Mesquite Independent School District, serving around 40,000 students in the suburbs of Dallas, has developed a successful early literacy initiative powered by city-wide dedication to a unified vision: School readiness and early literacy are vital for long-term success, and they start at birth.
LENA - Building brains through early talk
Webinars (3)
Structuring effective community partnerships to grow impact (work smarter, not harder)
A discussion with leadership from community-wide programs about key elements for building successful partnerships.
What the Texas Rising Star QRIS can tell us about quality child care interactions
In Texas, the most recent review of the early childhood QRIS called for a greater emphasis to be placed on caregiver-child interactions. How is Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas using LENA Grow to help child care providers increase quality adult-child interactions?
Blog Posts (22)
How Early Head Start/Head Start grantees use LENA Grow to meet performance standards during federal review
“The federal review team was impressed that LENA Grow was something we were doing for our teachers in the classroom,” said Jon-Vincent Jamir, PACT’s Head Start Area Manager and LENA Grow coach.
Lakeshore® partnership offers materials to help early educators increase quality interactions in the classroom
Developed in partnership with Lakeshore®, four kits are available to provide age-appropriate materials that align with the topics teachers explore during LENA Grow’s five-week coaching sequences and beyond.
LENA Grow goes statewide in Tennessee
“The TN CCR&R sees the LENA Grow program as an important piece of the puzzle in proper language and socio-emotional development for children in Tennessee,” said Heather Hicks, Director of the TN CCR&R.
Bridging research and practice in early childhood education: SproutFive’s independent evaluation of LENA Grow
True to their commitment to bridging research and practice, SproutFive embarked on an independent evaluation of LENA Grow soon after implementing the program.
A renewed emphasis on adult-child interactions in Texas
A recent change to the Texas Rising Star QRIS assigns more weight to the importance of adult-child interactions in early childhood programs.
How to build staff buy-in in early learning environments
For early childhood education leaders, getting staff buy-in is an essential part of launching a program like LENA Grow or LENA Start.
Q & A: How a philanthropic investment in LENA advanced the early childhood portfolio of the Overdeck Family Foundation
We sat down with Carly Roberts, Program Officer, Early Impact at Overdeck Family Foundation, to learn more about why the foundation invested in LENA and what’s surprised them along the way.
Launch Fund Grant Recipients 2020 – Welcome to our new partners!
In the month of June, we made awards to 12 communities to launch LENA programs. We are pleased to introduce you to our newest LENA partners!
Universities use LENA to put early childhood research into action
Universities that use LENA are putting research into action, producing valuable data, and creating hands-on learning opportunities for students and faculty.
Implementing statewide PD for ECE teachers in Mississippi: Questions from the webinar
We had the privilege of hosting a webinar featuring our partners in Mississippi to learn how they implemented LENA Grow at a statewide level. Here, we answer common questions that arose during the webinar.
Q&A with Dr. Loretta Rudd: How University of Memphis is broadening their collective impact approach to scale early childhood programming
Through a collective impact model, the University of Memphis is implementing LENA programs to build stronger families, increase teachers’ skills, and support students’ learning in their local community.
Providence Talks replication: Your questions answered!
We’re answering questions submitted during last week’s webinar about early childhood innovation at the municipal level.
Five cities will replicate Providence Talks, offering LENA programs for parents and teachers citywide
Five cities have been selected to replicate Providence Talks — one of the first early language initiatives implemented at the municipal level — with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Georgia Department of Public Health uses community partnerships and Project LAUNCH funding to scale parent programming county-wide
The team at the West Central Health District drew on a range of existing community partners to find space to run classes, recruit parents, and scale impact.
Matching funds support launch of new LENA Start sites nationwide
Over the last two years, LENA Start has quickly expanded into 35 communities across the United States and Canada. Read about our newest community partners launching LENA Start this fall through our ongoing matching funds opportunity.
LENA Programming Aligns with Head Start’s Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework
Learn more about how LENA’s programs support key aspects of Head Start’s updated Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework.
Urban library expands reach and impact through community partnerships
San Mateo County Libraries has built successful partnerships to boost the reach and impact of their programs. Learn about how they are delivering LENA Start through partnerships with San Mateo County Housing Authority, Ravenswood Family Health Center, and The Primary School.
LENA Launches Local “Learning Site” for LENA Grow
We’re excited to announce the first LENA Grow site in Colorado in partnership with the Aspen Center for Child Development, and this time LENA staff will be playing an active role in the coaching!
First Book Partnership Brings High-quality Books at Lower Cost
LENA is teaming up with First Book, a nonprofit working exclusively with programs and schools serving children in need to ensure they have access to top-quality books. Through First Book’s LENA Marketplace, partners can browse a curated collection of bilingual and wordless books.
Teachers, children benefit from LENA Grow Pilot with Teaching Strategies
During the four-month pilot, LENA technology was used to measure talk and provide objective feedback to early childhood educators in two early childhood classrooms in central Virginia. In one classroom, an impressive 87.5 percent of children experienced an increase in either adult words or conversational turns.
State of Georgia Adopts LENA Grow
The first of six new LENA Grow™ implementations nationwide, the program will serve 800 children in 16 centers across the state during the first year!
LENA Start partners with school-readiness texting program to add continued support for parents after graduation
Parents who graduate from LENA Start will be enrolled in Ready4K, an evidence-based program which sends texts to parents with suggestions on how to increase interaction with children.
Articles (3)
Virginia Beach family featured in ‘The Right to Read’ social justice documentary
“This is truly a crisis because two-thirds of our children in this country are reading below grade level,” said filmmaker and director Jenny Mackenzie. “We have to decide, do we have the political will to stand up and say ‘Enough?’ This is a huge issue and it is continuing to perpetuate systemic racism because we are leaving Black and Brown children behind?”
New language development program available for Tennessee early child care educators
The Tennessee Child Care Resource and Referral Network recently incorporated the LENA Grow interactive language development program into their training for infant, toddler and preschooler educators.
Mesquite ISD offering free classes for parents of young kids to help promote verbal development
Outside Dallas, Texas, Mesquite Independent School District is gearing up for LENA Start through its Read, Play, Talk initiative.