The Wall Street Journal – Leslie Brody
“For more than a year, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign for free preschool has focused to a great extent on expanding enrollment at an unprecedented clip. On Tuesday, his team will push a new agenda for 4-year-olds: Math. Department of Education officials said they plan to spend $6 million in the coming fiscal year to roll out “Building Blocks,’’ a math curriculum that has had good results in Boston and other cities. It uses puzzles, games, art projects and songs to help children learn more about numbers, shapes and patterns. Some studies suggest early math skills are a strong predictor of success in school and later in life. But researchers have found that beyond the most basic counting games, preschools across the country tend to ignore math. Josh Wallack, a deputy chancellor, said he hoped about 13,500 children in 750 district and community-based classrooms in the city—almost one-fifth of them—would be using Building Blocks in the fall, and the vast majority would be doing so in three years.”(more)