The Pre-K Picture in Minnesota: Dark, But Brightening
Every now and then a high quality editorial appears that helps fully explain the many components of pre-school education and why it is important. At best, editorials take a strong position, provide some background and back up the opinions with lots of background and context. Early Stories came across an excellent editorial in the Star [...]
Pre-School Teachers: Low Pay, High Turnover
EarlyStories spends a lot of time urging journalists to go out and visit pre-kindergarten and early childhood programs to see first hand what is, or is not happening. We came across a article that takes this advice even further with some thoughts on why pre-k teachers turn over so rapidly. Valerie Carver notes the reason [...]
Obama’s Early Childhood Agenda: How to Find the Local Stories
Journalists who are covering early childhood education these days find themselves watching two distinct trends that often diverge: cutbacks in long-planned pre-kindergarten expansion due to state’s economic woes, and a new federal involvement in the lives of children from birth to five. Understanding and covering these dual trends will require some explanation, and that is [...]
When Evidence is Inconclusive: Does Pre-K Work?
The state of Georgia spent more than $216 million on a program to help low-income children get ready for kindergarten, and yet state auditors cannot find any proof that the program is working, according to a story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The program in question is aimed at “at-risk” children — a number that [...]
Why High Quality Pre-K is Part of “Race To the Top”
Journalists are about to start hearing a lot more of the phrase “The Race to the Top.” It’s important to start examining what this phrase means, because it could start taking on a life of its own the way “No Child Left Behind,’‘ did and creep into the lexicon of education reporting without explanation. The [...]
Understanding Obama’s Early Childhood Agenda
EarlyStories spends a lot of time observing and commenting on the way journalists cover early childhood education. It’s a tough area for many who are consumed with the demands of the K-12 beat and may not realize how much the early childhood landscape is changing. That’s one reason the Hechinger Institute on Education and the [...]
A Question Worth Asking: What is a Quality Pre-K?
As cash-strapped states continue to debate expanding early childhood programs and struggle to finance them, EarlyStories credits Patrick Riccards of Eduflack with laying out some important questions about quality. For example, is it possible to quantify results, he asks? Journalists covering these battles would do well to ask such questions at a time when the [...]
As States Ramp Up Pre-K Spending, What Happens in Class?
EarlyStories can’t help applauding when a daily newspaper like the Washington Post give prominent play and space to pre-school stories. The public needs the information more than ever, at a time when the Obama administration is poised to make a large federal investment and as states are being forced to scale back expansion plans. It’s [...]
A look at Universal Preschool, the Pros and Cons
EarlyStories often takes the position that journalists should be out visiting pre-schools and Head Start programs to tell the public what is happening. It would also be nice if journalists could find the time to attend the many debates and press conferences on the issues they care about, but unfortunately, as news organizations scale back [...]
Does Head Start Work? An Effort to Answer
EarlyStories for months has lamented the lack of substantive reporting on Head Start, , the program the United States Department of Health and Human Services started in 1964 that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. It’s an area few journalists delve into, leaving the public without [...]
