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I am an historian,
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and what I love about being an historian
is it gives you perspective.
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Today, I'd like to bring that perspective
to education in the United States.
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About the only thing people can agree on
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is the most strategic time
for a child to start learning is early.
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Over 50 years ago, there was
a watershed moment
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in early education
in the US called Head Start.
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Now, historians love watersheds
because it makes it so easy to talk
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about what came before and what's happened since.
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Before Head Start, basically nothing.
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With Head Start, we begin to get
our nation's most at-risk children
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ready for school.
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Since Head Start, we've made strides,
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but there are still
2.2 million children in the US
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without access to early learning,
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or more than half of
the four-year olds in the country.
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That's a problem,
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but the bigger problem is what we know
happens to those children.
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At-risk children who reach school
without basic skills
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are 25 percent more likely to drop out,
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40 percent more likely
to become teen parents,
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and 60 percent less likely
to go to college.
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So if we know how important
early education is,
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why aren't all children getting it?
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There are barriers that the solutions
we've come up with to date
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simply can't overcome.
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Geography: think rural and remote.
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Transportation: think
working parents everywhere.
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Parent choice: no state requires
a four-year old to go to school.
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And cost: the average cost for a state
to educate a preschooler
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is five thousand dollars a year.
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So am I just going
to keep talking about problems?
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No.
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Today, I want to tell you about
a cost-effective, technology-delivered,
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kindergarten readiness program
that can be done in the home.
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It's called UPSTART, and more than
60,000 preschoolers in the US
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have already used it.
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Now, I know what you might be thinking:
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here's another person throwing tech
at a national problem.
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And you'd be partially right.
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We develop early learning software
designed to individualize instruction
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so children can learn at their own pace.
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To do that, we rely on experts from fields
ranging from reading to sociology
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to brain science development
to all aspects of early learning
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to tell us what the software
should do and look like.
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Here's an example.
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(Video) Voice (sings): Zero.
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Zero.
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Zero is the number
that's different from the others.
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Zero is a big round "O."
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It's not like one,
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I'm sure you'll discover.
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Zero is a big round "O."
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(Laughter)
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Claudia Miner: That is "The Zero Song."
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(Laughter)
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And here are Odd Todd and Even Steven
to teach you some things about numbers.
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And here are the Word Birds,
and they're going to show you
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when you blend letter sounds together,
you can form words.
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You can see that instruction
is short, colorful and catchy,
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designed to capture a child's attention.
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But there's another piece to UPSTART
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that makes it different
and more effective.
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UPSTART puts parents in charge
of their children's education.
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We believe, with the right support,
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all parents can get their children
ready for school.
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Here's how it works.
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This is a kindergarten readiness
checklist from the state,
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and almost every state has one.
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We go to parents wherever they are
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and we conduct a key
in-person group training,
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and we tell them the software can check
every reading, math, and science box,
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but they're going to be responsible
for motor skills and self-help skills,
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and together we're going to work
on social emotional learning.