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At the inaugural American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Early Childhood Learning Summit in Miami, Florida, a roomful of superintendents from around the country listened intently as Alberto M. Carvalho answered a critical question about the future of American education—what “moon shot” should a new president challenge the nation to achieve? Mr. Carvalho’s answer: Within 8 years, every child born in the first year of that presidency should have achieved proficiency in all 3rd-grade subjects, with a solid foundation of academic and learning skills upon which to build a complete education that would truly prepare him or her for life, work, and citizenship in the 21st century.

The room erupted with applause.

We’re pleased to announce that ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy recently passed the milestone of 2,000,000,000learning activities completed!

That’s an average of almost 200 learning activities each for the more than 10 million children who have enjoyed and learned from ABCmouse since it launched in November 2010.

These are more than just big numbers. Research shows that the more ABCmouse learning activities children complete, the greater the educational impact. That’s because every learning activity is designed to achieve specific curriculum objectives that contribute to a strong academic foundation for every child.

We’re proud that ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy has become a trusted early learning program for more than 65,000 classroom teachers across the country. However, district-level educators have asked for additional features to support implementation of ABCmouse across all of their early elementary classrooms, with the goal of ensuring that all of their younger students become 3rd-grade-ready. To meet this critical need, we are excited to announce today the launch of ABCmouse for Schools, a scalable solution to meet the pre-k through 2nd grade needs of school districts and school groups in the U.S. and internationally.

ABCmouse for Schools offers two solutions: ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, a comprehensive supplemental curriculum that builds a strong foundation for academic success across subject areas required for 3rd grade readiness; and the new ABCmouse English Language Learning Academy, which can be used by teachers as a core program or as a rich supplemental resource to provide a developmentally appropriate English language immersion experience.

As a company, our mission is to help children everywhere build a foundation for academic success. It was with that in mind that we originally created ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, which has become a trusted curriculum for millions of parents and more than 65,000 teachers. To further support families and early childhood educators in preparing children for kindergarten, today we are releasing an unprecedented, comprehensive analysis of Kindergarten Readiness standards across all 50 states. The Report reveals substantial common ground among state Kindergarten Readiness standards, with 15 specific skills that 85 percent or more of states would like to see children acquire before entering kindergarten. 

Yesterday we released an unprecedented, comprehensive analysis of Kindergarten Readiness standards across all 50 states. Now we are thrilled to share news of another empowering Kindergarten Readiness resource that we are making available to families and caregivers. Based on the common standards identified in our Kindergarten Readiness Report, we have developed an in-depth Kindergarten Readiness assessment, which parents can use with the ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy curriculum to help better prepare children for kindergarten. Available in a new ABCmouse Assessment Center, the easy-to-use Kindergarten Readiness assessment was developed with guidance from the leading education and assessment research organization SRI International, and from the independent research institution NORC at the University of Chicago.

Children that have access to high-quality early education learning experiences have been shown to be better prepared for kindergarten and subsequently more successful in school. As part of our ongoing efforts to support such experiences for young children, Age of Learning partnered with the Albina Head Start program in Portland, Oregon, which provides educational services to hundreds of underserved families, to offer children free access to ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy. This case study shows that the more ABCmouse was used in classrooms during the school year, the better prepared those students were for kindergarten. Teachers also found that ABCmouse helped engage families and fostered a meaningful classroom-to-home connection.

Since we first launched ABCmouse, parents and teachers have eagerly asked us when we’d be growing beyond kindergarten. Today we are excited to announce a significant expansion of our award-winning ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy: the addition of a comprehensive supplementary 1st grade curriculum with more than 2,000 new learning activities and a new 1st grade classroom experience. With this new launch, ABCmouse now offers more than 650 lessons and 7,000 standards-based activities.