5 Significant stories 1.) http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/12/03/13tools.h34.html
I thought this article was very interesting because there is always a lot of talk about early childhood education and how important it really is. These children used a new approach called “Tools of the Mind” where the children act out roles and scenes based on everyday experience like dining out. This had a significant boost for kindergarteners including higher reasoning, attention control, reading, vocabulary and math performance. That really struck out to me because all those things I just listed are very crucial and important for a child to learn, and if they learn that at such an early age such as Kindergarten, they can use those tools later on in the future. Another thing I found interesting in this article is that the effects were strongest for in high-poverty schools. They showed lower physical signs of stress because of the tools of the mind. That is incredible because children in high poverty schools may struggle to learn especially when most high poverty schools do not have the tools they need necessary in order to have an appropriate and effective education. In the article, they state that “what I think we found surprising is, children who were higher on the developmental scale in Kindergarten were able to do so much more than we ever found possible- like a level of writing we never imagined in Kindergarten, but also for children on the other side of the developmental scale, we found so much growth”. This article was interesting to me because I had no idea that a simple thing like a play could benefit these children so much and also later on in their future as well. The Tools of the Mind was based on a premises created in the 1920s and 1930s. This was created by a Russian Psychologist named Lev Vygotsky.

2.) http://www.education.com/magazine/article/america-failing-math/
This article talked about how students in America have lower math scores when compared to the rest of the world. I found this significant because it really is shocking how we low we place when we were compared and how even white students or students from college educated families still lagged behind compared to the rest of the world. This had nothing to do with race.

3). http://www.education.com/magazine/article/4-day-school-week/
This article talks about how in Peach County, Georgia, have schools that have only a four day school week. They did this because they had money budgets and this was significant to me because it really worth it to shorten kid’s education time? Will this have a negative effect on the kids in the end? I would think so.

4. ) http://www.education.com/magazine/article/the-gender-gap/
This article talks about the gender gap with boys and girls. It says that boys lag behind girls and that girls are exceeding more. It talks about different reasons why this could be. I think this is significant because it is very interesting that this article states that boys are at a developmental disadvantage when it comes to early literacy challenges.
5.) http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Ed_Academic_Preschools/
This article talks about how pre-schools offer children no long term advantages academically, and research supports this fact. I found this significant and very interesting because I had always assumed that preschool would benefit children, but according to this article, it does not.