Doug Dohring's Tumblr Blog

Doug Dohring was the founder and longtime CEO of Age of Learning, Inc., a leading edtech innovator. Doug and his team at Age of Learning created the multi-award–winning ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, a first-of-its-kind educational MMO, Adventure Academy, new Age of Learning Schools Solutions My Math Academy and My Reading Academy, and other programs that have helped children everywhere build a strong foundation for academic success and a lifelong love of learning.

[dougdohring]

I'm thrilled to announced the launch of Homeschool+™, a new program from Age of Learning that provides home educators with resources and tools to guide their child’s education and inspire a lifelong love of learning. Developed for children ages 4-8, Homeschool+ offers a comprehensive curriculum, adaptive math and reading learning programs, and robust home educator tools for planning lessons and tracking progress, customizable to meet each family’s unique homeschooling needs.

“Age of Learning spent more than a decade developing research-based programs that engage children and accelerate learning”Tweet this

The Homeschool+ curriculum features Age of Learning’s research-validated digital learning solutions My Math Academy, and My Reading Academy. Based on well-established principles of learning science research, these programs enable young children to master essential math concepts and build foundational literacy skills. They help accelerate learning by identifying each child’s strengths and growth opportunities, then dynamically adapting the selection and sequence of learning experiences to meet each child’s needs.

In addition to math and reading, Homeschool+ offers art, science, social studies, language arts, music, and Spanish. These additional courses, all designed by education experts, feature content from ABCmouse’s award-winning, research-validated curriculum, augmented by lesson plans that take full advantage of the learning opportunities of the home environment. Home educators can select from a broad variety of lessons to address their children’s interests, each one offering online and offline learning activities.

In addition to its curriculum, Homeschool+ supports home educators with tools that enable them to effectively manage their child's learning journey while providing insights into their child's progress. This includes a Lesson Planner that gives educators complete control of their child’s program, with options to create custom lessons to complement their child's interests and needs, to reassign incomplete lessons, and to repeat lessons for extra review.

Homeschool+ also features a Progress Tracker with individualized dashboards that include detailed information about each student’s progress. The math and reading dashboards provide insights on each child's progress, including time spent, skill mastery, and areas of struggle. The Arts, Sciences & General Knowledge Dashboard tracks lesson progress and completed activities.

Prior to release, Homeschool+ was extensively tested with veteran homeschooling families, earning very positive reviews. As one parent put it, “It was just so simple. It didn't just fit in our day, it made our day easier. And there is so much there that he's learning that I want to teach him.”

To learn more about Homeschool+, visit www.Homeschoolplus.com.

[dougdohring]

Kindergartners Using Age of Learning’s My Reading Academy™ Significantly Outperform Peers on State-Administered Literacy Assessments

LOS ANGELES, June 13, 2023--Age of Learning, leading education technology innovator and creator of the widely popular ABCmouse® Early Learni

[dougdohring]

Age of Learning Wins SIIA CODiE Award for Most Innovative Edtech Company

LOS ANGELES, June 27, 2023--Age of Learning, leading education technology innovator and creator of the widely popular ABCmouse® Early Learni

[dougdohring]

The Age of Learning Foundation Appoints Veteran Global Education Leader Mubuso Zamchiya as Managing Director - Age of Learning Blog

We are thrilled to share that the Age of Learning Foundation today announced the appointment of Mubuso Zamchiya as Managing Director. The Fo

[dougdohring]

With the addition of Weird But True! 10: 350 Outrageous Facts, Age of Learning's digital book library now carries 500-plus Nat Geo Kids titles.

This morning, Age of Learning announced that our ReadingIQ digital library now includes the largest collection of National Geographic Kids digital books available anywhere! Learn more ...

[dougdohring]

Reading Tips for Parents from a National Teachers Hall of Fame Teacher, Dr. Rebecca Palacios

A colleague, friend, and National Teachers Hall of Fame inductee, Dr. Rebecca A. Palacios has served as a Sr. Curriculum Advisor and member of our Curriculum Board at Age of Learning, since 2009. She has worked with us on strategic curriculum planning and the design of age-appropriate learning activities for our digital learning programs, including ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy and ReadingIQ.

She recently became a contributor for US News & World Report, and today her first article was published.

"9 Ways to Make Sure Your Child Loves Reading" offers parents essential early literacy tips to help foster their children's love of reading and help them develop the skills needed to better navigate the future as adults.

I encourage parents with young children to read Dr. Palacios' article here...

[ageoflearning]

Understanding the Reading Gap and How to Help Close It

Reading is the foundation of education and vital to children’s success in school and beyond. Regular reading not only improves vocabulary and school performance, but also helps children develop empathy and self-confidence. And when children fall behind in reading, learning other subjects becomes increasingly difficult with each passing school year. Students unable to read at grade level by 4th grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school.

According to the Nation’s Report Card, more than 6 out of 10 U.S. 4th graders are not reading at grade level.2 For low-income students at high-poverty schools, that number is worse: 8 in 10 are not proficient.3

To understand some of the causes of this reading gap and identify solutions to help close it, Age of Learning recently conducted nationwide surveys of more than 1,000 parents and 1,000 teachers of children ages 2 to 12. Participants reported on children’s access to books and reading habits, and described what they see as the major obstacles to developing confident and successful readers. The data reveals three important factors contributing to the reading gap.

Read more about this study on AgeofLearning.com…

[ageoflearning]

Today we launched ReadingIQ™, an advanced digital library for children 12 and under, which gives families and teachers access to thousands of high-quality books, curated by experts to advance literacy. Building on the success of ABCmouse.com® Early Learning Academy, we are bringing the same research-based, educator-led approach to the ReadingIQ digital library. ReadingIQ provides the best Continue reading...

[ageoflearning]

Did you know that Age of Learning’s ABCmouse for Teachers team has launched an ABCmouse Ambassador Program? Exclusively for our most engaged and passionate teachers, the program is designed to harness the expertise of our large community of educators. Our Teacher Ambassadors graciously share their insights with our product team to help ensure we’re creating the best possible experiences for teachers and increasing the impact of ABCmouse in classrooms around the country. Ambassadors also enjoy many perks, including early access to new ABCmouse for Teachers features, exclusive access to additional resources and professional development, opportunities to have regional travel covered when presenting about ABCmouse at conferences, and invitations to ambassador-only community events and contests.

[dougdohring]

Bring Learning Home Initiative Expands in the Bay Area, Increasing Access to Early Education for Low-Income Bay Area Families Through Public Libraries - Age of Learning

Leer en español… The Bring Learning Home Initiative is expanding its reach in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing families throughout the Bay Area with free home access to ABCmouse Early Learning Academy via public libraries. Local families can now “check out” ABCmouse accounts for four weeks at a time from the San José Public Continue reading...

[dougdohring]

I decided to share some photos from the Halloween costume contest for Age of Learning staff. Halloween is always an amazing day in the office with so many creative people!

[dougdohring]

We recently welcomed Dr. Marc Hernandez to the Age of Learning Curriculum Board. Dr. Hernandez is a nationally prominent development psychologist and the Director of the Early Childhood Research and Practice Collaborative at NORC at the University of Chicago, where he also serves as Principal Research Scientist. Dr. Hernandez's research focuses on how children develop literacy, mathematics, and science skills and how best to develop and evaluate programs that improve educational outcomes for early learners. Dr. Hernandez oversees large‐scale projects including experimental and quasi‐experimental studies, mixed-methods research, psychometric analyses for assessment and survey development, and program evaluation.

[dougdohring]

Expanding Opportunity Through Our Education Access Initiatives - Age of Learning

At Age of Learning our mission is simple: We’re committed to helping children everywhere build a strong foundation for academic success and foster a lifelong love of learning. We measure progress by our ability to increase learning outcomes for all children, particularly those who are furthest from opportunity. Children from low-income families begin to fall Continue reading...

Children from low-income families begin to fall behind their peers in vocabulary development before they’re even two years old. By the time they reach fourth grade, 80 percent of these children are not proficient readers (Source: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading). This learning deficit has long-term effects on children’s academic future, including their likelihood of graduating from high school.

To help address this challenge, Age of Learning has developed a set of Education Access Initiatives to make our educational programs available for free to children whose families may not be able to afford a subscription.

[dougdohring]

Daring Change in Action: A Conversation with Shauné Zunzanyika

Tides Senior Advisor Shauné Zunzanyika to learn how she applies the idea of Daring Change in her work with Tides partners innovating in quality education.

"I haven’t seen any other programs in which kids who lack access to the most cutting-edge tools can engage with them at their own pace, in their own homes." - Tides Senior Advisor Shauné Zunzanyika, speaking about Age of Learning's Bring Learning Home initiative

[dougdohring]

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Bring Learning Home Initiative is expanding to Lake County, providing families around the county with free home access to ABCmouse Early Learning Academy via the library.

Age of Learning’s Bring Learning Home (BLH) initiative, which allows public library patrons to “check out” ABCmouse accounts to use at home for weeks at a time, recently expanded to the Lake County, CA, library system and was featured on the county newspaper's website. For families who don’t have mobile devices at home, each library location has five mobile-broadband tablets pre-loaded with ABCmouse. Bring Learning Home has already demonstrated impressive results in libraries throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Assessment data shows that children using ABCmouse through this initiative are averaging 20% growth in school readiness skills (in math and literacy)—after just one month! 

[dougdohring]

Introducing the @ageoflearning team behind ABCmouse Mastering Math! Our innovative, game-based, adaptive early learning app (available for Android and iOs)helps young children build a strong understanding of fundamental math concepts essential to success in school. The Age of Learning Mastering Math team started with just a handful of people roughly three and a half years ago and has now grown to 30+ people, comprising 10+ disciplines, including embedded curriculum specialists, animators, data scientists, and more! Their mission: to create personalized learning experiences for children to truly master and retain early math concepts. We’re happy to share their successes with the Tumblr community!

[dougdohring]

A little late for posting about the #EmmyAwards, but I still wanted to share a brief mention and a few photos from the event. @ageoflearning provided provided ABCmouse gift bags that were given to Emmy attendees at the official Emmy Giving Suite by Backstage Events. Here are just a few of the celebrities who stopped to show off their ABCmouse gifts. A big thanks to Tiffany Haddist, Alex Borstein, and Taraji P. Henson!