The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop focuses on the new challenges children face today, asking the 21st century equivalent of Joan Ganz Cooney's original question, "How can emerging media help children learn?" The Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab that catalyzes and supports research, development, and investment in digital media technologies to advance children's learning. The focus of The Cooney Center is on literacy development for diverse learners. Programs address vital foundational capabilities, such as reading and writing, with a special emphasis on struggling readers who risk educational failure if they do not master basic competencies by grade 4. The Cooney Center is also focusing national attention on evolving "new literacies" that children need to compete and cooperate in the 21st century. Major initiatives focus on inter-cultural understanding, media literacy, and advancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning -- all of which have become critical in an interconnected world.