# Presentation: 468075

## Mission, Methods, Market & Muppets: Sesame Street’s 37th Experimental Season Pursuing Educational & Artistic ExcellenceThe Market Research Event October 2006

*Brought to you by: Jennifer Kotler, Ph.D.*
*Director of Domestic Research*

**Mission, Methods, Market & Muppets: ****Sesame Street’s 37****th**** Experimental ****Season Pursuing Educational & ****Artistic Excellence****The Market Research Event ****October 2006**

## In 1969 a little street filled with laughter, learning, and promise launched a revolution in children’s television. 

## The 1960s

**The 1960s**

**The beginning**

**Notes:**
Time of Turbulence
 Controversial war
 Riots in our inner cities
 Assassinations
Great Texan – LBJ launched the War on Poverty
 Head Start
 PBS
 Vista – Job Corps

## +

- Unique Model

- Visionary Funders

**An Experiment that Worked...**

- The U.S. Office of Education
- Ford Foundation
- Carnegie Corporation of New York

- =

## Sesame WorkshopThe Workshop Difference

**Who We Are**
- A nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children worldwide by addressing their critical developmental needs.
**What We Do**
- We create innovative, engaging content that maximizes the educational power of media to help all children reach their highest potential.
**How We Do It**
- Through a cross-sectoral approach that brings together government agencies, broadcasters, NGO’s, educators, child development experts, and international development organizations to achieve sustainable results.

## Our Test

**“****Does the organization make such a unique contribution to the communities it touches and does its work with such unadulterated excellence that if it were to disappear, would [it] leave a hole that could not be easily filled by any other institution on the planet?”**
- -  Jim Collins, *Good To Great** *

**Our Test**

## Slide 7

## Reaching Children in Multiple Platforms

**Interactive**

**TV Programming***120+ Countries*

**Community ****Outreach Projects**
*Healthy Habits for Life,**SS Music Works,**You Can Ask!*

**Product Licensing** *700+ licensees worldwide*

**Film***Elmo in Grouchland*

**Themed****Entertainment**

**Online***sesamestreet.com, pbskids.org*

**Publishing**

**Magazines**

**Home Videos**

**Theme Parks** *6 sites worldwide*

**Research***Domestic**International*

**Radio Programming** *South Africa*

**Cable Networks**

**Reaching Children in Multiple Platforms**

## United States

**United States**

***#1 with Mom***
- #1 family/mom brand in the world according to Y&R1
- 78% say Sesame Street is a name you can trust2
- 72% of new Moms grew up with Sesame Street3
- 73% watch Sesame Street nearly every day3
***Reaching All Fans***
- Boasts 74 million U.S. graduates and 3 generations
- Daily broadcast on PBS reaches 98% of U.S. households
- Nickelodeon only reaches 81% & Disney 78%
- 8 million unique Sesame Street viewers each week4
***Award-Winning Programming***
- 101 Emmy® Awards – more than any other show in television history
- Winner of Outstanding Preschool Series Emmy® Award for 11 consecutive years
- 26 new hour-long episodes each year

- 1 Source: Y&R Brand Asset Evaluator, 2003;
- 2 Source: Sesame Workshop Brand Tracking Study, June 2004;
- 3 Source: Simmons Re-contact Study, June 2004;
- 4 Source: NTI/PBS PP, Sept. 2003 – Aug 2004

## We have been engaged in co-productions on every continent of the world

**We have been engaged in co-productions on every continent of the world**

- France - 2005

- Kosovo - 2004

- Bangladesh - 2004

## How We Work: The Sesame Workshop Model

**How We Work: ****The Sesame Workshop Model**

**Sesame Workshop products are designed ****to be both educational and entertaining**
- An innovative method of applying and integrating expertise in production, educational content, and research with children
- Effective for more than 30 years with evident benefits for childrenaround the world

## Meeting local educational needs

**Egypt:**
- Girls’ Education
- Basic Skills
- Health
**South Africa:**
- Diversity
- Literacy, Numeracy, and Life Skills
- HIV/AIDS
**Israel/Palestine/Jordan:**
- Respect &
- 	Understanding

**Mexico:**
-   Health, Safety, Nutrition
-   Environment
-   Gender Equity
-   Literacy
**Kosovo:**
-  Mutual Respect &
-       Understanding
**Russia:**
** **Diversity
-  Preparation for Life in an
-  	 Open Society
**Bangladesh:**
-   Girls’ Education
-   Basic Skills
-   Critical Thinking

## Educational Impact

**Turkey:**     	Improved literacy and numeracy skills (Sahin, 1990);
**Portugal:**   	More positive perspective about school
- 	(Brederode-Santos, 1993);
**Mexico:**     	Better performance on letter recognition, numeric and geometric skills (UNICEF, 1996);
**Russia:**      	Literacy and math skills at a faster rate; greater facility in basic financial literacy (purchasing choices) and greater awareness of children with disabilities (Ulitsa Sezam Research Team, 1998);
**Israel/Palestine:****	**More positive sense of self and the “other” culture
- 	(International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2003)

*Children learn from exposure to Sesame Street.  In particular they gain:*

## Summative Evaluations of Sesame Street

- _Year_		_“Vendor”_	          _Design_	        _Ages_

- 1990-		Univ. of Kansas	Longitudinal 		2-5 &
- 1994		Early Window 	Viewing Diaries	4-7			Project

- Measures: 	Initial language skills (primary language 		scale), Peabody Picture Vocabulary, Letter 		Word Recognition, reading comprehension, 		counting, inequality, arithmetic, school 		readiness (colors, shapes, letters, 			numbers, spatial size relations)

## Summative Evaluations of Sesame Street

- _Year_		_“Vendor”_	          _Design_	        _Ages_

- 1994		Recontact Study	Longitudinal 		15-19
- 		Univ. of Kansas	from the 1981-83
- 		Univ. of Mass.	study

- Measures: 	Academic achievement, GPA in English, 		mathematics, science, competence beliefs 		& value attached to achievement, leisure 		reading, creativity (fluency of ideas), 			aggression (verbal & physical), body image

**Summative Evaluations of *****Sesame Street***

## Outreach

##    Sesame Workshop’s Response to 9/11

- Cultural Diversity/ Inclusion
- Coping with Loss
- Dealing with a Bully
- Coping with Fear

## Results of Study

- Children learned positive coping strategies for “inclusion” that lasted through the week’s follow up
- Children learned positive strategies for “loss” but they did not follow through for the week
- Children learned negative strategies for “bullying”---as a result, we edited the segment.

## You Can Ask!

**You Can Ask!**

**Notes:**
You Can Ask!  Is a multi-lingual, multi-media initiative providing tools and strategies for parents and caregivers to help children cope with stress and trauma. 

Created by a team of educators and researchers in the aftermath of 9/11, You Can Ask! was initially produced for distribution in the NY/NJ/CT tri-state area through funding from Project Liberty and the Federal Emergency Management Agency 

Materials available in English, Spanish, and Chinese 
The outreach materials are also intended as a model for children suffering from other traumatic events such as dealing with the war, facing illness or death of a loved one, or worrying about moving to a new home or school.  The materials also support these children in handling concerns about their own safety and the safety of those closest to them.

Provided to mental health offices, crisis counseling service providers, schools and child care programs in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

## “Healthy Habits for Life” Content Elements

- DVD/Home Video

- Sesame Street Season 36

- Print/Publishing

- Online

- PSAs

- Outreach Materials

- Live Entertainment

- Licensing

**Notes:**
Though the show has always incorporated content to address physical welfare, last season this was emphasized as part of an initiative called “Healthy Habits for Life.”  With the occurrence of childhood obesity growing more prominent, Sesame Street is taking a proactive approach to help curb this growing epidemic in the U.S.  Taking advantage of the window of opportunity to develop good habits early in life, segments in each show of the 36th season were dedicated to educating young children about healthy lifestyle practices.  

In addition to show segments, PSAs with U.S. Senators, museum exhibit, products (Earth’s Best, Musselman’s, Apple & Eve, Del Monte), promotions with Stemilt and Sunkist, Happy Healthy Monsters DVD, books, magazine, Sesame Street Live show

Run Healthy Habits highlight reel

## Research Design

**Breakfast **

- Donut          vs.          Cereal

**Dinner**

- Lean chicken   vs.   Cheeseburger

- & salad                   & onion rings

**Notes:**
(1) Paired personality/emotional traits with food choices

Personal Traits
-positive: happy, healthy, smart, cool, and friendly
-negative: sad, mad, lazy, doesn’t know a lot and mean

Showed children picture of a child exhibiting a certain mood (happy, sad, mean, friendly), and asked them what would that child eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack given these options.

Food Pairs
For Breakfast:  donut versus cereal
For Lunch:   vegetable soup versus French fries
For Dinner:  lean chicken & salad versus cheeseburger and onion rings
For snack:   apple versus potato chips

## Children Choose Healthy Food ...Sometimes

**Notes:**
Slide shows the average percent of time children chose the healthy foods

Significant age by choice interaction...

Note that there was an increase in age in terms of what children knew to be healthy.

However, there was not an increase in age by the food choices children made for themselves—and they generally were the less healthy choices.

## Slide 23

## Talk, Listen, Connect 

**Talk, Listen, Connect **

- Bi-lingual outreach initiative to help the young children (ages 3-5) of the military cope with the feelings, challenges, and concerns experienced during various phases of deployment: pre-deployment, deployment and homecoming.
- DVD
- Parent/Caregiver Magazine
- Child Activity Poster
- 483,514 children of active duty military members and 177,888 children of Reserve and Guard members are less than five years of age
- Approximately 400,000 kits produced and distributed directly to military families
- All materials are available online at _[www.sesameworkshop.org/tlc](http://www.sesameworkshop.org/tlc)_

**Notes:**
Focus groups were held in both English and Spanish.
Held at:
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Norfolk, Virginia 
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina 
We had sample drafts of materials (outline for the print and DVD content) for them to review and provide comments as well as interview them on their needs in preparing young children for a parent’s deployment.   

Families said:
wanted to speak to their young children about deployment but did not know how to do so since they were so young. 
Family members wanted specific language and activities on how to explain why a parent is going away for a long time as well as how to describe the length of time a parent will be away.
Family members wanted to know about ways to help children keep in touch with the deployed parent. 
Family members wanted to see other military families model ways to talk with children about all the stages of deployment.
Acknowledge and support many contributions military families make.   

Response to the draft materials was overwhelming positive, so much so families wanted to take the sample materials home with them.

From Child Care Providers and Family Readiness Support Staff
Inform other individuals who care for military families’ young children that a parent is experiencing deployment.   
Stress the need for parents of young children to talk to their young children about a parent’s deployment as many times it is discussed with older children and the explanation for younger children is left to child care providers. 

Goals of the Project
Helping young children prepare for the various stages of a parent’s deployment (pre-deployment, deployment, and homecoming).
 Ways to keep family members connected during a parent’s deployment.
Offering specific activities and strategies to talk with, comfort, and reassure young children during the various stages of a parent’s deployment in a manner that will fit into the daily routines of family life. 

Impact Study
A nation-wide phone survey in English and Spanish is underway to determine the impact of these materials with military families and young children. 

## How to stay relevant after 30+ years?

- Conduct research to inform practice
- Maintain awareness of current educational needs of children
- Develop partnerships with organizations that support the mission

## How to stay relevant after 30+ years?

## For more information on research, please contact:

*For more information on research, please contact:*
*jennifer.kotler@sesameworkshop.org*