploitation
K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center
https://k12cybersecure.com/
Parent Coalition for Student Privacy
https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/