A very thoughtful comment on my entry on the Times' magazine piece critiqued it for not giving enough ink to what happens to children from birth on. The writer urged me to read a summary of the 1994 "Starting Points" report from the Carnegie Corp. I did and doing so got my reporterly juices flowing. The report noted that, relative to other developed countries, the U.S. was doing a poor job of providing prenatal care and high quality child care, and was seeing a rise in the number of children living in poverty. The report also said children were growing up with little attention from parents and in single-parent homes, due to divorce and a rise in births to unmarried mothers. The commenter suggested that journalists should be asking: "What Early Intervention Programs have been put into place as a result of
that report? Where are they? What follow-up studies have been done? How has
the Federal Government responded to the report? Is the US still lagging far
behind other industrialized nations in addressing this issue? This is the
true SHAME of our society. Those who analyze test scores never get the
point. The cycle of poverty puts generations at risk before they even enter
this world."

Just in November the government reported that 38% of births are to unwed mothers, an all-time record and twice the percentage it was in the 1980s.

The San Antonio Express-News has a very well-written, thoroughly reported package of stories and graphics on the increasingly academic nature of kindergarten. But, unlike a lot of coverage of this issue, the Express-News' piece delves into both the academic challenges disadvantaged kids face as well as the dilemmas that confront educators who are striving to help them catch up and thrive.

For other journalists interested in exploring this subject, this story offers both a good model and several researchers to turn to: they include Sam Meisels and Frances Stott of the Erikson Institute, Jack Fletcher of the University of Houston, and Dominic Gullo of Queens College, here in New York City. Part of the package is a graphic showing the rate at which various Texas school districts hold back kindergartners. Other journalists could track down this data in the communities they cover and explore the reasons for any disparities they turn up.

The three-part series in the San Antonio Express-News on the transformation of kindergarten is now available here. I like a lot about the series. All of its pieces were meticulously reported and instructive, in the sense that they gave readers insights into the dilemmas and decisions of educators in trying to figure out what's best for kids. It was not sensational in any way but it was interesting and filled with real examples. Different viewpoints were offered but it didn't feel like the "he said-she said" stuff that I often see. I also liked that the reporters talked to a lot of kindergarten teachers who seemed like they were given the freedom to express their professional opinion.

Word to principals and supes who try to "gag" teachers and administrators to prevent them from talking to reporters (OK, that phrasing is probably oh so five years ago, but forgive me, I only hang out on a college campus....) You don't get this kind of coverage that explores the issues you deal with all the time, and that helps parents and policy makers understand those issues, unless you provide access to your classrooms and trust your teachers....

A University of Wisconsin study of the positive effects of pre-school is getting plenty of attention up in Canada. Last Friday the Wall Street Journal published a column that said that more women are staying home to give their children a learning advantage. But the new study suggests preschool may actually do more for many kids.

The key is you really have to look at what happens at home vs. what happens at preschool or centre-based care," lead author Katherine Magnuson, of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said in an interview with Susan Schmidt of the CanWest news service. "While it's true parents can give one-on-one attention, they also run errands, talk to their friends, put (children) in front of the television.

The study, to be published in the forthcoming edition of Early Childhood Research Quarterly, assessed the skills of a sample of 7,748 children at school entry in 1998. The researchers then tested their academic progress in math and reading in the spring of Grades 1 and 3.

The chorus of governors touting a full day of kindergarten--devoted to learning and not just that silly playing around stuff--continues to grow. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is offering $25 million for districts' startup costs. But Hoosier educators say creating the space for full day kindergarten could cost $200 million statewide. The Indianapolis Star made a good contribution to the public's understanding of the investment required by surveying the facilities needs of the districts in their area, and reporting on how many kids attend fullday kindergarten now. The team of reporters assigned to the story also got into the educational issues. One angle I haven't seen reported elsewhere:

"IPS teachers fight off assumptions that full-day kindergarten amounts to baby-sitting on the state's dime. Kindergartners at School 60 on the Near Northside study continents and oceans on world maps, count money and learn the days of the week....Kindergarten isn't like what it used to be, when they would go to play, socialize, take a nap," Whicker said. "That's history. We have structured curricular time."

The term "readiness" for kindergarten is one that makes me sort of itchy and uncomfortable. I started feeling that way when I read this otherwise innocuous column in a little paper out in Oregon. The column reports that one in five Oregon five-year-olds are "not ready" for kindergarten and that the state ranks 40 out of 50 in terms of the percentage of four-year-olds enrolled in pre-kindergarten. Remember that all kids are ready for learning--their brains (like ours) are hardwired that way. Meanwhile, kindergarten is getting more academic and putting more emphasis on learning. But it doesn't necessarily follow, though, that those coming into kindergarten who are not reading and doing math aren't "ready" for kindergarten. Kindergarten is not like college. Five-year-olds shouldn't have to qualify to get into it and be held back until they're "ready." This stuff worries me because I've seen some charts from researchers that seem to argue that 80% or more of kids aren't "ready" for kindergarten. The standard such data seems to use is that some kids--those who have all the advantages, who have had $15,000 per year pre-school experiences, who have had violin lessons from the age of 3 on--are more advanced at age 5 than others. Therefore, anyone not at the top, top, top of the chart in terms of development is said to be "not ready" for kindergarten. I don't buy it.

The substantive point of my rant is that a great story for journalists would be to talk to kindergarten teachers about what it is that they think makes kids "kindergarten ready." What they're likely to find, and I'm speculating here, is that those who teach kindergarten are thrilled if kids come in being able to sit still in a group, to share, to play with others, to listen, In other words, the social, non-cognitive skills. If the kids know their colors, letters and can hold a pencil that's nice too. Being able to do differential equations and quote Shakespeare? Nice. But not required.

The Washington Post had a frontpager Sunday about the rapid spread of the elementary school version of the International Baccalaureate program. I really like how the story takes the reader inside this program and these classrooms and gives one a very clear sense of the instruction and expectations.

Here's an excerpt:

The program seeks to mold students, from preschool age on, into "transdisciplinary" and bilingual scholars who can deliver a major academic project by fifth grade and then move into deeper studies in secondary schools and beyond. (IB middle schools also exist.) Critics wonder whether it's all a bit much for a student demographic that still receives scratch-and-sniff stickers on written work.

The story quotes a mother, speaking about her husband's motivation for enrolling the kids in IB: "He was like, 'Our kids are going to an Ivy League school, and we need an education that's going to get them on the right track.' "

By the way, I'm collecting statements and references to how preschool will get kids on track for 1. The Ivy League. 2. Science Careers 3. To Become Doctors. Please send in your nominations!

My call for stories in which sources claim that getting into the "right" pre-school or kindergarten is an express ride directly to 1. The Ivy League. 2. Science Careers 3. To Become Doctors. prompted Hechinger Institute Assistant Director Liz Willen to send me a story she did last spring for Bloomberg News. The story had the obligatory only-somewhat-tongue-in-cheek quote about the pre-K-Harvard link. But it also had this perspective quote from William Fitzsimmons, Harvard's admission director: ``You have students who are home schooled, students who have gone to any kind of school you could imagine and even students who have spent no time at all in their lives in a formal classroom who end up getting into Harvard,'' Fitzsimmons said.

Jay Mathews of the Washington Post starts 2007 in a position he's often in, which is way ahead of the competition. Mathews' notes that on the 100th anniversary of Italian physician Maria Montessori opening her first pre-kindergarten, the philosophy is picking up momentum in the U.S. There are about 5,000 Montessori schools nationwide, about 300 of them public. Mathews says Montessori and John Dewey, the Teachers College colossus, were the two most influential 20th-century promoters of a "progressive," child-centered approach to learning. He says Montessori had a much bigger impact because she started schools.

I take issue with a couple points Mathews' makes. He says that the "unstructured" nature of Montessori classrooms is at odds with the "structured" classrooms common today. And he quotes a scholar who says that Montessori believed that kids learned best when they were active and having fun. The implication, then, is that "structured" classrooms, in other words, classrooms where the teacher plays an important role, cannot be fun nor active. I think journalists should keep in mind that the best teachers, especially in pre-kindergarten, have classrooms that are highly structured and intentional. But structure doesn't have to mean regimentation or boredom. Good teachers use structure--of time use, regular one-on-one interactions and lots of conversation--to support and encourage active learning. John Dewey also believed in active learning. But he said that activity for the sake of activity is worthless. Activities, he said, had to be "educative" to be of value. And that implies activities that are carefully planned and, yes, structured.

The NY Times debuted a new column today that, the description says, "will examine problems teachers encounter in the classroom and how they deal with them." That's great. I've often said that I'd like to see general interest publications explain to readers the intricacies of teaching, the dilemmas, the choices, the strategies. Such information, in my view, counters the widely held notion that teaching is something anyone with the right disposition and motivation can do. The column will be written by Susan Engel, director of the teaching program at Williams College. Her first effort is well-written, clear, specific, direct, compelling.

But (and this is a big but) the first column, in my humble, non-expert, biased and unbelievably naive and ill-informed opinion, totally missed the point. The column is about a kid who can't read. And rather than the teacher actually teaching the kid to read, she has the kid read to her dog. So that's the solution. More dogs in classrooms!!!

Howard Blume has a good, sophisticated piece in the Los Angeles Times that profiles an elementary school in Compton that seems to be making it. Compton is thought of in California as a stereotypical, struggling, minority community, with all that connotes. But Bunche Elementary School has test scores on par with those in Beverly Hills, Blume reports. And he gives us some snippets of demanding lessons, illustrating the school's expectations. (Though I'd like to have gotten some sense of how teachers are actually teaching. Conversation? Lecturing? How do they help students acquire learning behaviors?)

Such celebratory pieces often are unquestioning. Blume notes that it's a bit difficult to judge the school's gains, because its early success has attracted successful students from elsewhere. (I don't think this is a problem at all. A bigger group of successful students gives less engaged and accomplished students role models and changes the school culture. But it muddies year-to-year comparisons.) He also acknowledges that the highly structured program and strict discipline at the school may not fly in middle class schools. He reports that Bunche still suffers from high turnover among the young, bright Teach for America teachers it hires. Still, one gets the sense that the high expectations at the school make a big difference.

The Record of Bergen County in New Jersey, my home newspaper, has made an extraordinary commitment to education coverage over the past several months. Education stories appear in the paper EVERY DAY, almost always on the front page on Sundays. Today's story is the best takeout I've yet seen on full-day kindergarten. It gives the local picture, the national context, a look at what goes on inside classrooms that's different, and even some research perspective. I know the reporters on the education beat and their editor, Susan DeSantis, are working very hard and feeling exhausted, but their hard work is paying off. The Hechinger Institute has invited Susan to talk about their big education push at a seminar for education editors in San Diego in early March.

This past Sunday the Record had a frontpager on full-day kindergarten. Today the editorial page followed up, arguing the state should make full-day kindergarten universally available. Right now, districts can offer it but the state does not cover the cost.

Education officials in Trenton need to make universal, full-day kindergarten a priority. Kindergarten used to serve as the transition year between home and school. Children would attend for about three hours a day. They would learn to play in groups. They would memorize the alphabet and practice pre-reading skills. These days, that happens in preschool.

I’ve been holding off on commenting on last week’s NY Times’ frontpager that conflated controversies over the implementation of the federal Reading First law with attempts to stoke the flames of the mostly settled “reading wars.” But I’ve kept my powder dry long enough. Alexander Russo, who blogs at “This Week in Education” on the Education Week site, is thrilled that the story made it into the Times because he sees it as vindication that this is the “BIG STORY” he thought it was all along. Russo, who though he lives here in New York sees himself as an inside-the-beltway mover and shaker, got all het up about what he considered to be a big, hot, dripping scandal involving politicians and bureaucrats in a whirlwind of audits, investigations, hearings, and conflicts of interest. That is a story. It’s just not an education story. Whatever the outcome of all of that activity, the central issue is not what’s the science and pedagogy of early reading. The central issue is actually federalism and education and the limits of policy issued from Washington D.C. That’s a topic for a wonkapalooza at a fancy Washington, D.C. hotel or the American Enterprise Institute. And Mike Petrilli over at the Fordham Foundation entered into that discussion just yesterday with this post. But it’s not really something that most parents of children learning to read care too much about.

The New York Times story was set in Madison, Wisconsin, which has long been known in education circles as a redoubt for the true believers in whole language. Whole language emphasizes to students the value of context and intuition in learning to read. So, the story opens with a kid who encounters the word “pea” and reads it as "pumpkin."

Maria Glod of the Washington Post did a nice job over the weekend of reporting on the efforts of pre-school programs to get Latino parents on board with the fact that these programs are supposed to be educational. The story drew on classroom visits, interviews with parents, experts, policy makers and research. Similar approach could be taken to reporting on the research that's the focus of the next post.

Here's an excerpt from Maria's story.

Latino children nationwide tend to start kindergarten knowing less about letters and numbers compared with their non-Hispanic white peers. Many never catch up. Improving early childhood education is one of the best ways to narrow the achievement gap, educators say, citing such programs as the family book club. But many Latino families face economic, linguistic, educational and even cultural barriers.

"It's partly about parents not understanding the American system," said Eugene E. Garcia, an Arizona State University administrator and chairman of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. "Hispanic parents think school is good and education is good. They just don't have the tools they need."

About 40 percent of Latino 3- and 4-year-olds (and 5-year-olds not yet in kindergarten) are enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, compared with about 60 percent of white and African American children, according to the District-based advocacy group Pre-K Now. In addition, a new report from Garcia's task force noted that Hispanic mothers generally read and talk less to their children compared with white parents. Hispanic families also tend to have fewer children's books at home.

The coverage by the New York Times and the Associated Press of the newest report from the nation's longest running study of child care got picked up by news organizations everywhere. The report gave top billing to the positive effects of high quality care on vocabulary although it also acknowledged a slight increase in problem behaviors among fifth graders, apparently correlated with the amount of time they spent being cared for outside the home.

The Associated Press produced a Sunday story follow-up that also was widely carried. This is a story any news organization could have done. Why do it? Try, survival? A blog called World Views posted a four paragraph excerpt from the Times' first day story. At last count, the item had attracted 65 comments. Many of the comments are thoughtful and even anguished considerations of the tradeoffs facing families with children needing two incomes.

The Times carried six letters in response to the story. Here's an excerpt from one:

We live in a country in which most women work outside the home and are also responsible for child rearing; ours is also one of the only developed countries with no national policy on maternity leave. It is no surprise, then, that we have no coherent philosophy for day care.

As money is poured into studies, American day care continues to morph into an increasingly unstable structure, one with no real foundation or plan.

Greg Toppo of USA Today directed me to Emily Bazelon's thoughtful analysis on Slate last week of the study of child care. (I refuse to use the term "day" care. It's children being cared for, not "days.") She spoke with one of the authors who pointed out that in the sample of children studied there was a correlation between amount of time children spent in child care prior to age four and a half, the quality of the care received by those children, and the very, very slight increase in problem behaviors observed in the fifth grade. Those who were in child care for more years received, on average, lower quality care and had more problems. Bazelon astutely reminds us that infant care is not only the most difficult to do well and the most expensive to offer but also that infants benefit least from the group interactions that characterize good child care for slightly older children. (All of this reintroduces the question that many private child care centers have about publicly funded preschool: the older kids in such centers subsidize the infants. When the older kids are siphoned off by free programs, that makes the economics of private child care for infants even more tricky.) Here's a quote:

It's useless to rail at the press for leading with the bad news and for ignoring the researchers' caveats that no cause-and-effect conclusions can be drawn from their data. Still, coverage like this feels designed to twit working parents. And it turns out that in the case of day care, the headlines and the stories really were alarmist—even wrong.

One of the greatest challenges of education policy and, frankly, education journalism, is that accurately measuring education quality is very difficult. So, instead, we pay attention to what's available to us: spending, class size, teacher experience, teacher test scores, graduation rates, college-going, test scores. All of those are proxies for what really matters--the interactions between teachers and students. But how do you measure the quality of those interactions? How do you measure whether they will help children not just learn facts but understand, think, question, grow in their confidence as learners and speakers and do-ers?

I had a chance the other day to listen in to a "webinar" put on by two of the great minds on preschool quality--Robert C. Pianta of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University and Barbara Bowman, the Chief Early Education Officer of the Chicago Public Schools and the founder of the Erickson Institute in Chicago. (The event was sponsored by Pre-K Now and a link to the slides for the call as well as the slides for previous calls with experts on a variety of topics can be found here.
Bowman made the point that children have a "natural predisposition to develop" and they do so through exploration of their senses, relationships, language, play and self-regulation. But school learning is different. School learning requires what she called "decontextualized language," meaning, for example, the words for categorization of objects. School learning also involves symbolic skills, small muscle control, social skills, complex grammar, a large vocabulary, clear enunciation and other things. The point is that those who say "kids learn naturally" are right. They do develop and learn some things naturally. They're programmed to, though at different rates. School learning is different. And it requires intentional, thoughtful, planned learning opportunities and interactions. What a useful way to break down that old teaching vs. development argument! It's also useful for journalists, to help them better understand child development and schooling and how they are similar and different.

Bowman's point also leads right into what Pianta had to say. Pianta's research involves lots and lots of observations of classrooms. His observations have led to the development of a scale that measures the quality of teachers' interaction in pre-school and kindergarten classrooms with their children. Pianta says that scale predicts quite accurately how much children learn. Unfortunately, it also demonstrates that the quality of those interactions is often not very good. Pianta wrote a piece in the journal Education Next a while back. In that piece, he asserted that only about a quarter of the pre-k classes and classes studied provided students with the high levels of emotional and instructional support needed to maximize learning.

Fortunately, however, Pianta and his colleagues have developed some training tools that help pre-k teachers get better. He asserts that it is the skill and knowledge of the teachers--not their degrees or certifications--that matters. In fact, his data show no correlation between degree attainment and teacher performance. What does matter is training and professional development tied to knowledge and skill about teaching in actual classrooms. A "webinar" caller asked about that. If there's no connection between B.A. degrees and children's learning, the caller asked, doesn't insisting on college degrees for preschool teachers just raise the cost of those programs?

Advocates for higher quality such as Libby Doggett of Pre-K Now acknowledge that the evidence that children who have teachers with more formal education learn more is ambiguous. But she said in response to the caller that degrees have to be required if the teachers are to be paid a professional salary and be regarded as professionals. In other words, it's about positioning pre-k as part of the formal education system, which requires formal degrees and credentials. That may be the right strategy. But one hopes that somewhere along the line the teachers, whatever formal degrees they have, also get the kind of training Pianta is talking about.

The Title I Monitor has been out front on the allegations of conflict of interest among the Reading First program's technical advisors, several of whom also had significant financial ties to publishers of reading materials. Earlier this month, Sen. Ed Kennedy's staff produced a report that detailed those ties and the alleged conflicts, based on emails and other information provided by the four advisors who are being scrutinized. Today, however, the Monitor produced a thorough piece that questions several points made in the highly critical report. In the case of Doug Carnine, for example, he received royalties for a language arts program he authored that was geared to middle school students--not the K-3 students served by Reading First. The report also alleged a conflict related to a meeting where Carnine was to be a speaker--except he never attended. Other flaws are documented as well.

Much of the coverage of the Reading First story has tried to fit a very complex, ethically murky situation into formula that is both easy-to-understand and easy-to-communicate: greedy government contractors ignore good practice and cynically steer contracts to themselves and their friends and pocket big dough. Conflicts of interest--real or apparent--are serious. But much of the coverage in mainstream publications, television and even some blogs has failed to point out that the reading experts involved all were highly reqarded in the highly specialized area of interventions for young children far behind in reading at a young age. The coverage also has underplayed the fact that the Reading First program was independently judged to be successful. Finally, the most vocal people to raise conflict of interest charges had their own economic interests at stake. So, as I say, it's a murky situation. One that the Title I Monitor has worked hard to explain.

Florida newspapers, television stations and bloggers all reported on the release of the state's so-called accountability system for the mostly private pre-kindergarten programs that get public money. Leslie Postal in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel came closest to calling the state accountability system what it is: a mess. As she points out, the state set an artificial limit of 15% on how many schools can be low-performing. That means, in reality, that 15% of the schools will be labeled substandard no matter how they do and schools that may be weak against an objective set of standards, but not as weak as others, will get a seal of approval. But there are two even bigger problems with the so-called accountability system: 1. It doesn't take into consideration the characteristics of the kids served or the size of gains they made. Not surprisingly, as Postal notes, "low performing" preschools had more poor, disabled, and Spanish-speaking kids. 2. It tests kids in kindergarten and attributes their performance to the preschools. What about the rapid development of kids that age? What about all the other influences in a child's life that are more significant?

Sure, we all want all kids to be the same. But can 540 hours (which is what the state pays for) of relatively low-quality preschool really make it so? Florida's preschool program satisfied only four of 10 quality criteria established by the National Institute of Early Education and Research and the state spends only $2,163 per child on the program (when part-year attendance is taken into consideration.) The effect of this so-called accountability system will be to discourage these private schools from accepting the very kids who need help the most.

The CBS affiliate in Tallahassee got right to the point. The Gainesville Sun did not take note of any of the shortcomings of the rankings. The Gradebook, the education Web log of the St. Petersberg, noted that the system was unfair but that so was life. The state says it is holding preschools accountable. Journalists should hold the state accountable for at least acknowledging that their accountability system is "low performing."

The Baltimore Sun made their back to school story substantive by reporting on the challenges of the transition to full-day kindergarten. Article links full day to concerns about kindergarten becoming too academic and to NCLB. Critics quoted say that kindergarten shouldn't be about stuffing kids' heads with facts. While supporters, such as Maryland schools Chief Nancy Grasmick, said the longer day gives teachers time to develop understanding of key concepts in reading and math as well as social skills.

To bolster the case that the kids and the teachers are under academic pressure, the article states:

"She has only nine months to get her 5- and 6-year-olds to identify the sequential property of numbers using the calendar, learn the alphabet, recognize letter sounds, learn how to sort by color and number, and learn to share and play nice with one another."

Isn't this what kindergarten has always been about? Learning to count, sort, start to read and play nice? This is overly academic? This is stuffing kids' heads with facts? These are exactly the domains and expectations in good pre-k programs and, because most of these kids will have been in pre-k, they've probably mastered or are very close to mastery of them all. The other idea in here that always bothers me is that, because there is the potential that a teacher, school, or district will make developmentally unwise choices, they shouldn't be given the opportunity to make such a mistake.

Piece has a nice video of a enthusiastic teacher who is new to kindergarten talking about what she hopes to accomplish for the year....worth watching.

USA Today the other day took note of initiatives from mayors that put books in the hands of preschoolers to encourage them to read. It seems that mayors are getting on board with the movement that to this point has featured governors in the highest profile roles. The piece reported that dozens of cities have citywide book clubs and reading selections. In Jacksonville, Florida; Longmont, Colorado, Charleston, South Carolina and other cities, the city and private funders are providing preschoolers with books. In Jacksonville, every four year old who wants one receives a backpack stuffed with a book, hand puppet, reading blanket, flashcards and other items. The story also pointed out that these programs are universal, meaning they don’t target just poor kids. My only quibble with the story is that it uses the terms “pre-K” and “child care” interchangeably. That may seem fussy but the two terms really carry quite different meanings.

The other article in the volume that should be of interest to journalists is by Harvard Grad School professor and economist Richard Murnane and is called “Improving the Education of Children Living in Poverty.” Despite the ambitious-sounding title, Murnane’s proposal is both more modest and less sanguine about the positive effects that can be expected. He proposes a number of changes to the No Child Left Behind law (some of which already are being discussed) that would make the law’s achievement targets more realistic and meaningful for teachers. He says the feds should provide states with strong incentives to make their high school graduation requirements better reflect the needs of the labor market and also promote interdistrict transfer programs, such as are in place in Boston, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. And, finally—and this is the big one—he says the feds must provide competitive, matching grants to districts and states to improve the quality of teaching through recruitment, compensation, preparation, and professional development. Cost? $2.5 billion a year. The piece does a great job of providing a clear, quick overview of what’s going on in education policy, context often missing from education reporting.

I was struck this past weekend by the number of television ads for toys aimed toddlers. Christmas selling and buying season starts right after Halloween. The ads caught my ear because they were talking about how babies develop skills with the right toys.

A couple of days ago I Googled eBeanstalk, the company whose ads for toys for infants I'd seen over the weekend. The philosophy of the company seems to be "teaching" begins at birth and that every interaction between a parent and a child requires a "lesson plan" and goal that can be measured. For example, the site sells socks for newborns with rattles " attached. The rattles "give him a first taste of cause and effect" because when he kicks his feet the baby will hear the sound. The socks will also spur emotional development and dexterity--all for only $10. What tutor charges so little?

Or, take the colorful child-safe mirror toys. (Basic: $18.95. Premium: $44.95. For those who REALLY love their children): These toys develop neck control, teach him that things disappear and reappear, aid in self-recognition and allow the baby to play peek-a-boo. Generations of babies have grown up without these "skills," apparently, because they lacked such devices. Helpfully, the site provides instructions for how parents can play with these toys. It turns out that playing "peek-a-boo" requires special training--for parents as well as babies. After a few lessons, babies will be able to play "peek-a-boo" with themselves, relieving parents of that chore after a long, hard day at the office.

Gender differentiation starts early. A package of bath toys--a pirate ship and shaving kit for the boys! Pink Tub Fashion and Princess in the Tub sets for girls!--can be had for $75 apiece. Perfect for 1 to 3 year olds. Spurs imagination, they're educational, and improve dexterity. (I hope parents don't leave their baby in the tub to work on their homework on their own.) Even Baby Einstein, a Disney company that sells toys and gear to make kids smarter, doesn't go as far as eBeanstalk in its educational claims.

The Wall Street Journal on November 1 carried a story about Eee PC, a computer aimed at first graders. It's just one of several companies selling computers to parents anxious to give their kids a head start on the technology of the future. (By the time they reach high school, of course, PCs will be the "technology of the past.") An Oklahoma company called Digital Dimensions sells a pink PC for girls and a red, blue, or black racecar PC for boys, both equipped with software for children as young as 2.

Journalists have written quite a bit about the phenomena of affluent parents willing to do just about anything to give their kids an edge. Cloaking consumerism in pseudo-science that makes natural development seem to depend on the right toys--rather than just loving, talking to, reading to, and playing with your children--helps fuel this unfortunate parental instinct. This impulse among some parents creates business opportunities and it's no surprise companies are out there capitalizing on them. Sometimes the universal pre-kindergarten movement overemphasizes education, as well, causing opponents to complain that schooling is more important than just fostering normal, healthy development. These issues are worth more critical attention, I think.

An editorial in the New York Times over the weekend commented ironically on "guides" that purport to teach kids the "basic skills" of childhood. With just the right note of sarcasm, the editorial suggested that such books (and, I would add, toys) make natural development seem like a take-home test.

“Lying on your back in your crib, point your knees outward and draw your heels toward your stomach. Using both hands, grasp your left ankle, if you are right-handed (or right ankle, if left-handed), and slowly draw your toes into your mouth. Chew with caution!”

I took note earlier this month of the intense focus of toy makers on making toys educational, to lure in parents who are predisposed to think the hunt for the best college begins in the womb. Latest entry on this theme is the story in the New York Times this morning on digital toys for the younger and younger set. Seems today's toddlers aren't satisfied with toy phones and cameras and computers, they want the real deal. The story quotes a woman from the San Francisco Bay Area who returned digital toy telephones because her twin year-old daughters preferred real cell phones. Gee, Mom, how can I text my posse during naptime if you only let me have a toy phone? "They know what a real cellphone is, and they don’t want a fake one,” the mother is quoted saying. Computers for toddlers are designed to help them learn "computer basics" but to what end?

A new research brief on the Web site of the Foundation for Child Development highlights an important issue that suggests a number of good questions to be asked. The report is from the Association for Children of New Jersey and is called "Embracing the Big Picture: The State of New Jersey's Road Toward a PK-3 Continuum." The piece describes an emerging effort in New Jersey to ensure that what happens in kindergarten for children builds on the high quality pre-kindergarten classes the state offers in its poorest school districts.

I know, sounds boring. But research on pre-k effectiveness often shows the gains made by 5-year-olds fade after several years and many say the reason is what happens in the early grades. There's a lot of meat here. The increases in state pre-k spending around the country are not all going to public schools. Depending on the state, the money pays for classes in churches, community centers, private pre-k centers as well as in public schools. Do the state-funded classes do a good job of preparing kids for kindergarten? Do the educators in the local school district even talk to the pre-k providers? How about when the pre-k is in a public school. Does the building principal coordinate with the director of the preschool? Does state policy require any coordination? Is there any effort to help 5-year-olds make the transition to kindergarten? Any visits to a kindergarten in the spring? Do the pre-k teachers provide any information about the preschoolers to their kindergarten teacher?

Effective school districts pay a lot of attention to making sure kids' transitions--from elementary school to middle school, from middle school to high school--are smooth. The teachers at the next level should know something about the new students they're welcoming. Ineffective ones don't pay much attention and so what happens at each level does not necessarily build on previous teaching and learning. When it's a transition from a setting outside the school district to one inside the school district, paying attention to this matters even more.

Katy Murphy of the Contra Costa Times writes a blog called "The Education Report" about happenings in the Oakland (CA) Unified School District. The hook for an item she posted on full day kindergarten was a letter written by a parent whose son attends a public elementary in the (very) pricey neighborhood of Montclair, up in the hills above the city. The parent wrote a letter asking the district to let Thornhill (and other schools, if they wish) out of the district's policy to offer full-day kindergarten. There is a strong class angle to this. Families in which both parents work, or who don't have transportation, and many others welcome full day kindergarten for the academic boost it is meant to provide. But some affluent parents, whose children have rich and varied learning opportunities, and in which mothers (or fathers) don't have to work, don't see the need for it. (Kindergarten teachers, by the way, often oppose all day classes.)

I used to cover the Oakland schools many years ago and I know that many Thornhill children are "flats" children (black and Hispanic) bused into the mostly "white" and "Asian" hills. If those children were sent back down the hill on a bus, to homes where no parent is home during the day, it would create quite a burden. I went on the site GreatSchools and found this comment from a Thornhill parent: "The school is not economically diverse and does not at all embrace cultural differences. If you are not a montclair stay at home mom, you and your child will feel like the bused in outsiders. The classist, superior attitudes are ever present."

Many of these pre-k issues cut along class lines. It's a good thing for reporters to keep in mind.

Missed this big New York story in the Daily News last Thursday. Seems that a week earlier a 5-year-old boy threw a tantrum in a Queens elementary school, was taken to the principal's office, and then was handcuffed by the school's safety officer and taken to a nearby psych ward. The child's babysitter was at the school before the child was sent away by ambulance but the security officer wouldn't let the 68-pound kindergarten student go. The boy suffers from asthma, has been diagnosed as having A.D.D. and has speech problems, according to his mother. Schools chief Joel Klein the next day said he was troubled by how the incident had been handled but he wasn't prepared to condemn it.

Our society has, for a long time, feared adolescents and teen-agers because of their unpredictability. Are we now afraid of kindergartners and pre-kindergartners? (By the way, as of Sunday the original article had drawn 337 comments on the Daily News' Web site. Disturbingly, quite a number blame parents for failing to control their children.)

Dennis Rivera and Jasmina Vasquez (New York Daily News photo)

Strange things happening in politics these days: Rush Limbaugh hammering away hatefully at the soon to be crowned Republican presidential candidate John McCain; Ann Coulter, who has made a career out of childishly calling anyone not a card-carrying member of the John Birch Society stupid, saying she'll vote for Hillary Clinton rather than support McCain. And now, circumlocuting radio host Garrison Keillor, who over the past eight years has been one of the harshest critics of President Bush, is condemning Democrats (via Andy R. at Eduwonk) for failing to back one of the president's signature education programs.

I've always said that reporters often misunderstand the differences between Republicans and Democrats on education issues. On many issues, the usual alignments don't hold. Take the Reading First program, for example. Eight years ago Bush set aside $1 billion to help the lowest-achieving districts in each state use well-researched approaches to reading instruction. The program generated lots of controversy. Not because of the methods it supported but rather because advisors to the program seemed to benefit from it financially. Democrats in Congress saw it as a chance to hit Bush, even though independent evaluations said the program was achieving good results. So, they cut the budget by 70%, hurting not Bush but hundreds of thousands of children who were reading better because of it.

On Monday, Bush introduced his budget, which proposes to restore full funding for the program. It will be interesting to see this play out. Will Democrats really insist on cutting an effective reading program rather than address the real issues? Meanwhile, reporters will find a good story if they look into the Reading First program in their own state. What do the parents of children served by it, most of whom will be low-income and more likely to be Democrats, say? What about their teachers? (Also likely to be Democrats.) Here's one from the Birmingham (AL) News that identifies the state angle, although the reporter doesn't go out into the schools. Sometimes the usual political assumptions just don't hold.

The Associated Press coverage of Alabama Gov. Bob Riley's budget announcement highlighted two of his ideas related to early education--a tripling of the state's investment in pre-kindergarten and expanded support for the Alabama Reading Initiative. (You will recall that the reading initiative in Alabama, as in many states, has gotten support from the federal Reading First program, which the Democrats in Congress cut by more than two-thirds.) But Riley is no big government, budget busting Republican. He also wants to cut income taxes to spur the state's economy.

I went over to Sara Mead's new Early Ed Watch blog at the New America Foundation intending to just see what it looked like. Twenty minutes later I was still there. Sara will be covering early education research and offering her own take on what it means. So, now, let's all line up and take a field trip to tour her blog....

The Foundation for Child Development has issued a new policy brief summarizing research on the best way to serve preschoolers who are not native English speakers. In some states, more than 50% of preschool age children fit this description. The brief challenges a number of myths and offers some research-based guidelines for policy makers. The brief also says that effective approaches must be used from pre-K to third grade if they are to work. This is a quote that caught my attention:

Systematic, deliberate exposure to English during early childhood combined with ongoing opportunities to learn important concepts in the home language results in the highest achievement in both the home langauge and English by the end of Third Grade and beyond.

Thanks to Sara Mead at Early Ed Watch for alerting me to a fascinating article on math education for young children by Herb Ginsburg of Teachers College and colleagues published by the Society for Research in Child Development. Ginsburg is well known in early ed circles for his research in this area and this article pulls a lot together--the math understandings children develop and use naturally, the lack of training pre-k teachers receive in how to build on that knowledge, the fact that many in early ed resist the idea that math skills and knowledge can be taught in developmentally appropriate ways and much more. So much of the talk about education up to grade three focuses on socialization, dispositions toward learning and on preliteracy skills and knowledge. This article convincingly shows that math should be on the table as well, and not just in the form of giving kids blocks to play with (geometry!) or pieces of macaroni to glue on paper in the shape of numbers (hands on!). But the article also is blunt about the obstacles, one of which is resistance to the idea that teachers should "engage in deliberate and planned instruction, an activity some think is developmentally inappropriate."

For journalists, it would make a great feature story to find a pre-kindergarten or a K-2 class where good, developmentally appropriate, content rich math education is occurring. This article (and interviewing Ginsburg) provides a sense of what to look for. Also in this newsletter are commentaries on math education by two other great sources for journalists on teaching and learning in pre-K-grade 3 classrooms: Deborah Stipek, dean at the Stanford ed school and Robert Pianta, dean of the ed school at the University of Virginia.

Early Ed Watch also riffs off the report on how young children can best be helped to learn English while retaining their home language. If children who speak Spanish or other languages at home can learn English why can't English speakers learn a second language, before they hit middle school? This is an area that doesn't get talked about enough. Children in China and much of Asia start learning English as soon as they start school. (One exception is India, where longstanding government policy that goes back to independence, prevents the teaching of English. That is one of the reasons private education is burgeoning in India--parents want their kids to learn English.)

Sara Mead at Early Ed Watch posted on this before I could get to it: A German, Friedrich Fröbel, created the first kindergarten (literally children's garden) in 1840 to honor the 100th anniversary of Gutenberg's discovery of movable type. Oddly, though, as Mike Estrel recounted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this week, Fröbel wanted young children to grow up in nature, "cordoned off from letters and numbers." In Germany today parents are again trying to offer their children the chance to play, worried that kindergarten has become too academically oriented. So, they're sending them to what are called waldkindergärten, or "forest kindergartens" to splash about in the mud, dig for worms, examine lizards, and other activities that characterized

Photo from the Wall Street Journal/Mike Estrel

playtime before the Screen Age of computers, TVs, game consoles etc.

Here are some great quotes:

Iwao Uehara, a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, says he has been trying to set up such a school in Japan, but the project is struggling. Until there's evidence that Waldkindergärten graduates end up attending "famous universities," it's going to be a tough sell, he says.

Among the nature-based activities, children learn how to handle a real saw. "A plastic saw is no good," says Ms. [Marsha] Johnson. (Johnson set up a "forest kindergarten" in Portland, Oregon, the Journal reported.) "You might as well give them a plastic life." The worst that has happened thus far to the children is the occasional bee sting, she says.

I tried to find anything written about the school in Portland via Google but was unsuccessful.

By the way, the first public kindergarten in the U.S. was established in 1872 in St. Louis. Wikipedia's history is here.

(Wiped out by kindergarten?)

Children who don't get a chance to attend pre-kindergarten may have their first experience with school when they enter public school for government-funded kindergarten.

Pressure is growing to make such programs a full-day in areas where they are not, better to give children the academic start they need and mesh with the schedules of working parents who in many cases have already had their children in school all day.

In the upscale Massachusetts town of Lexington, parents have agreed to pay an additional $1,025 in student fees for a full day program, according to a story in the Lexington Minuteman, picked up in Sara Meade's Early Ed Watch blog.

In Arizona, a full-day kindergarten program that began three years ago with just 11,000 students grew to more than 86,000 students in 2007.

In the West Des Moines school district in Iowa, the number of full-day kindergarten classes will nearly double next year, according to the Des Moines Register . The article noted that parents prefered an all-day option, but never got into the debate that sometimes occurs among parents considering such programs.

The comments that appeared on the end of the story made it clear that all-day kindergarten still feels like a stretch to some parents, who worry about their children staying awake.

"They don't offer naps anymore,'' one parent lamented.

Reporters interested in learning more about the benefits of all-day programs might check out fact sheets about their states, such as this one compiled by the Minneapolis Foundation.

There's also a report on full-day programs by the National Institute for Early Education Research.

Most states have websites or organizations devoted to detailing facts about full day kindergarten, such as Strategies for Children in Massachusetts, and similar fact sheets for many states that have or are continuing to debate this issue.

And always, there is a concerned parent to interview who worries about naptime.

Or as USA Today's Greg Toppo says in an email: "What not to do as a kindergarten teacher." This teacher ought to be voted off the island. But, since the police determined what she did wasn't a crime, she probably possesses the immunity idol.

(Locked out of pre-school in New York City?)

New Yorkers of means have long been willing to subject their tykes to interviews, tests, and endless tours to secure a spot in prime private programs like the 92nd Street Y, where tuition for 4- and 5-year-olds is $23,000 this year.

Lately, a few new obstacles have been thrown into the mix for those who don't posess the money,connections and savvy for private programs.

Those seeking a saner route -- such as securing a spot in a public pre-kindergaten for an equally coveted spot in a kindergarten with a gifted and talented program -- may find themselves out of luck.

New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein last year said he hoped to equalize opportunities for gifted kindergartners by expanding and improving the testing process for admissions.

And it has expanded -- almost 24,000 kindergarten and first-graders took such examps this year compared to about 8,000 last year, according to a story in the New York Sun, which has been closely following his efforts.

The Sun revealed that Klein will now allow parents to opt out of kindergarten testing that would have cost the city about $1.5 million, at a time when schools are facing steep budget cuts and the city is experiencing a $99 million budget deficit.

Opponents who hated the testing program and argued that such tests were both inaccurate and potentially damaging cheered, but elsewhere in the city there is more admissions angst..

Parents trying to get their toddlers a spot in a public city pre-kindergarten are also running into roadblocks, according to Insideschools.org, a project of Advocates for Children of New York, which has been tracking problems and complaints.

Rejection letters are already out -- and being disputed by parents whose children have been shut out, even of their neighborhood programs where older siblings attend.

City school officials are apparently investigating all complaints.

(With pre-kindergarten in jeopardy, more Tennessee children may be learning at home)

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen had the best of intentions when he laid out ambitious plans to expand pre-kindergarten in the state, but the $25 million program has come to a halt. His plan would have created 250 more classrooms and serve another 5,000 children, according to The Tennessean .

The article quotes disappointed educators and pre-kindergarten advocates, but it's also filled with angry commentary from readers that once again bring home a real obstacle to pre-kindergarten: a public that doesn't trust such programs or understand why pre-kindergarten should be paid for with government funds.

The remarks at the end of Natalia Mielczarek's article show what a long way there is to go toward gaining public understanding and support for quality early childhood education in some areas.

One posting actually suggested with sarcasm that children be taken from their parents after birth and turned back over at 22; another boasted about doing "everything in my power to keep my daughter out of any school or education program that is ran and funded by the government,'' while still another noted that the reason children are falling behind is because "our parents are waiting for someone else to teach their children.''

(An unintended irony in New York City: Fewer pre-kindergarten and gifted opportunities; unfilled seats)

Buried at the end of the fascinating New York Times analysis of a new policy that has effectively shut some of the city's poorest children out of gifted kindergarten programs is fundamental question about equity and access: How fair is it to test four-year-olds and make educational decisions for them based on those scores?

New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's initial idea of screening all kindergartens has met with fierce opposition, including from Deborah Stipek, the dean of Stanford University's education school. She believes such testing only increases inequities.

Klein has since backed away from the idea due to budget cuts. Bu the concept remains on the mind of parents in New York City who have been furious with the Department of Education's attempts to centralize pre-school admissions. Already, that's led to several children being shut out of pre-school altogether and of siblings -- including twins -- being split up into different schools throughout the city, in many cases far from their neighborhood.

Savvy New York parents -- being New Yorkers, of course, where parenting can be a competitive sport -- would likely find a way to prepare for such tests, notes one participant on Insideschools.org, which is keeping careful track of the kindergarten issue.

"In a competitive world parents who have the access and the means will do whatever it takes to give their kids an edge--whether that means buying kits that teach skills similar to those tested .... having the child tutored, or even purchasing copies of the testing instruments themselves,'' the blog participant noted.

That same edge was not available to the many children who did not make the cut-off scores the Department of Education established for this year's programs.

(The debate, and questions over California pre-school quality remains)

The children most likely to benefit from pre-kindergarten in California are the ones who are not enrolled, according to a new study by the RAND corporation that found the quality of preschool in the state is inconsistent.

The report by the Santa Monica-based think tank, notes Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee, should be viewed as "the latest development in California's long-running political debate over the relatively poor academic performance of its K-12 students and whether more elaborate pre-school programs, especially those centered on children from poor and/or immigrant families, would generate better elementary, junior high and high school results.''

Interestingly, the study found participation is based primarily on the socioeconomic standing of the family, and that children from more higher income families were no more likely to experience high quality early learning environments than children from poorer backgrounds.

The Rand Corporation had previously wrote a report documenting the value of preschool education by concluding such programs would generate an estimated $2 to $4 in benefits to California society for every $1 spent, as the authors outlined in a letter to the Los Angeles Times.

The study comes two years after voters in California rejected a ballot initiative that would have funded voluntary preschool for every 4-year-old in the state through a $2.8 billion annual tax increase on high income earners -- and shows the debate over how best to provide early childhood education in the state is far from over -- and still well worth the attention of journalists.

(New study shows Oklahoma's public pre-kindergarten to be effective)

Two interesting and very different studies have emerged this week on pre-kindergarten quality and effectiveness, including a surprisingly critical finding from Georgia,the first state to offer universal pre-kindergarten.

The state once hailed as a model, it seems, no longer leads the the nation in enrollment, high-quality standards or per-pupil spending, according the report by the Southern Education Foundation, picked up in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Pre-school access in the state is limited by a new population growth, including an influx of new immigrants.Georgia's per-pupil expenditure now ranks 22 against 38 other state-funded pre-kindergarten programs, the report notes, leaving lots of unanswered follow-up questions for journalists.

A study of 3,500 children in Oklahoma, meanwhile, found that pre-kindergarten programs set children up for later success in school, by strengthening reading, writing and math skills. The study published in the journal Science also found the state's pre-kindergarten program to have relatively high standards, pay and benefits to well-qualified teachers.

Participation in Tulsa's public pre-school program increased cognitive development significantly, along with pre-reading, writing and math skills, the study found. Children who participated in Head Start also improved their cognitive skills, though less dramatically.

William T. Gormley, lead author of the study, is the co-director of the Center for Research on Children in the U.S. (CROCUS) at Georgetown University. He believes a strong preschool program can lessen "negative effects,'' of family and environmental risk factors. Copies of the report are available at the AAAS Office of Public Programs at 202-326-6440 or
scipak@aaas.org.

Oklahoma has been an interesting state to watch because more of its 4-year-olds attend public pre-school than in any other state. Other studies have also found that Oklahoma's program improves children's language, literacy and mathematical skills; including a December, 2006 report from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University.

(Poll finds deep concern with quality of education, preparation in U.S.)

At a time when many states are debating or having difficulty financing publicly funded pre-kindergarten, some troubling -- but hardly surprising -- news about U.S. education was revealed in a poll released by the Associated Press and carried in USA Today and other newspapers on Friday.

Half of Americans surveyed found U.S. Schools are doing only a fair to poor job of preparing students for college and the workplace, even though education ranks behind only the economy and gas prices as a top issue for Americans.

Another half said the U.S. education system is falling behind that of other countries, and six in 10 said the quality of American schools has declined in the past 20 years.

The AP survey of 833 adults and 854 parents, financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted by the consumer information company Knowledge Networks, follows a poll of kindergarten teachers in 2004 that found kids who did not attend quality pre-kindergarten arrive at school unprepared.

Early childhood expert Jeanne-Brooks Gunn of National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College offers new research on program effectiveness)

As ambitious state-funded pre-kindergarten programs are stalled or halted by fiscal woes, early childhood education experts gathered with government officials and business leaders from 14 states last week to learn more about child development and gain a deeper understanding of children's learning, behavior and health from top experts.

Such partnerships are a positive development at a time when budget uncertainties are halting plans for pre-kindergarten expansion in states like Virginia and Tennessee.

The conference -- sponsored by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University -- included findings of A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy.

Discussions included an overview of the impact of early experience on brain development and lessons learned from public-private partnerships. A gold mine of research and reports presented at the conference are well worth the time of journalists and others interested in early education policy, including papers that look at early childhood program effectiveness by, among others, Jeanne-Brooks Gunn of the National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College.

A story about the conference can be found in Education Week .

(Kindergarten students who have had some preparation have a big advantage in Ohio)

Edith Starzyk of the The Plain Dealer in Cleveland did the kind of story on Monday that really helps illuminate why and how pre-kindergarten can make a difference -- and why the public should care.

Starzyk compared the kindergarten readiness of students in the Bay Village district -- where eight of 10 students shows up with the skills needed to start reading -- with those who are coming from Cleveland's public schools. In a series of interviews, she found the poor quality of child-cCare centers in the city poses obstacles for city students, as does the lack of pre-kindergarten.

Some 70 percent of students in the more affluent Bay Village district have attended preschool, an opportunity not as readily available in Cleveland -- although Starzyk did an excellent job of explaining how and why that is changing, and who is behind the push for improvement.

She also pointed out that success in kindergarten rises for children who have attended high-quailty pre-school -- an important point to bring home in communities where there is some skepticism about spending public money on such programs.

Kindergarten students in some areas learning Chinese, Arabic and other 'critical' languages)

As a time when some states offer no publicly funded pre-school progams, some kindergartners are getting the chance to learn Chinese, Arabic and Japanese. An Associated Press story widely picked up this week descriped a Fairfax. Virginia classroom where students were playing "Jeopardy,'' using clues in Chinese.

The langugae classes are part of a $114 million effort known as the National Security Language Initiative aimed at increasing the number of Americans learning languages such as Russian, Hindi and Farsi, in addition to Arabic and Chinese -- languages deemed critical to U.S. security and foreign policy interests.

The initiative recognizes that deficits in U.S. foreign langauge learning "negatively affect our national security, diplomacy, law enforcement, intelligence communities and cultural understanding.''

Jay Mathews of the Washington Post has noted the classes often serve another purpose: some of the Arabic language classes offered in Washington D.C. area schools were filled with students whose families came from countries where Arabic was the most common language -- and wanted to improve their reading and writing in their native language.

The Associated Press, piece, meanwhile, did a nice job of showing how quickly young children pick up languages -- and how much they enjoy it. Journalists who live in areas where such classes are offered should consider asking to sit in on a class and find out which languages are most popular -- and why -- and who is registering to take them.

(In New Hampshire, the Long Wait for Kindergarten Continues)

At a time when some states are pushing for publicly funded pre-kindergarten and promoting its value, New Hampshire is struggling to get a new requirement of public kindergarten for all off the ground. The state has been locked in an interesting battle over who should pay for kindergarten, which the state legislature included as a requirement for all schools in their definition of an adequate education that was adopted last year.

An Associated Press piece this week noted that that Gov. John Lynch extended the deadline for starting programs and agreed to provide financial help to the towns trying to start such programs.

There are fascinating stories to be told behind this kindergarten battle in New Hampshire, the only state in the U.S. that does not offer public kindergarten in all of its school districts. The state whose motto is "Live Free or Die,'' -- and whose residents often reject any programs that will raise taxes -- is also home to a fast growing population of young families who have moved to southern New Hampshire from the Boston area in search of more affordable housing and a better lifestyle. Many are shocked to learn they must home school their children for kindergarten or find private day care options.

National Public Radio did a terrific job in 2005 of describing the disbelief and anger of many parents who showed up to their local elementary school to register their children -- only to learn there is no kindergarten.

The law signed last week extending the deadline and giving communities without kindergarten another year to offer programs means more delays-- and more families with fewer options for giving their child the best start in school.

(If presential hopeful Barack Obama had his way, schools would teach two languages in kindergarten)

Last week, an Associated Press story widely picked up about a Virginia school teaching Chinese in kindergarten caught my eye, and piqued my interest in President George Bush's National Security Language initiative aimed at teaching the youngest students foreign languages he deemed critical to U.S. security.

Spanish was not among those languages. But Presidential candidate Barack Obama believes it should be, and he's ignited something of a debate on blogs and other media after suggesting last week that every U.S. child should be bilingual.

Obama noted the importance of teaching languages earlier in school, and pointed out that being bilingual can be "a powerful tool to get a job.'' He noted that young children learn foreign languages far easier and acknowledged his own shame that he doesn't speak a language. Almost instantly, he found himself under attack by conservative media and right-leaning blogs along with groups advocating English as the official U.S. language.

Obama defended himself against the criticism earlier this week, but the debate over what languages should be taught when and who should decide has ignited further discussion and debate all week that is instructive -- and reveals how controversial the teaching of languages can be in the U.S.

Education Week has an interesting forum, asking how vital is it for schools and districts to provide opportunities to study another language?

(presidential candidates views on public funding for pre-kindergarten disappointingly vague)

While Presidential candidate Barack Obama offered his perspective on learning more than one language at an early age last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain was readying his speech before the NAACP convention, which he delivered on Thursday.

Not one mention of his views on pre-kindergarten, a disappointment to advocates and duly noted and commented upon by Sara Mead in Early Education Watch. Mainly, McCain used his speech to make clear his support for school vouchers in largely minority and underperforming school systems -- an idea Obama is adamantly against.

"For all the best efforts of teachers and administrators, the worst problems of our public school system are often found in black communities," he told nearly 3,000 members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gathered at its 99th annual convention, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Both candidates have yet to full flesh out their views on early childhood education; Obama has said he'd put billions of dollars into early childhood education to make sure minorities and poor youth "are getting the help they need,'' and wants to increase Head Start funding, but specifics are yet to come.

Mead has her own ideas about some early childhood proposals should believes McCain might support; she's also taken a good look at Obama's.

(Sara Mead of the New America Foundation and Albert Wat of pre-k Now speak to reporters in New York City last weekend at Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media)

Journalists who write about education often find themselves bogged down in coverage of multiple school districts, and don't have the time or inclination to pay attention to early childhood education. They are making a mistake, two experts on pre-kindergarten told reporters who attended a Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media seminar aimed at helping reporters new to the education beat last weekend.

"Pre-k is where all the action is right now,'' said Sara Mead, whose own blog about the policies that impact young children is filled with resources and story ideas. Mead noted that 36 states have increased spending on pre-kindergarten and gave pointers on what to watch for in the coming election, along with ways the candidates might support an early education agenda.. Mead spoke about what to look for when visiting a pre-kindergarten classroom, and noted that what happens in such classrooms merits the attention of journalists because it "matters a lot and really resonates for parents,'' and for the public.

Albert Wat of Pre-K Now also offered tips and advice about covering early childhood education, and invited journalists to sign-up for a daily news clip service and monthly research roundup on the pre-k now website. He also presented a helpful powerpoint presentation aimed at providing reporters with a detailed look at pre-kindergarten trends.

(Siblings shut out of pre-k can now attend the same school as their big brothers and sisters)

It's been a long haul for New York City parents whose children have been shut out of pre-kindergarten -- in many cases, from the same schools their older siblings attend. That's led to months of anxiety, soul searching, protests and letter writing campaigns. It's also led to a resolution, according to the New York Daily News.

Daily News staff writer Carrie Melago, who has done a fine job keeping tabs on this difficult story, reported today that the New York City Department of Education has decided to honor its commitment to place siblings in the same school where parents wanted them to be. It's going to be costly for the city -- they'll have to spend $1.4 million on additional paraprofessionals to staff what will now be larger pre-kindergarten classes of up to 20 kids.

The DOE's policy calls for giving preference to highly coveted pre-kindergarten seats to those with siblings in the same school. For unknown reasons, that did not happen in many cases. The kids who were accepted for the spots that were supposed to be earmarked for siblings will not be sent packing -- they will just be in larger classes, but with additional staff.

In a city where the average price of renting a two-bedroom was $5,265 in March (caveat: that figure is for Manhattan, not the other four boroughs, and is in a doorman building) and where parents scramble to identify and find places for their children in decent public schools, the pre-k mess added even more worries. Private pre-kindergarten in the city can cost upwards of $23,000 a year.. The admissions process can involve securing letters of recommendations for toddlers, long waits just to get applications and multiple interviews.

In New York, It helped to have the press keep the pressure on education officials by asking repeatedly how the issue would be resolved.

My excellent colleague-in -blogging at the New America Foundation had the same reaction that I did yesterday about the plight of elite parents in New York City in search of private schools -- as in "oh, no, not again,'' after reading the story displayed so prominently in the New York Times

However, Sara Mead took it a step further, offering some tremendous resources to help reporters find more meaningful stories about pre-kindergarten.Here are some from her Early Education Watch blog.

I do have to say one thing in defense of the New York Times story: it was likely gobbled up by the small population of nervous private school wannabe parents, and likely seen elsewhere in the country as one of those "aren't New Yorkers crazy'' pieces.

Such stories are annoying to those who know they stray far from the issues and obstacles that deeply impact a much wider population struggling with finding quality child care and early education options, but they are enormously popular. Here's a link to a piece I wrote in 2004 for Bloomberg News, that ran in the Seattle Times and all over the world. Not exactly hard-hitting investigative journalism, but you know what my editors wanted? More stories like it, because by internal measures such pieces were among the most popular and well read of the year. (I must have written three or four similar pieces)

Of course, back then there weren't as many bloggers ready to jump in with sarcastic commentary aimed at shaming journalists and reminding them of their critical role -- to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

There's plenty of room to do so on the pre-kindergarten front, and Mead's resources are a great starting point. That's not to say headlines won't fly around the world when New York City's private kindergarten tuition top $35,000 annually, which will likely happen by 2010.

The Washington Post picked up on an important trend that journalists covering pre-kindergarten issues ought to be aware of and to follow closely. The growing Hispanic population will continue to change the nature of and makeup of schools.In three suburban counties outside of Washington D.C. the number of children ages 4 and younger who are minorities has reached 60 percent, according to Census Bureau figures used by The Post.

Not all of the immigrants are Hispanics, but the growth of that population will force school systems to accommodate larger numbers of immigrant students whose parents do not speak English at home.

Some important follow-up questions and stories remain. Are school systems hiring much larger numbers of English as-a-second language teachers and does that include pre-kindergarten and kindergarten? What are their qualifications and is there a shortage? Are language barriers creating other issues for these children and for schools, especially with increased testing under No Child Left Behind? What other plans do local school systems have to meet and follow the needs of this changing population? Are they measuring an achievement gap between white and Hispanic students and consulting research that shows pre-kindergarten can reduce such gaps?

News of population shifts and trends is a great starting point for a host of important stories and follow-up.

(They may like the same snacks at U.S. children, but British kindergartens may be more prepared academically, reporter finds)

Associated Press education reporter Nancy Zuckerbrod had to ask herself a very important question this month as she prepared to move her kindergarten age daughter to London, one that has implications for the way U.S. pre-schoolers learn.

Was the year Zuckerbrod's daughter spent mastering monkey bars and drawing planets in her Washington D.C. area pre-school doomed to leave her behind compared with her peers in London, who were expected to master fractions, telling time, counting in 5's up to 50 and more academic tasks? And if so, what did that say about the quality of pre-school in the U.S. compared with early education in England?

One important point Zuckerbrod raised: U.S. fourth-graders were not found lagging behind England on recent international reading studies . So what distinguishes the way the two countries teach early education and how different are the goals? Zuckerbrod, who decided against the teacher's suggestion of leaving her daughter behind for another year, now has a front row seat to answer some of these questions first hand. It will be interesting to see any follow-up that includes research, data and some questioning of the different approaches.

(With convention approaching editorial writers want to hear more specifics on education)

As the presidential nominating conventions approach, editorial writers and others are taking note and wondering why education is remaining so far in the background. Today's Washington Post gave credit to Democrat Barack Obama for paying a bit more attention to the topic, including an emphasis on early childhood education . It also credited Republican John McCain for outlining more of his views to the public in his acceptance speech before the National Association of Colored People.

But the editorial asked a question on the minds of educators, advocates and citizens everywhere -- where are specifics, and where are proposals for sweeping change? And why isn't the public hearing more of them?

Eduwonk weighed in today with a bit of advice from guest blogger Richard Whitmire of USA Today, an editorial writer who also contributes to Education Election , which is monitoring coverage of the candidates on education issues.

And blogger Alexander Russo, meanwhile, who writes the This Week in Education blog, has reminded interested parties to keep an eye on Ed Challenge for a Change , which will be convening a forum at the Democratic Convention in Denver to highlight their own push for a new Democratic agenda around education issues.

The New York Times reports that 10 NYC schools (Education Week says 11) will be trying the new literacy program developed by Core Knowledge Foundation, which was established by E.D. Hirsch Jr., the well-known proponent of the power of broad knowledge to facilitate learning. The early literacy program, which includes skills as well as information-rich texts, also will be piloted in seven other school districts nationally.

Most NYC elementary schools use the "balanced literacy" approach championed by Lucy Calkins, a Teachers College professor whose Reading and Writing Project trains teachers in NYC as well as across the country. Calkins advocates a "workshop" approach to reading and writing that teaches children how good readers and writers work. It has often been criticized for lacking substance. The Times' story quotes Calkins as saying that she hoped the Core Knowledge schools would continue to teach children to revise their writing and to develop inference skills in their reading. She also said, however, that "this could be calling us to a new and better balance."

The blog on the Core Knowledge Web site has a entry in which a progressive educator "confesses" that he had wrongly rejected the Hirsch approach. It's interesting because it illustrates the reaction of many educators who fear overemphasizing knowledge for fear that it undercuts understanding. Strange, I know.

Core Knowledge also has a pre-kindergarten curriculum.

Journalists might look into pre-kindergarten programs or elementary schools in their area that are using the Core Knowledge approach. Are the kids bored? Do their heads hurt?

The New York Times' Elissa Gootman reports today on an unannounced initiative in NYC schools to assess children academically starting as early as kindergarten. Schools are not required to participate but the district is encouraging them to do so. Those who sign on can choose among five assessment options, including one in which children are asked to take timed paper and pencil tests. The story is predictable, warning as it does in the first paragraph about "standardized tests of children as young as kindergartners." All tests are "standardized," in the sense that there is some measure or scale to evaluate responses. But reporters and anti-testing folks love to use the word "standardized" to apply to any test, because it implies that children are being forced into a single mold. There's little about the program itself in the article. But it does provide the author a chance to recap a number of controversies related to assessment, and to make sweeping statements about "a Bloomberg penchant for quantifying."

There are legitimate concerns about testing, how to do it well, and the use and misuse of results. But given the small scale of this program and its exploratory purpose the "outrage" the reporter turned up in calling around and asking for reaction seems overblown. A thoughtful discussion of the assessment of young children was done last fall by a committee headed up by Sharon Lynn Kagan of Teachers College. The report of the task force she headed can be found here.

The anti pre-k arguments Lisa Snell and Shikha Dalmia of the Reason foundation made in the Journal last Friday were based on a paper they published two years earlier. When the first paper came out Steve Barnett of the National Institute of Early Education Research at Rutgers rebutted both that paper and also one by the libertarian Lexington Institute in a 2008 paper. Roy Bishop, the president of the Oklahoma Education Association, linked to Steve's rebuttals on his blog.

The authors of last week's Wall Street Journal anti-preschool opinion piece hung part of their analysis on research conducted by scholars at Stanford and U.C. Berkeley that included Bruce Fuller, Susanna Loeb, and Russell Rumberger. Here's a link to the actual paper, which found that the social skill development was slightly slower in children enrolled in preschool at least six hours per day. Here's a link to the actual paper.

Fuller sent this message regarding the Reason Foundation op-ed:

The study with Stanford's Susanna Loeb shows distinct gains from preschool centers for children from low-income families in terms of cognitive skills displayed in kindergarten. Very small gains for children from middle-class families were observed, which is consistent with other work by NICHD researchers and by Katherine Magnuson at U.Wisconsin. What's worrisome is that we found that after about six hours a day in a preschool center, a slow-down in children's typical rate of social-skill development was observed. The NICHD study of early child care and adolescent development found that this negative effect persists at a very small level of magnitude into the fifth grade. It's a small effect and one that is not clinically troubling (although it is statistically significant). It does suggest that preschools have lots of room to improve social skills, and that obsessing on preliteracy skills, or tightly aligning preschool "curriculum" with elementary curriculum and standardized tests may distract from social-developmental activities.

The authors of the WSJ commentary captured the meaning of our research, but they failed to emphasize the positive benefits of preschool centers for children from low-income families, and they failed to recognize that the slow-down of social development largely disappears by the end of elementary school, based on what we know empirically to date. My book, Standardized Childhood, details how this one-sided emphasis on narrow cognitive skills is playing out in parts of California and Oklahoma.

The New York Times' Tamar Lewin wrote about the Fuller et. al. research as well as two other studies of similar issues back in 2005. Here's the link (free login may be required).

Lewin put it in perspective with this quote from Jeanne Brooks-Gunn of Teachers College: "It isn't that these kids are more likely to have clinical levels of behavior problems...You're getting a slight uptick, but it's still in the normal range." See more from the article after the jump.

The Journal News of Westchester County, New York reports that 10 years of data from the Yonkers school district shows children who attended
preschool scoring well above their peers who did not attend, based on their scores on mandated English and math exams. The newspaper reports that "their performance improved regardless of ethnic group, disability, gender, English-language proficiency or whether they received free or reduced-price lunches..."

Yonkers is expanding its pre-k program this year. But the mayor of Yonkers says money may not be available to sustain that expansion, unless the state contributes more. New York provides only about $3,500 per pupil, which forces local districts to bear some of the financial burden. That's something many New York districts resist.

While you were away on vacation last week Andy Rotherham put Virginia Walden Ford, founder of D.C. Parents for School Choice, to work to blog on Eduwonk about John McCain's positions on education. Ford is a policy advisor to McCain and she notes in this entry that McCain supports "providing access to high quality care and education in all programs serving our youngest children with particular emphasis on high quality preschool for low-income students." This was the first time I'd heard of McCain's support for high quality preschool so I went to his Web site to find more details. I didn't find any mention of early education. In particular, Ford's entry says McCain supports creating a database of information about programs.

This week Obama advisors Jon Schnur, of New Leaders for New Schools, and Mike Johnston, a Denver principal, are blogging on Eduwonk about Barack Obama's education plans. At the top of the list is early childhood education. Going to Obama's Web site we find that he supports 1. A comprehensive approach to serving the needs of children from birth to age 5. 2. Expansion of Early Head Start and Head Start. 3. Affordable high-quality child care.

The response to the 10-point opening salvo from Schnur and Johnston was not very positive.

Washington Post Reporter Michael Alison Chandler weighed in on the "pre-k as good investment" angle, after attending a forum of education advocates in Fairfax County, on the topic. Virginia is working on a new formula for matching grants that would help the county expand its pre-kindergarten offerings.

This might have been just another local story on pre-kindergarten, but Chandler added the kind of background and context that instantly improves journalism about pre-kindergarten. She noted, for example, that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine had to pare down his pre-kindergarten campaign promises due to a budget shortfall that could reach $1 billion. Chandler included statistics on how many children in the country are in a child-care setting and also noted that 32 states including Virginia have increased spending on pre-kindergarten despite the tough economic times. With a worsening economy, it's important for reporters to quantify both the need for pre-kindergarten in areas they cover as well as funding methods and costs to the taxpayer.

Linda Jacobson has a story in this week's Education Week highlighting new research on a problem that rarely gets mentioned: chronic absenteeism in early elementary school. The study by the National Center for Children in Poverty here at Columbia University shows a correlation between missing school starting in kindergarten and poor academic achievement throughout elementary school and into middle school. The study, "Present, Engaged, and Accounted For," is not yet up at the NCCP Web site. But here's a page on that site that collects the center's earlier work on absenteeism.

This study tees up a number of good September stories for journalists. I recall seeing a newspaper story or a research study a few years ago that reported on a phenomenon I'd never thought about before: elementary school children who drift into school days or even weeks late. (I tried to locate it on the Web but couldn't. If I recall right, it was datelined CHICAGO) Parents stressed by poverty, drugs, alcohol, their own youth, language differences, or frequently changing residences may not see getting kids off to a good start on the first day of school as such a high priority. This would be a perfect time to get out to some elementary schools in urban or poor rural communities and ask to see how the enrollment numbers changed during the first month. Then ask to see the attendance numbers. Follow up some interviews of teachers, the principal, parents and ask the district superintendent what is being done to reduce the problem. The new study provides the perfect hook.

The Washington Post's Michael Alison Chandler has been doing some good work this month on math education. She's had pieces on math scores that are relatively weak compared to literacy marks, the challenges related to teaching algebra in the eighth grade, and what math lessons should look like beginning in pre-kindergarten. [She is also retaking high school algebra herself, to get grounded in it! What a great idea.]

The folks she talks to about the early math lessons, I must say, don't do much more than repeat the standard progressive line. You know the one: "relevant," "hands on," "concrete," math is "abstract." That's all fine. But, as another expert she quotes says, the activities need to contain some math that's talked about in explicit ways. Key math concepts such as place value and one-to-one correspondence between units and numerals need to be taught and spoken about using mathematical terms.

The other point is that the Virginia state standards she excerpts are not focused. As Michigan State University professor Bill Schmidt says, countries where math achievement exceeds that in the U.S. focus on only two or three key concepts in each of the early grades. But they do so with rigor so that students don't have to come back and relearn them in every grade up until they take algebra.

A good source on early math education is Herbert Ginsburg here at Teachers College.

New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein may have sounded all the right notes when he pushed to provide equal access to gifted programs for all city children and revamped testing criteria for the sought-after program.

Instead, the number of children entering the city's gifted classes dropped by half this year -- and were less diverse than they were a year earlier, according to the stories in both the New York Times and the New York Daily News.

Data released by the New York City Department of Education show the number of white students in citywide gifted programs jumped from 18 percent in 2007-08 to 52 percent in 2008-09 -- exactly the opposite of what the new policy was supposed to accomplish.

Klein defended the city's efforts, nothing that his program led to more outreach and more testing of students, although he did not specifically say what he would do next. Journalists covering this story should press for answers.

What happened in the nation's largest school district shows how important it is for journalists to ask for data and follow-up. The data the Department of Education released -- and the New York Times analysis of it -- clearly shows a program that failed and is a reminder of how numbers tell a story.

Had the press failed to follow-up -- and simply reported the Department of Education's rhetoric and promises -- the public might not have learned that nearly half the year's new gifted students are white. That's a significant unintended consequence of a program intended to equalize access to gifted minority students in a system where just 17 percent of the kindergarten and first grade students are white.

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As U.S. voters go to the polls and anxiously await the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election, Learning Matters , the production company covering education issues, is offering some expert advice to the next leader.

While education has not been top of the agenda in this historic campaign, Learning Matters posed a question to expert educators, parents, students and policy makers: What must the next president do to fix our country's education system?

There are some fascinating answer available at a click, ranging from Teachers College early childhood professor Sharon Lynn Kagan to author and scholar Mike Rose of the UCLA Graduate School of Education.

For more clarification on where Senators John McCain and Barack Obama stand on education you can also listen to the Oct. 21 debate between his education advisors or read the transcript..

A new era is about to begin, and as usual, Sara Mead at Early Education Watch is keeping on eye on the post-election developments in early childhood education. While it will be months before newly elected President Barack Obama details how he will carry out his early childhood pledges, it's important for journalists to be reminded of what he said -- all the better to watch what he does.

Mead points out where Obama has stood on education issues in her post today. Education Week also took note of the education agenda ahead, while Alexander Russo of This Week in Education weighed in with a round-up of commentary on what the new president faces.

Closer to home, New York Times writer Lisa Belkin, who writes a new blog called "The Mother Lode,'' for the New York Times, focused on the dilema parents faced this week -- whether or not to allow their kids to stay awake and witness history.

It remains to be seen how educators coped with all the nodding heads and blinking eyes post-election day. I keep picturing a classroom filled with sleeping children.

An editorial in the Anchorage Daily News took Governor Sarah Palin to task for missing a statewide conference on the future of Alaska's educational system last week. Palin, the former Republican candidate for Vice President, skipped the conference to speak in Miami about the future of the Republican Party. The editorial urged her to come home and start focusing on the needs of the state.

While Palin gave her talk about national issues, her home state was in the midst of charting the future of its educational system. For the record, Alaska is one of only 12 states that has no state-funded education system for pre-kindergarten students. One of the goals that came out of last week's education summit included a committment to offer state-funded preschool to every three, four and five-year-old in Alaska. A plan to evaluate pre-school programs to make sure they are adequately preparing children for school also emerged as a goal during the conference Palin missed.

The goals are just a starting point and still need to be adopted, possibly refined and publicized. Some will also require funding that may not be available. It isn't clear where Palin stands on any of them.

On the stump as a vice-presidential candidate, Palin, the mother of an infant with Down syndrome, made some proposals about the education of children with special needs. Without giving specifics, she also noted that education "is near and dear to my heart.''

The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell, whose new book on successful people, "Outliers: The Story of Success, is atop the New York Times' bestseller list, writes in this week's edition about how hard it is to tell in advance who is going to make a good teacher (or NFL quarterback.) All the usual proxies and requirements--certification, advanced degrees, cognitive aptitude--do not seem to predict classroom success, he argues. Yet, given that improving teacher effectiveness is critical to improving educational outcomes for children, Gladwell says teachers should go through a demanding weeding-out process, similar to what's used to choose financial advisors. Only those who hit certain benchmarks will be kept on.

It's a fascinating article, even if it does seem, as much of Gladwell's writing does, overly simplified and wide-eyed at ideas that are commonplace, especially to experts in the field. The best part was a passage featuring Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Gladwell reports the commentary of Pianta and a colleague as they watch videos of good teachers and weak teachers. How instructive that would be!

Go to the jump for an excerpt:

Kelly Smith of the Forum in North Dakota did an excellent job of setting the stage for what could be an unprecedented push for pre-kindergarten in North Dakota. The issue is important in this rural state because it comes at a time when 90 percent of the students are now enrolled in full-day kindergarten, and educators are expressing worries they will be at a disadvantage if they haven't had some form of schooling before. It's not clear if that argument will sway lawmakers, but it certainly sets up an interesting story idea.

What are kindergarten teachers seeing in the students who arrive with no classroom experience? How can they see and measure a lack of preparation and does it impede student progress on other important early learning skills?

North Dakota is one of only eight in the U.S. that does not fund any pre-kindergarten and lawmakers and others in the state are once again pushing for change. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven recommended in his budget a plan to spend $3.5 million reimbursing school districts for half-day, two-day-a-week preschool programs, which would help about 7,000 of the state's 4-year-olds. As the state weighs other priorities, it will be interesting to watch what happens to the governor's pre-kindergarten plans.

The story Donna St. George of the Washington Post wrote just before Christmas serves as a powerful reminder about ways parents are sacrificing their children's education and safety in this troubled economy.

St. George found more children are being left home alone because their parents can no longer afford child care, and documented a spike in complaints about unregulated and informal day-care providers that operate illegally.

The trend St. George reported in the Washington D.C. region and surrounding suburbs is one every journalist who covers early childhood issues can examine in the communities they cover. Good sources include social service commissioners and child care operators who might report a new rise in vacancies among parents who can no longer afford to pay. St. George found more examples of children left alone from housing code enforcers who in one case found a kindergarten student hiding in a closet.

Families of all income levels are experiencing difficulty,as Albert Wat points out in "The Pre-K Pinch,'' an excellent resource for journalists.

St. George followed up with yet another powerful story a few days later: child welfare workers are also seeing a marked increase in child abuse and neglect cases in the worsening economy.

An important new federal research report out today looked at 500 research studies to conclude, just as most parents would, that knowing the alphabet, the sounds of letters, the colors and other basic nouns (car, tree, house, man) and being able to write one's name when a child goes to kindergarten predicts how well children will read later on. The six-year study also found that kids who can write individual letters when asked to do so, who can remember what they've been told, and who can break words down into their sound components do better, too.

The panel's report is careful to say that its conclusions are limited by the limitations of the studies it reviewed and more research is needed on critical issues. Even so, the report raises some interesting issues that go against conventional wisdom.

--The highest impact teaching methods involved a teacher teaching a child a literacy-related skill either one-on-one or in a small group. Letting children do art or play in the kitchen area or other activities are what get more attention from preschool teachers and experts. "Many of the high-impact instructional strategies involved activities and procedures different from those typically seen in early childhood classrooms," the executive summary of the report said.

--Experts often talk about the importance of having classrooms that are "language rich" or literacy rich." The panel found few studies that looked at how much that mattered. Not that it doesn't. But the panel could not find much of a research base for it.

--The report's authors also say that the learning patterns of poor kids and better-off kids are the same. Again, that finding goes against other research that has found that poor kids need focused, more teacher-directed instruction.

There are certainly other views on these issues. Deborah Stipek at Stanford, Susan B. Neuman at the University of Michigan, and the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia are sources I'd consult in writing about this important report.

As always, of course, get out into preschools and Head Start centers to talk to them about this.

The presidential pre-school watch can officially begin.

The eyes of advocates, educators and many others are now upon President-elect Barack Obama's choice for education secretary as he initiates an early childhood agenda.

Chicago Schools Chief Arne Duncan made it clear that preschool expansion is among his priorities at a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Duncan said he wants to build on the successes of Head Start and Early Head Start and that he believes investment in early childhood is needed because "too many children show up at kindergarten already behind."

Before Duncan faced the Senate, the New America Foundation posed some excellent policy questions that will be useful for journalists to watch closely in the coming months.

The Senate hearing was hardly a grilling; Duncan received a warm reception and lots of applause throughout the hearing -- where his own pre-schooler read and drew.

With all the learning and socialization that needs to take place in kindergarten, it's hard to imagine a school district getting caught up in a struggle over how long a child's hair can be. It's even harder to imagine a child being ordered to learn in isolation because of his hair.

Yet that's exactly what happened in rural Needville Texas, according to a story in the Houston Chronicle, The paper has been following the case of a five-year-old American Indian boy who was kept out of class for several months because of the length of his hair.

The school district maintained the boy had violated the school's dress code, which forbids boys from wearing their hair long. The boy was told he could wear his hair in one long braid tucked into his shirt, but when he arrived wearing two braids outside his shirt he was ordered to attend classes in isolation.

It took the involvement of a federal judge to rule that the Needville School District had violated state law and the U.S. Constitution by punishing the boy for his religious beliefs. The boy's father maintained that the part-Apache Indian child considered his long hair sacred, and held to a tradition of not cutting it except during major life events.

The case drew the interest of the American Civil Liberties Union after the boy was suspended for not complying with a school's dress code policy that required short hair. The boy's parents had sent him to school in braids. The ACLU lauded the judge's decision.

The faltering economy is causing states to pull back on school funding promises, and outraged parents in South Florida are resorting to dramatic tactics -- including a mock funeral on YouTube -- to call attention to their priorities. In the video, children dressed in black place violins, books and soccer balls in a coffin with a headstone reading: "Here lies our dreams.''

According to a Miami Herald article, the parents are trying to send a strong message of protest to officials in the state that ranks 47th in the U.S. in education spending (per $1,000 of personal income) and has endured a nearly 16 percent cut to the education budget.

Florida is hardly the only state where shrinking state tax revenues are threatening education budgets. Planned pre-kindergarten expansions are threatened throughout the U.S; In Maryland alone, state funding for local schools could plunge by $69 million next year, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Early childhood advocates all over Florida are also concerned about more cuts to preschool funding, a Florida Times-Union story notes.

Just about every education journalist in the country will be reporting on this trend over the coming months. It's worth taking a look at how other states are handling their fiscal problems, from headline grabbing protests to potential solutions.

Columnists can freely give their opinions without explanation, but Early Stories would have liked to hear the thinking behind David Brooks' op-ed piece in the New York Times in which he "fervently hope[s]'' that a Head Start expansion is dropped from the stimulus package.

Brooks clearly articulated what he believes is wrong with the $819 billion tax-and-spending bill, but he didn't say why he wants to jettison the $2.1 billion proposed for Head Start, the national program to promote school readiness. The package calls for giving $2.1 billion to allow the longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S. to serve an additional 110,000 children. The National Head Start Association had hoped for a $4.3 billion boost for both Head Start and Early Head Start.

The NHSA noted that the $2.1 billion "would create new jobs and provide safe, high quality services for children as parents go back to work,'' and would provide help to children and families who most need it.

Early Stories decided to find out what David Brooks' objections to Head Start are, since he omitted them from his piece, and discovered a column from 2005 where he declared "there is little evidence that it actually transforms lives.''

The piece had links to a 2005 study that Brooks used as the basis for his dislike of Head Start.

If Brooks wants Head Start money out of the bill now, he owes us a cogent explanation of why Head Start should not get help in this bill. Others have expressed skepticism of the bill's education spending, but few have addressed Head Start. Sara Mead over at Early Education Watch, meanwhile, has done a good job of analyzing what the provisions could mean for early childhood education.

Early Stories did find some more objections -- not surprisingly -- from Chester Finn Jr. at the Fordham Foundation, whose conservative views may have influenced Brooks: "Forty years of evaluations have demonstrated that Head Start does next to nothing to prepare its young charges....to succeed in kindergarten and beyond,'' Finn noted.

Finn went on to describe what he dislikes about the program, which Brooks now has an obligation to do. The view may not be a popular one during this economic crisis, but it should be explained.

The possibility and promise of a new administration and new spending requires reporters to shine a light on which early childhood programs are effective, rather than to simply report the amount of money earmarked for new initiatives. Yale University psychology professor Edward Zigler offers some concrete suggestions that are worth a close read in a thoughtful Education Week piece published on Feb. 5 that looks at spending on Title 1.

The foundation of the government's commitment to closing the achievement gap is now known to all as No Child Left Behind, a cornerstone of the George W. Bush administration.

Zigler, widely regarded as one of the founding “fathers” of Head Start ,has always been a staunch advocate for children and families and a leading researcher of program and policies designed to support children and families. He calls on President Barack Obama and Congress to support a plan that "would enable Title I to evolve from a hodgepodge of efforts into a single program that had performance standards to guide quality and made Title I more accountable. ''

Zigler makes the case that spending on early childhood education is beneficial; "the younger the better,'' he says. He also says spending more federal money on it without a hard look at the results is not the answer.

Zigler wants money set aside to evaluate Title 1, nothing that the program launched in 1965 as part of then-president Lyndon B. Johnson's "war on poverty,'' has turned into a stream of money that allows school administrators to "mount any type of initiative they feel will be beneficial to the academic progress of poor children.''

Zigler raises important questions for journalists to think about as they keep a close eye on new education spending, along with what kinds of questions to ask about how existing programs have -- or have not --worked.

At a time when both print and broadcast media are both cutting back on education coverage, Early Stories was pleasantly surprised to find a local television station intensely covering an important early childhood story that goes beyond a quick take on cute kids. (Although the kids featured are awfully cute.)

Channel 3000 in Madison, Wisconsin has consistently covered a longstanding proposal to create a kindergarten program for 4-year-olds that has been beneficial elsewhere in the state but is costly. Consideration of the proposal comes at a time when the city of Madison -- like municipalities across the U.S. -- is struggling financially. Parents, taxpayers and school officials alike are rightly questioning both the costs and the benefits.

The station has been covering this story intelligently for several years, taking on angles and questions of enormous importance to parents and educators, from what is the right age for kindergarten to how early programs specifically address children's social and emotional needs. There are also links to research and issue papers that detail how the funding would work. The public deserves information and answers -- it's too bad more local television stations don't take them type to give these kinds of issues serious treatment.

It was interesting reading about the town of Hudson, New Hampshire in an Associated Press article that ran in USA Today and many other papers.

The story is about the only town within the 48 states that doesn't offer free public kindergarten, and does not want to unless the state provides more money for it.

Apparently the "Live Free or Die," state is only now beginning to require that its school districts provide public kindergarten.

The town of Hudson has filed a lawsuit seeking to block public kindergarten in its schools, and I was fascinated to find out why. However, the article does not quote anyone who is against kindergarten, instead citing as the reason a constitutional amendment in 1984 to the New Hampshire Constitution requiring that the state pay for any new mandated programs.

Early Stories thinks an opportunity was missed here to introduce research about the importance of full day kindergarten, and to explain the opposition. A little research turned up some more informative stories on the topic: a piece in the Boston Globe last month quoted a Hudson school official balking at kindergarten "as an unfunded state mandate,'' along with the Hudson superintendent calling it "a matter for the voters to decide.''

And, as is often the case, those who are against it cite money. The superintendent noted that in tough economic times, paying for kindergarten "could be a disaster in the making,'' although I did not see any figures for how much it would cost taxpayers and what the school board might have to cut to make room for kindergarten.

I also uncovered a forceful editorial in the Nashua Telegram, urging the Hudson school board "to abandon its ill-conceived court challenge,'' calling it "a foolish waste of the town's time and money.''

The story got picked up all over the U.S. and is worth a follow-up. But I would like to hear more from both sides. It's hard to imagine a town
fighting against free public kindergarten. I'd like to hear some of the voices next time explaining why, along with some education research that explains what children get out of kindergarten and why it's important.

As educators and policy makers sort through the meaning of the slimmed down compromise stimulus, journalists are trying to figure out the meaning in their own communities. How much of what was promised was cut? What will any new money be spent on? Who is setting the priorities?

A few good resources -- beyond speaking to school officials, Head Start operators and other early childhood education providers -- can be found on the Ed Money Watch blog.

Economist Steve Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research has also weighed in, and it's likely that schools of education are watching the developments closely.

Early Stories had a chance to listen to one of the top experts in the U.S. this week,
Sharon Lynn Kagan of Teachers College, Kagan emphasized that what matters about the stimulus spending is the quality of early childhood education it may be providing money for, from child care to pre-kindergarten. The vast majority of existing programs are mediocre, she noted.

"There are very, very few high quality programs and those are the ones that produce the high effects that we tout in the research literature,'' Kagan said.

NIEER has some quality markers. Most states now have early childhood education standards. The National Assn. of Early Childhood Education has its guidelines. So does Head Start. Kagan noted one element of quality that concerns her greatly. Only 36% of Head Start teachers and 30% of child care workers have a bachelor's degree. She also worried that, as these programs expand, the teachers they hire will not have the background and training they need. "Those coming in often are less qualified than those leaving," she said.

Linda K. Wertheimer of the Boston Globe reports that a number of districts in Massachusetts are reconsidering plans for full-day kindergarten classes. Fifty of the state's districts do not offer the classes. Of those that do, more and more are charging parents for the extra time. In fact, the average fee has gone up 10-fold in four years, from about $300 to about $3,000. Massachusetts is one of the most affluent, high-tax, high-spending states in the country, a state whose students score well on both state and national tests. But it charges some parents for full-day kindergarten. This is a puzzle that just doesn't fit together in my head.

For journalists nationally, you should ask whether states are planning to cut back on these classes. We already know states' pre-kindergarten classes are feeling budget pressure. Now it looks like kindergartens are as well.

Consider this statement, which tops an entry on a Web site called Science Daily:

Parents and educators who favor traditional classroom-style learning over free, unstructured playtime in preschool and kindergarten may actually be stunting a child’s development instead of enhancing it, according to a University of Illinois professor who studies childhood learning and literacy development.

Are there really parents who favor "traditional classroom learning" (bad, bad) over "unstructured playtime?" (Good! good!) Good-bad, black-white statements such as these are a staple of education discourse. But journalists need to see them for what they are. The fact is that no reasonable person would favor having four- and five-year-olds spend their days sitting in chairs, filling out worksheets and taking notes. It may occur, but I'm sure it's very rare and not a matter of policy. But education experts also do not believe that unstructured play is as educative as some believe. This is what Teachers College's Sharon Lynn Kagan, one of the world's top experts on early education, said in a talk last week: "Play cannot be an excuse for lack of intentional teaching and setting high standards for children."

The bigger problem in preschools is that the children are frequently just plain bored, not engaged in anything fun, interesting, or educative. That's what journalists who visit preschools will see a lot.

It was interesting reading the New York Times Sunday story on class size, which presented a variety of views and academic research on how much class size matters and looked at what is happening around the issue in New York and in cash-strapped California. However, there were some critical questions that might have provided more insight. A visit to an overcrowded classroom would help readers see the issue more clearly.

For example, what is it like physically in classrooms that have to squeeze many more desks than can fit? How important are smaller classes in kindergarten and the earliest grades, when students are first exposed to academic work? How do overcrowded classrooms alter relationships? Do all the children who need extra help still manage to get it? Does the teacher feel that he or she is able to teach what the children need to learn? What is the optimum number of children in a classroom for each grade?

While reporting on this topic several years ago, Early Stories visited a kindergarten classroom in the borough of Queens where the teacher noted that the large class size (more than 30 children) was a real struggle in the winter. When it was time to go outside for recess, sixty little hands (and feet) needed help getting gloves and boots on. All the winter gear took up much needed space in the temporary trailer, minimizing movement and putting an end to sitting in circles and playing games like Duck Duck Goose. It was the kind of detail that helped readers understand the true impact of crowding.

The Times story might have pointed out exactly how many students constitute an overcrowded classroom. In cities like New York, the teachers contract spells out limits and the union keeps tabs. While limits vary with grades, type of class and other factors, the United Federation of Teachers every year files demands for arbitration when classes exceed the contractual limits.

The Times story pointed out that New York City has managed to increase class size even while receiving $150 million in state money they pledged would be used to create smaller classes. Department of Education officials provided no good reason for not doing so, beyond vague remarks about trade-off's and "a wrongheaded,'' focus on the number of kids in a classroom. They should not be let off the hook so easily.

There's ample room for follow-up here, and in a school system of more than 1.1 million with over 1500 schools, it shouldn't be hard to schedule a visit to a crowded classroom to observe first hand what is happening. How do parents feel their children are learning in oversized classrooms? How are the kids functioning? What do school officials, from the principal to the teachers say?
If budget cuts are preventing any class size reductions, will any stimulus money go toward that purpose?

Early Stories has long been intrigued by what happens at playtime and recess, and how it impacts learning. One reason for this is our experience visiting New York City schools, where the lack of playgrounds, fields and outdoor space forces school staff to be extremely creative when it comes to recess. We have seen teachers bring out cones, hoops, balls and all sorts of equipment for youngsters who take their breaks on concrete. We've seen role playing and all sorts of imaginative games. And we've also seen small children just standing around while their teachers talk in cluster, which is a lost opportunity.

Turns out, in an age where accountability and test scores rule, recess can be a key way to improve academic performance, according to a study featured in the New York Times.

The lead researcher noted that many schools aren't viewing recess as essential to education. It's a trend that comes after schools across the U.S. have been banning traditional games educators view as dangerous or skipping recess to focus more on on raising test scores

It's always worth checking the latest trends and decisions in recess -- the stories are of great interest to parents and clearly important to the overall quality of a child's education -- and day in school. Reporters who find time to visit schools should not neglect hanging out and watching recess -- that is, if it hasn't been banned or shortened.

When a politician announces a number of new initiatives, the stories that follow often end up looking like a laundry list. However,journalists have to do more than allow politicians to spew rhetoric without demanding a full explanation. One good example comes from the speech Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley made this week to the State Board of Education, where he announced a new program for tracking student performance from pre-kindergarten through the end of college.

Early Stories is curious to know how a pre-kindergarten student might be tracked and what exactly the governor meant. For one thing, many states and school systems first enroll students in kindergarten or first grade. And not all have developed evaluation systems for pre-kindergarten that measure such things as cognitive and language abilities, reading and mathematics achievement, health or behavior problems, for example.

How will school systems measure the achievement of pre-kindergarten students and what sorts of tests will they get? Will they be assessed on their ability to recite letters and numbers?

To get a few more answers, Early Stories checked out the text of his speech which implies said that he wants the Board of Education to "develop a comprehensive performance measurement system that tracks student achievement and development from Kindergarten through higher education.''

So, now the questions can begin about what such a system might look like in Maryland, which was ranked number one for having the best schools nationally by Education Week. Who will do the "tracking,'' and what will be tracked? How much will it cost? Will all publicly funded pre-kindergartens be required to track their students?

Early Stories posed some questions this week about how pre-kindergarten students are tracked and assessed, a topic that came up in Maryland Governor O'Malley's education speech. Turns out there are many ways, and one revealing answer came from reading an excellent story by John Higgins of the Akron Beacon Journal.

Higgins examined a pilot program that aims to teach parents ways they can get their children ready for school even before they begin kindergarten. The program, sponsored by the W.K. Kellog Foundation, is successful enough that it will soon be replicated in other cities. The program relies on parent "mentors,'' who visit students in their home before they start school. They also provide advice and support to parents on how to help the children acquire pre-reading and other learning skills.

The program exists in a state where students are falling behind even before they enter kindergarten, based on the results of an Ohio assessment test that measures a child's ability to process and understand language and identify letters, rhymes and sounds. The story noted that those who scored echelon lower (In Akron, some 24 percent) tended to need special help when they get to school with everything from holding and gripping a pencil or crayon to interacting with other children. Such skills develop better with guidance and encouragement.

Data from the University of Akron's Institute for Health and Social Policy tracked the children in the program, known as SPARK, and found significant improvement on the same kindergarten assessment tests after they had completed the program.

The effort is not funded by taxpayers, but that did not stop irate readers from posting comments at the bottom of Higgins' story, complaining about the idea of giving parents guidance to help get them ready for school.

What happens to the children ultimately, the story noted, will depend on how involved parents remain with their children's education -- long after kindergarten.

EarlyStories applauds journalists for looking into the connection between education and the economy, and it's natural that the New York Times would want to see how private schools and the parents who pay for them are faring. What new financial struggles might be emerging for the many formerly flush Wall Streeters and other now hurting professionals who once lined up eagerly to pay more than $30,000 a year for kindergarten?

Unfortunately, the lengthy article contained almost no description of how private school differs from public school (described as "unthinkable,'' in one particularly memorable passage). Private school is viewed as as "a marker of educational values, religious identity, social standing or class aspirations."

It's possible that such stories make fascinating reading, but at the same time EarlyStories expects a lot more. It's not exactly news that some families can no longer afford hefty tuitions, even if it may be comforting to pick up the newspaper and read about the money woes of others. What parents and the public really want to know is why the education at private schools merits such soul searching and angst, to the point where one unnamed (naturally) parent declared that her decision to choose private school amounted to "financial suicide.''

How big are class sizes at private schools compared with their public counterparts? (sometimes half as big). Are the teachers trained any differently? Are they hand-picked by the principal? Is their quality (a well known key to effectiveness) higher and if so, how is it measured? Is it the fields, facilities, sports and arts programs that draw parents to private school? Are new charter schools and other efforts to provide competition having any impact on private school enrollment? Also, what are the private school children learning, especially at a younger grade, that makes the education superior (if in fact it does) or at least so coveted?

Why not visit a public and private school kindergarten and ask to see the curriculum. How is it different? How do assessments differ? Can the backgrounds of the teachers be compared? Private school teachers often don't need to be certified and the schools can hire young, recent college graduates who don't have master's degrees. What kind of support and training do private school teachers get and how do they differ? How do parents view the quality of the education in both settings?

To the Times credit, the story did point out that of the more than three million families with at least one child in private school, almost two million of them have a household income of less than $100,000. Some are struggling just as mightily with tuition bills of less than $4,000.

Still, private school should not be seen entirely as a class entitlement issue, particularly as the recession economy blurs the lines. It's far more important to thoroughly compare and evaluate how such schools differ from public offerings. Cash-strapped families really want to know what their dollars are buying.

The social class issue, however, cannot be ignored. When asked about the financial struggles of parents and the additional requests for aid, George Davison, the headmaster of the Grace Church School, told the Times: “We’ll say, ‘You can’t really go to Vail this year and ask for financial aid.....And they look surprised and say, ‘But we already paid for the tickets!’ ”

Will long promised public preschool expansions survive the recession? That's one of the questions John Mooney of the New York Times posed and attempted to answer in an excellent piece that ran in the regional section. The story is a model for journalists who should be looking closely at planned expansions to see if they are in peril.

At a time when President Barack Obama is pushing preschool and early childhood education as part of his $787 billion stimulus plan, cash-strapped state officials are waiting to see how much money they will get and how they can use it. New Jersey is among the 38 states that provide public programs and already serves more than a quarter of all its eligible students. Under an ambitious expansion, the state had planned to provide all day-programs for low-income 3-and 4-year-olds by the fall, but it's unclear if they can proceed.

Other states planning pre-kindergarten expansions may also be scaling back, and are unlikely to ask for more taxpayer funding. The National Institute for Early Education Research has been keeping track, as has Pre-K Now . In addition to closely watching and examing state budgets when they are released, there is no substitute for visiting pre-kindergarten classes, like Mooney did. Visits will help journalists explain any progress teachers and parents see in the children, and provide a chance to observe what kinds of learning activities are taking place.

It's also worth noting, courtesy of the excellent Early Education Watch blog, that even programs that offer big gains for young children have been cut out of school budgets. Chicago's Child Parent Centers, for example, are now serving fewer than half of the original numbers of children, notes Lisa Guernsey of Early Education Watch.

Sometimes, it takes a video to explain why after school programs matter so much. This clip comes courtesy of TASC , or The After School Corporation, which works in New York and across the U.S. to "enhance the quality, availability and sustainability of comprehensive, daily after-school programs.''

The adorable video is filled with drawings from children in after school programs, and includes a rendition of New York City officials, including Schools Chancellor Joel Klein as Spiderman:

(Clockwise from top left corner, Joel Klein, NYC Commissioner of Youth and Community Development Jeanne Mullgrav, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and Mayor Michael Bloomberg)

The video It was shown to an audience that came to honor financier and philanthropist George Soros in New York City earlier this week. It brought home how important such programs are for working parents -- and how much they truly mean to children who would otherwise have nothing to do and in many cases no supervision after school.

As education journalists examine President Barack Obama's stimulus plan it's important not to leave out what happens when class is out. After school programs are known to provide academic, emotional and social support for at-risk students, and provide a lifeline for working parents. Obama has said he wants to double spending on the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, "to serve one million more children."

The new promises and pledges come at a time when after school programs, from art to music to sports, are being cut in school disticts throughout the U.S., a story many newspapers are already following.

Journalists should visit after school programs, where children could be engaged in learning new sports, playing music, or creating art. They will learn quickly that some are better than others. Some schools and districts offer programs that are nothing more than babysitting and extra work for teachers, while others provide real instruction in skills from music to robotics. It's important to ask who is monitoring and evaluating the programs.

There are also many different kinds of different funding streams for programs. which often run in partnerships with foundations and nonprofits like TASC, founded in 1998 by Soros and the Open Society Institute (OSI) . Their $125 million investment helped build a network of daily after-school programs for New York City public school children that served 140,000 children last year.

The stimulus money may provide districts with more opportunities to expand existing programs, if deemed a priority. Who will get the contracts and who will insure that programs are high quality? What else might be cut to make way for after school programs? As existing programs are slashed, what is happening to the children who once depended upon them? Are more children being left home alone, a trend that Donna St. George of the Washington Post documented?

As Georgia mulls spending stimulus money, an advocate weighs in to try to keep the focus on the state's children, whom she says stand the most to gain.

Lauren Waits, policy director for Voices for Georgia’s Children, examined in a piece for the Daily Citizen how the stimulus money might be spent to directly improve the lives of children. Waits describes different ways the money can help, noting that the stimulus would provide Georgia with $82.8 million to subsidize child care for low income working families in a state that has never been able to serve all of its eligible families.

"These new dollars can help eliminate waiting lists for services and expand the eligibility level so more parents can be assured of safe, healthy environments for their children while they go to work,'' Waits wrote. The remarks come at a time when Georgia's Governor Sonny Perdue has said he might turn down hundreds of millions of dollars in federal economic stimulus money because he says it might not be in the state’s long-term interest to accept it.

As President Barack Obama pledges to invest in early childhood education, it's important for journalists to keep the focus on the thousands of children across the U.S. who could truly benefit from public pre-kindergarten programs but are not being served.

That's what WYPR radio reporter Joel McCord did this week by spending some time with four-year-old Wyatt Fowler and his mother in Prince George's County, Maryland. You can listen to the program here:

Wyatt's parents don't earn enough to send him to private preschool, but they earn too much to qualify for state or federal subsidies. So his mother is trying to get him ready for kindergarten on her own.

"He's not getting that interaction with other children his age to know how to act in a group of peers, to know how to sit and take direction from another adult besides myself, to be able to know a consistent routine and follow it,'' Donna Flowler told McCord. She also told him that the two years one of her older sons spent in pre-k greatly improved his academic performance.

The stories of individual kids and families really bring home how and why such programs are important. There's lots of coverage of the push for universal pre-k from advocates and lobbyists in Maryland, which offers a state-funded program for at-risk four-year-olds.

There's a big expansion push now, a universal pre-k bill in the General Assembly that comes at a time when the state -- like many others in the U.S, -- is experiencing a budget crisis.

There's plenty of coverage about the state's finances, but not enough stories about children like Wyatt, who was playing at his mom's knee instead of learning to identify letters, sing songs and play early math games with children his own age.

Visit any preschool and you are likely to hear lots of praise and encouragement from teachers. The children, pleased with themselves, may smile in return.

Turns out, all that praise may not be such a great idea.

In fact, it might be furthering a new generation of narcissists, according to a BBC news report.

Carol Craig, chief executive of the centre for confidence and well-being in Scotland, recently warned educators that they are praising children too much, an idea she said had been imported from the U.S.

Craig told educators at a conference that "an obsession with boosting children's self esteem was encouraging a narcissistic generation who focused on themselves and felt entitled.''

EarlyStories remembers visiting a preschool where the instructor pointed out to parents that merely praising children for, say, drawing a beautiful picture of a castle wasn't terribly helpful. Instead, the praise should be targeted and specific; ie, "I like the way you drew that flag on top of the turret.''

That made some sense at the time. Craig is more about keeping educators on track as educators; they are not, she said recently "surrogate psychologists or mental health professionals.''

EarlyStories became curious about the whole issue of praise in the classroom and decided to see what some U.S. experts have to say. It would be interesting to hear what early childhood educators in the U.S. think of Craig's views.

The Anchorage Daily News published an interesting editorial this week criticizing the state's lagging response to providing publicly funded pre-kindergarten. Alaska is one of only 12 states in the U.S. that does not provide programs for its youngest residents.

The editorial follow a statewide summit on pre-kindergarten in November where educators and advocates pushed for improving Alaska's offerings, and comes as President Barack Obama is touting the importance of early childhood education. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- who while stumping as a vice-presidential candidate called education "near and dear to my heart,'' -- did not attend that summit meeting.

Palin's budget proposal did not go as far as advocates had hoped, calling only for a state-funded pilot that would serve about 500 pre-kindergarten children. The state's superintendent has called for federal stimulus funds to be used for new preschools for low-income students, while other educators want Palin to push harder for expansion.

"The state should take advantage of opportunities to fund preschools -- proven to give kids a stronger start,'' the editorial noted. It also pointed out that "well-run preschools can improve the odds children will succeed in school.''

Palin, for her part, has criticized the stimulus package as too large and said it would not be fair to Alaskans "to create expectations about programs that wouldn't be sustainable.''

EarlyStories has for months urged journalists to visit pre-school classrooms and glimpse what is happening (or not happening), especially as states battle over funding cuts and the prospect of economic stimulus money.

So it was gratifying to see a reporter from the Beaumont Enterprise observing the routines of 4 and 5-year-olds at a private pre-k provider, watching how they absorbed "the basics of language and social skills,'' in preparation for starting kindergarten.

The story examines the choices parents in Texas consider when they look at both state-funded and private programs. It also includes good advice about the questions that parents (and, EarlyStories would like to add, journalists) should be asking about providers, which are often subject to agency guidelines. For example, what kind of education do pre-k teachers have? Do they have early childhood experience? Have they been trained and have they taught in pre-k settings? How will children be assessed?

Steve Barnett, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, notes in the story that students who attend state pre-k programs are less likely to fail a grade or need special education-type services; he adds that children exposed to a curriculum that forces them to think through their actions and exercise their independence often have fewer behavior problems or aggression issues later on in life.

All of that information is helpful to parents and the public at a time when the cost and benefits of pre-k programs are being weighed closely. But the story might only have been a series of interviews and study summaries without the anecdote describing how young children curled up their faces up and squealed when describing the sour taste of a lemon. Sometimes classroom visits are the only way to bring home points about how and if young children are learning

It's hard to imagine a room filled with five and six-year-olds cramming for exams instead of, say, playing charades or building a castle with Legos.

EarlyStories came across this provocative report while scrolling through the excellent Gotham Schools blog. The report presented a pretty grim portrait of kindergarten. Some kindergartens are spending two to three hours a day instructing and testing children in literacy and math and leaving just half an hour or less for play.

“Kindergarten in Crisis,” was released this week by the Alliance for Childhood, a coalition of child development researchers who found that a new shift toward a more academic kindergarten could hurt children in the long run, although it might have a short term boost in test scores.

"The same didactic, test-driven approach is entering preschools,'' the report notes. "But these methods, which are not well grounded in research, are not yielding long-term gains."

The report doesn't advocate simply letting children run around in small circles; it notes that
"when children are given a chance to initiate play and exploratory learning, they become highly skilled in the art of self-education and self-regulation.

While it's not entirely clear what the report means by self-regulation, the findings are a good beginning for any journalist who wants to examine recent trends in kindergarten education. The report is a good starting point for scheduling school visits. Ask how much time is devoted to play, and then stick around and watch. Are teachers involved or simply lurking in the background and doing paperwork while the children are playing? Does the play have any goals or learning components? Exactly how much time is devoted to standardized testing preparation? Do parents and school officials object or endorse the approach?

Play can be a fascinating way to learn, but first journalists need to learn a little more about play.

Long distances and endless stretches of road have always made it challenging for youngsters in rural areas to attend pre-kindergarten, as have the lack of programs that serve them.

Many of the states that don't fund programs are sparse in population, educating children who must travel miles to go to school. A new push is now underway to provide better access to early childhood education for rural students.

Congressman Phil Hare, a Democrat from Illinois, introduced legislation last month to help give states and local school districts a boost by establishing programs and grants to school systems and community-based providers.

It will be interesting to see what the reaction is and how new programs will be funded -- will any stimulus money be involved, for example? Will communities welcome them?

A report by the National Center for Education Statistics found that rural children have the lowest level of enrollment in preschool programs, and noted that programs struggle with a lack of qualified teachers, adequate facilities and transporation. Pre-K Now's paper, "Meeting the Challenge of Rural Pre-K,'' is also a good resource for journalists looking to add context to any local battles. One interesting fact: Of the 2.69 million children between the ages of three and give who lived in rural areas in 2006, only half had access to preschool based in a center. The students from rural areas were 15 percent less likely to begin kindergarten with early literacy skills.

EarlyStories has been keeping a close eye on coverage of the stimulus package these days. There's no shortage of news to follow; for example, Head Start and Early Head Start centers will soon get some of the $2.2 billion in promised funding to expand their services.

Yet in Alaska, one of just 11 states with no publicly funded pre-kindergarten, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin is poised to reject almost half of the federal stimulus money available. And this week, the once vice-presidential candidate got some unwanted attention about an early story of a different kind when Palin's teenage daughter's ex-boyfriend boasted that the governor likely knew the teenage couple -- who have a baby -- were sleeping together. The interview -- to be aired on Monday -- came during an appearance on the Tyra Banks Show, not usually a source for EarlyStories.

Just last month, Bristol Palin told Fox News the abstinence preached by her mother "is not realistic at all,'' and said she wished she had waited 10 years before having a child.

So why bring all this up, when the presidential election is long over? For this reason: Alaska's educators and advocacy community are pushing hard at the moment for the state to improve its early childhood offerings, and some were hoping that stimulus money might be used.

Alaska superintendents are lobbying legislators to reverse her decision to reject $172 million for Alaska's schools. Much of the money was designated for poor schools and children with special needs. Some educators had also hoped it would be used to expand pre-kindergarten offerings for low-income children in Anchorage, along with those with special needs.

Palin -- who called education "near and dear to my heart,'' while on the stump with Sen. John McCain - did not attend a summit meeting in Alaska last November on early childhood education, and her budget proposal this year called for only a state-funded pilot program to serve some 500 pre-kindergarten children, nothing more. Alaska has also fared poorly in the way it pays teachers.

Palin also exposed a bit of hypocrisy when did not hold back her criticism of President Barack Obama for his gaffe in "Tonight with Jay Leno,'. Palin, the mother of a special needs baby who once pledged to look out for special needs children, let it be know that was "shocked,'' by what she termed his "...degrading remark about our world's most precious and unique people.''

For the record, Obama compared his bowling score of 120 with being "like Special Olympics,'' and quickly apologized.

Both Democrats and Republicans have disagreed with her decision to turn down stimulus money in tough economic times, as have many Alaskans.

Some supporters have said they admire Palin's courage in turning down money they fear could expand government. It will be interesting to keep an eye on what happens to Alaska's education budget and to any of its limited pre-kindergarten programs as the stimulus story continues to unfold. Journalists should pay close attention, even as the more sensational story of Palin's unmarried daughter, ex-boyfriend and illegitimate grandchild grab the spotlight.

EarlyStories knows this much about Brooklyn: Certain neighborhoods are known for "stroller gridlock,'' a term that sometimes carries derision from those who cannot cross a street or find a spot in a local restaurant without tripping over the toddler set and their gear. As more and more families in recent years have decided to raise their offspring in New York City, the baby population of Brooklyn has exploded. A somewhat alarming piece in the New York Daily News found that the under five set in the popular Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope has grown by 35 percent since 2000.

It follows that the well educated families who chose this leafy, artsy neighborhood bordering the lovely Prospect Park would naturally want to send
their children to pre-kindergarten, hopefully to one of the better known public schools nearby.

As the neighborhood and its schools continue to grow more popular, the Department of Education in New York City has struggled to find a way for supply to meet demand.

The result? Enormous anxiety and one pre-k where 263 little applicants vied for just 18 spots. Nearby schools had spots for fewer than one in six pre-kindergarten applicants.

There is no question of support for public pre-kindergarten in this neighborhood, where there is also a shortage of spots in private nursery schools. More than 400 families signed a petition requesting an early childhood center, aware that the problem extends to kindergarten, according to the Daily News. Schools in the area are at 93 percent capacity.

The Department of Education told the Daily News they hope to add full-day seats, but were waiting to base decisions "on the availability of space and the demand from parents who apply this year."

EarlyStories understands the need to find space, but clearly the Daily News story -- and the many parents who signed the petition -- document the demand.

Margaret Ramirez of the Chicago Tribune did an admirable job of reporting on the many challenges Latino families face in gaining access to early childhood education.

Ramirez started her story in a place few education reporters have been venturing lately -- a Head Start program, a key place to be at a time when the federal stimulus package is earmarking billions of dollars to grow Head Start programs and as President Barack Obama has expressed concern about the achievement gap that leaves African American and Latino children behind.

The story described how Latino families with young children are less likely to enroll in early childhood education programs, facing barriers from language to transportation to a shortage of slots. And she noted that as a result, Latino children are often lagging in critical math and reading skills once they enter kindergarten.

Ramirez took a look at both the reasons for low attendance among Hispanics in pre-school programs along with the fractured landscape of early childhood education in both Illinois and the U.S. It's the kind of story worth doing in many communities that are home to fast-growing Latino populations. The number of Hispanic students in the nation's public schools nearly doubled from 1990 to 2006, accounting for 60% of the total growth in public school enrollments over that period, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, an excellent source for journalists. And those numbers are likely to continue climbing -- making it all the more important for journalists to find out if schools are ready for the influx.

While New York City parents fume and fuss to find room for their toddlers in either publicly funded or private pre-kindergarten programs, suburban areas outside of the city are actually wondering where all the little ones have gone. A weekend piece in the New York Times found preschool administrators used to long waiting lists are now instead concerned about dips in enrollment.

“Normally, we have phones ringing off the hook from parents inquiring about the school,” Linda Jo Platt, the director of the Community Nursery School in suburban Westchester County told the New York Times. “This year, the phones have been dead.”

Quiet times for suburban pre-kindergarten program provide a stark contrast to the frenzy in New York City, where the population of children under the age of five is booming as more parents decide to raise city kids. Earlier this month, EarlyStories noted the struggle the New York City Department of Education is can't make the supply of quality public pre-school programs meet the demand. And the movie Nursery University depicts a city of scrambling parents, doing whatever it takes simply to get an application to a coveted private nursery school.

So what is happening in these leafy hamlets outside of Manhattan, and why will spots go unfilled? Parents reading The Times piece and waiting anxiously for a city spot might be tempted to pack up and move to an area where they could secure a spot with little more than a phone call and a checkbook. But, alas, it isn't so easy in this faltering economy, as the Times story noted. The slow real estate market is halting the usual piplline of parents with young children to the suburbs as many cannot sell their city apartments. And with more parents unemployed, parents are seeking scholarship money for full-day childcare programs in increasing numbers, The Times pointed out.

It will be interesting for journalists throughout the U.S. to examine this trend and see how enrollments outside major cities are doing, especially as some states are poised to offer more free slots as they expand public pre-kindergarten programs.

EarlyStories keeps a close watch on the way journalists cover -- or ignore -- early childhood issues. The majority of stories we see tend to focus on funding battles, so it comes as a nice surprise when we come across stories that take us into classrooms. It's especially critical at a time when federal stimulus dollars will funnel $100 billion into early childhood education, public schools and colleges -- the largest one-time amount earmarked for education in U.S. history.

Ryan Blackburn of the Athens Banner Herald in Georgia this week wrote the kind of story that allows the public to get a sense of what is happening inside a pre-kindergarten program and why it might be important. The story included an interview with the teacher describing exactly what students should know by this time of year -- for example, they should be able to recognize small from large and be able to name the things they see in at least 30 pictures.

The small, but nonetheless important detail gives the public a sense of what students should be learning in pre-k, and it describes how the teacher is tracking the progress of each student to decide if they need extra help in a summer program before they start kindergarten.

"In kindergarten, there's less self-directed play, called center time, than pre-K students are accustomed to,'' Carolyn Wolpert, an Early Reading First coordinator, told Blackburn. "There's also more math and science concepts they must learn, so the more chances they get to prepare for the first day of class in the fall the better off they'll be.''

So now the reader can understand what children need to be ready for kindergarten. For another illustration of how critical the early years are, check out Maria Glod's Washington Post story about student performance on on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, showing that nine-year-olds posted the highest scores ever in reading and math in 2008.

But as Sara Mead over at Early Education Watch notes,"the real test is whether the today's 9-year-olds will sustain their pre-k and elementary school learning gains into middle and high school. It's too early to say with any confidence that they will (our middle and high schools do need to improve their performance) but it's also much to early to assume they won't. Educators and policymakers must work to continue to build on the improvements we have made in the preK-3rd years, by expanding access to quality pre-k, full-day kindergarten, and implementing aligned, high-quality curriculum and instructional programs across the preK-3rd continuum..."

That gives journalists a charge: visit these classrooms and find out what the teachers are trying to accomplish. Follow up, and see how the children who attended the programs do when they get to kindergarten, and ask teachers if they have noticed a difference. Ask for studies, and try to find out if school districts are tracking progress -- and if so how. All this will go a long way toward helping the public understand what happens during these critical early years.

Education journalist Emily Alpert of the Voice of San Diego expertly questioned the elements of a new and changing landscape for early childhood funding in a story this week, aimed at helping the public wade through some confusing new developments. It's a story that differs from state to state, but is well worth pursuing.

Alpert wondered how and why early childhood centers are being forced to make major spending cutbacks in a worsening economy, just as they are receiving a new influx of federal stimulus money. As the Obama administration prepares to make a major investment in early childhood education, early childhood providers are experiencing an unprecedented push and pull.

As a result, Alpert wrote, many centers are "in the paradoxical position of juggling expected cuts with investments in better programs and training, benefiting some families and not others. The fates of different preschools and their different programs will vary dramatically depending on where they get their money, and whether they can find ways to tap the stimulus."

In California, pre-school funding is complicated ; other states are in the process of trying to expand their offerings while facing resistance from politicians and taxpayers and deep budget gaps. It can be confusing for journalists and the public to explain cutbacks that are happening just as new money comes in to boost Head Start and other early childhood programs; see Early Ed Watch for a good explanation.

States vary widely when it comes to offering pre-k programs and spending, and the landscape is shifting quickly in the worsening economy. The National Institute for Early Education Research offers excellent profiles of each state, but there's no substitute for visiting centers and speaking to directors the way Alpert did.

From Alpert's story:

"Scott Moore, senior policy adviser for the nonprofit advocacy group Preschool California, summed up the feeling among preschool providers in a word. "Schizophrenic," he said.

Moore told Alpert, in a quote that truly summarizes the conflict and confusion over funding: "It is the strangest time. On the one hand, it is so thrilling to have a president who is passionate about early childhood education. On the other hand you have our state budget crisis, which is real and must be faced. People are scared. It is very difficult to predict how things will end up."

The public should be kept informed of these dueling trends, and that means journalists must keep asking.

Moving to a neighborhood with a fine and reputable public school in New York City can be enormously complicated. Not just because of the cost, although it's difficult to find a decent family sized apartment in Manhattan near a good public school for under $4,000 a month in rent. The real difficulty has become getting in -- and no, we aren't talking about the same old tired competition for the $30,000 plus kindergarten.

We are talking about public schools in neighborhoods like Greenwich Village, TriBeCa and the Upper East Side that have become so popular and coveted that even people who specifically rented or purchased apartments directly across the street from them are finding themselves on waiting lists. Many of these schools are bursting with more than 28 children in a class and some of the buildings house middle school students several floors above.

EarlyStories has been watching and commenting on this trend for months, and the New York Times is really picking up on it now that parents anxiety has morphed into full blown fury. According to the Times, not the first news outlet to report the story, "middle-class vitriol against the school system — and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — is mounting."

All of this comes at a bad time for Bloomberg, who wants state lawmakers to renew mayoral control of the city school system after it expires in two months. In addition, the mayor is seeking an unprecedented third term, staking some of it on his education record and what he says is a turnaround of the largest school system in the U.S.

For more than five years, journalists in New York City have noted the trend of a growing middle class seeking to raise their children in the city instead of fleeing to suburbia. With competition and cost putting private school out of reach for many, it's natural that parents would turn to public schools and seek out those with the best reputations -- which are often in desirable neighborhoods, or have the effect of making a neighborhood desirable.

In the next few weeks, rallies, letter writing campaigns and protests will heat up in New York City and the mayor and Department of Education will be pressured to find spots for these families.

There is likely one group applauding this trend -- suburban realtors with lots of inventory on hand in areas outside Manhattan with fine public schools.

As parents in New York City prepare to protest overcrowded schools on the steps of City Hall today, many are grappling with an unpleasant new reality: coveted spots in next year's public pre-kindergarten classes may disappear to make room for more kindergartners, according to the New York Times and Insideschools.org.

Scores of parents are on waiting lists to get into their locally zoned kindergartens, "a product of a kindergarten admissions procedure held earlier in the year, and according to parents and politicians, they also result from an increase in children in neighborhoods flush with new condominiums at a time when the construction of new schools has not kept pace,'' according to the New York Times story.

There is plenty of anger and blame to go around, but EarlyStories can't help but examine the origins of this mess by looking at New York State's committment to pre-kindergarten education. A great way to do that is via the "Leadership Matters,'' report available now on the Pre-K Now website. The report notes that New York Governor David Paterson has decreased the amount of money proposed for universial pre-kindergarten by $49.6 million, and has pushed back a plan to phase in pre-k for all children by 2011 to 2014.

The study found 27 governors had either increased or maintained funding for pre-k, while five -- including Paterson -- proposed cuts; criticism for his position can be found here.

In the meantime, New York City parents are furious at having to choose between fitting pre-kindergarten or kindergarten programs in their neighborhood schools; according to the New York Post, , it's "The Wait of the World,'' to find out if there will be room for their children.

EarlyStories often sees articles proclaiming that pre-kindergarten is the new kindergarten, first grade the new kindergarten. What those catchy but somewhat cliched phrases mean is that early childhood programs are becoming too focused on academics at the expense of play, a key way young children learn. Of course, both are important and necessary -- but the quality of both is equally important.

Taking a look at what experts have to say on these issues is one way to make such stories a little more informative and useful. The Harvard Education letter synethesizes some interesting recent reports by some of the top early childhood experts in its May/June Issue, in a piece entitled "Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Age of Testing."

On the issue of play, for example, the article points out that skilled adults must be in charge of guiding play for children so that it becomes a learning experience. "It’s a misinterpretation to think that letting students loose for extended periods of time is going to automatically yield learning gains,” Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School at the University of Virginia, is quoted as saying.

There are a number of other useful resources cited, including a report from the Alliance for Childhood describing how kindergartens are spending 2 to 3 hours a day instructing and testing children in literacy and math, with 30 minutes or less for play.

The report is featured prominently in "Kindergarten Cram,'' a piece by Peggy Orenstein in The New York Times Magazine who took the issue further lby visiting kindergartens to ask about homework policies. She was assured (wrong answer in her mind) that five and six-year-olds were assigned it everyday.

EarlyStories would love to see journalism that highlights examples of kindergarten programs that successfully combine ways to play and learn, along with the stories showing that kindergarten has become all work and no play. Surely it is possible -- and desirable -- for early childhood learning to provide the best of both worlds?

Patrick Riccards at Eduflak, who aims to improve education "through effective communications,'' makes some helpful points that journalists covering the push and pull of pre-kindergarten expansion in a tight economy might consider -- including the very real prospect of cuts to existing programs. "We all know,'' Riccards wrote, "that once cuts come, it gets harder and harder to restore them.''

Journalists likely will be reporting on the cuts, but Riccards raises some important questions to ask in states that are pushing to expand existing programs and initiate new ones, in some cases with the help of federal stimulus money.

"How do we deliver return on investment on early childhood education? How do we make sure we have moved beyond glorified babysitting and are really focusing on instruction and academic and social preparation? How do we ensure that quality preK is measured and assessed for having true quality?" Riccards asks.

A forum held by Early Ed Watch blogger Sara Mead at the New America Foundation last week also attempted to draw conclusions from data available on early learning: it's available on their site.

Universal Pre-K for all? Not so fast, says Chester E Finn Jr., a former assistant secretary of education and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

At a time when politicians from President Barack Obama to governments are pushing the concept that all American children should receive at least a year of government funded pre-school and being applauded for their position, Finn is urging skepticism in a new book, entitled: "Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut."

"For all its surface appeal, universal preschool is an unwise use of tax dollars,'' Finn writes this week in the Washington Post. "In a time of ballooning deficits, expansion of preschool programs would use large sums on behalf of families that don't need this subsidy while not providing nearly enough help to the smaller number of children who need it most. It fails to overhaul expensive but woefully ineffectual efforts such as Head Start.''

Finn's views are likely to be challenged and questioned in the coming weeks -- as they almost always are. Yet it's important for journalists covering pre-kindergarten to be aware of arguments against universal pre-kindergarten when reporting on both the new federal and state push for early childhood education expansion. The story of pre-k should not be told entirely from the viewpoint of advocates and politicians.

As EarlyStories often points out, there is no substitute for visiting existing programs and looking for research on their impact. If none is available, journalists can ask kindergarten and educators in early grades what they've noticed about students who have been enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs vs. those who have not. Also, what are the costs associated with universal pre-k and who is monitoring the quality? Who benefits the most? And given the financial bind many states are in, what will other education programs have to be sacrificed to expand pre-K?

What kind of a difference can high-quality pre-school make in the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged children? This is no small question. EarlyStories poses the concept as a reminder of what journalists must keep in mind at a time when President Barack Obama is pushing an expansion as part of his broader education agenda.

Educator and author Gordon MacInnes lays out lessons on the difference a federal role can make by examining what happened in high-poverty New Jersey school districts that have shown significant improvement by focusing on early literacy. His piece in Education Week describes how borrowing the practices of an intensive early literacy program in pre-school has led to improvements that can be seen all the way through eighth grade.

MacInnes, who devoted four decades to government service and leadership on issues related to education, poverty, and urban living is also realistic about the obstacles of establishing successful pre-school programs. Those obstacles and the political and financial fights are often the focus of media coverage.

"Expanding high-quality preschool opportunities is a much more complicated endeavor than it may at first appear," MacInnes writes. "Two major obstacles are usually overlooked: The leadership in many urban districts does not accept the connection between a quality preschool opportunity and stronger literacy; and early-childhood education is still a stepchild in most universities, state education departments, and district headquarters."

MacInnes' remarks open the door for many questions to be asked of school superintendents, even though journalists who cover K-12 school systems don't tend to focus on pre-school, unless there is a battle involved. Why nost ask superintendents exactly how they view the importance of pre-school and what connection they see to achievement later on? In districts with established programs, is anyone studying how students do later on or tracking the difference in achievement between those who have been in pre-school vs. those who have not?

Finally, if program claims that it has successfully improved early literacy, what is the evidence beyond test scores? What do successful early literacy programs look like in action? What is the curriculum, what books are used and how are the teachers being trained? What are the expectations for the children?

New Jersey journalists are likely to have taken on many of these questions while covering Abbott v. Burke, the nation’s most prescriptive and sweeping state supreme court ruling on school finance. MacInnes served from 2002 to April 2007 as assistant commissioner for Abbott Implementation for the New Jersey Department of Education, so he's clearly familiar with what went wrong and right in the quest to improve academic achievement in the state’s poorest cities.His piece this week poses larger questions that are relevant to coverage of this issue nationally, especially as it becomes a priority in the Obama administration.

At a time when early childhood advocates are hailing a new federal investment in pre-school education, the economically depressed state of Ohio may be poised to roll back public programs due to state budget cuts.

Journalists covering the story or watching this state will have their work cut out for them, because the picture is confusing and changing quickly. In February, news organizations were reporting that Ohio would receive some $83 million to Headstart and preschool programs.

But just last week, the Associated Press reported the early childhood programs in the state would be cut by $244 million in the two-year budget plan approved by the Ohio House.

Sen. John Carey, Republican chairman of the Finance Committee, told the AP that the state did not get any stimulus money for early childhood education and that the state could not afford them.

So what is happening here? Journalists have to continue to take notice and sort out the fiscal realities from the budget posturing and politics. The Akron Beacon Journal published an editorial earlier this month lamenting cuts that will stall the agenda of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who has pushed for universal all-day kindergarten. and initiated other early childhood initiatives.

The Plain Dealer is following GOP efforts to slice $1 billion from the state's $56 billion budget this week, while early childhood advocates are speaking out against the cuts. Pre-school programs can prevent dropping out in years to come, and help lead to lower arrest rates and higher incomes for years to come, they maintain. As budget negotiations continue this week, the picture may change yet again for early childhood education in the state.

New York Magazine's Jeff Coplon laid out in great detail something EarlyStories has noted for months: New York City has a serious kindergarten overcrowding crisis, one the New York City Department of Education did not anticipate or plan for.

Here's an excerpt from Coplon's excellent story...." whole neighborhoods are overrun. On the Upper East Side alone, a thousand extra children are crammed into seven elementary schools. And now hundreds of rising kindergartners had been told that there simply wasn’t room in their zoned schools for the fall...''

How did this happen? Coplon lies out several reasons, most having to do with demography, a post 9/11 baby boom, and the desire on the part of more parents to raise their kids in New York City.

And how are families taking it? “Enrolling kids in kindergarten is like picking up the garbage and making the streets safe,” Clara Hemphill, the founding editor of Insideschools.org,, a site that guides parents through the public school system, told Coplon. “It’s a basic government service that anyone expects.”

Having way too many middle class parents wanting to support the public school system might seem like a "happy problem,'' but Coplon points out the enormous anxiety and anger that has resulted from a severe lack of planning in the Bloomberg administration .

He also notes that overcrowding has been a huge issue in the outer boroughs for years, where parents are often left with "the worst of all worlds; underperforming zoned schools that have no room."

Science Daily reported some interesting results of a study this week that could have important consequences for kindergarten students who are struggling to pay attention. The study that appeared in the June issue of the medical journal "Pediatrics,'' found that children who can't keep up in kindergarten are more likely to do poorly on standardized tests in high school.

"The Impact of Childhood Behavior Problems on Academic Achievement in High School," analyzes data on approximately 700 children from kindergarten until the end of high school.

"In our study, a child's inability to pay attention when they start school had the strongest negative effect on how they performed at the end of high school — regardless of their IQ (intelligence quotient)," lead study author Joshua Breslau, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and a researcher with the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, told Science Daily. In a fascinating footnote, much of the research was done by his mother, Dr. Naomi Breslau, who was researching the long-term effects of low birth weight more than 20 years ago. Naomi Breslau conducted a random sample of 1,095 diverse children, with 823 participating in an initial assessment of IQ and classroom behavior as they passed their sixth birthdays; follow-up assessments were conducted at ages 11 and 17, Science Daily reported.

Joshua Breslau noted that addressing attention problems early in life could keep some children from entering "a downward spiral of failure."

The message for parents and teachers? Don't ignore signs of inattentiveness in young children, said study co-author Julie Schweitzer, a UC Davis associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and an attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) researcher at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, in an interview with Science Daily.

And what story ideas might the study provide for reporters? EarlyStories can imagine sitting in a kindergarten classroom, observing the explosion of energy and enthusiasm as the children play number and letter games and listen to stories. (That's all still part of most kindergartens, hopefully)

Who is listening attentively and who isn't? Could a reporter draw conclusions and become concerned about a fidgety boy or sleeping girl? Maybe not, but a well trained teacher could (and should). How concerned are teachers about the children who are fading in and out? Do they know the difference between a child who might be just tired out or overexcited on any given day?
And what, if anything, can they do with this information to make sure the child gets the help they need?

Not all studies break news for journalists, but many are worth reading if only to learn more about they mysterious and fascinating ways little minds work in a country where more than half the high school students don't graduate in four years. What happens -- or doesn't happen -- in the early years is enormously important.

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 important for the public to get a glimpse of what happens inside such classrooms, and the Washington Post story this week did a good job of describing the enthusiasm of young learners.

The story noted that state and local governments now spend about $4,600 for every student enrolled in state pre-K, compared with about $12,000 for K-12 programs, and it described how the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in state-funded pre-k nationally jumped from 14 percent in
2002 to 24 percent in 2008. It also took a look at trends in Virgina and in Maryland, and attempted to provide context by touring schools and a Head Start program describing what the children were doing.

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 Media is hosting a webinar on June 24th. We will explain the main federal programs in early childhood education and describe how the Obama administration hopes to expand and fund them.

We'll ask and try to answer:

· What will an infusion of money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) mean for states and districts, and how will it influence what early education programs and policies look like?
· What sorts of new and developing partnerships between K-12 systems and early childhood care providers are on the horizon as superintendents and school officials clamor for programs they believe will assist their test scores later on? How can journalists assess the quality of such programs?
· How will investing in Early Head Start and Head Start expand access to quality child care for children from working families?
· What kind of training will be offered to early childhood workers and how can journalists assess if it is any good? What kinds of credentials must they attain?
· Is the federal investment sufficient to stave off cuts to existing pre-k programs and to reinvigorate plans for pre-k expansion?

This webinar is scheduled for one hour and is completely free. Apply online

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 term has been used by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to describe $5 billion in the stimulus bill aimed at backing new approaches to improve schools and push states to raise their standards and reward top teachers. According to the Democrats for Education Reform, it represents "a historic opportunity to establish clear reform priorities and to back them up with significant resources to bring change to America's schools.''

So what would it mean for pre-k programs? DFER posted an issue brief this week that is a helpful guide for journalists trying to understand the new federal investment in early childhood education (which is also the subject of a webinar the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media will hold on June 24; sign-up here.)

The brief, written by Sara Mead, who writes the excellent Early Ed Watch blog, calls for states "to enact policities to encourage the creation of pre-k charter schools to deliver high-quality early education to 3-and 4-year-olds,'' and gives several good examples of how such programs would work and what states can do.

This is a relatively new idea and one worth watching and asking about. The brief provides examples of existing programs that get little coverage, including The Accelerated School in Los Angeles, KIPP McDonough 15 in New Orleans, and dozens of charter schools in Washington, D.C. that she believes provide high-quality learning and help improve outcomes for disadvantaged children later on.

Mead also notes an important trend that many journalists who are covering pre-k battles in their states are familiar with. Even though states have more than doubled spending on pre-k since 2002, "the current economic downturn and state budget shortfalls threaten this progress; nine states have already announced cuts to their state pre-k programs and more are likely to do so in the coming weeks,'' the brief notes.

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 applies to about 40,000 of the 78,000 children enrolled in the state's pre-k program and whose families qualify for welfare or other similar programs.

That story raises questions about the audit and its methods in Georgia, which in 1995 became the first state in the country to provide pre-k to all four year olds in the state who want to participate.The story notes that state auditors could not evaluate how effective the program is because it did not track how well the children served in the program performed in kindergarten.

The study follows yet another inconclusive study by Georgia State University researchers in 2005-06, although other studies have described many benefits and Georgia is still considered a leader in early childhood education.

What is happening in these programs? Along with auditors, journalists need to ask questions about the quality of programs in the state. Why aren't children being tracked more efficiently to yield answers and what kind of research is needed to make sure answers are forthcoming? According to Pre-K Now,
Georgia served some 74,000 four-year-olds during the 2008-09 school year. What difference will it make to children now that the state is requiring all teachers to have a child developement associate certificate>? How will programs that serve poor and needy children be evaluated in the future so lawmakers, taxpayers and the general public understand more about how they are working?

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 one reason the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media is hosting a webinar on early childhood education on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama has proposed spending $10 billion annually to support early childhood investments. How will his agenda change the early education landscape from birth to age five, and how does it connect to the larger K-12 world?

Journalists must keep an eye on the unprecedented new federal funding coming to states and districts through stimulus funds, which could drastically re-shape early education programs and policies. What will this mean for communities and at risk children across the U.S.?

Speakers include former Chicago Tribune editorial writer Cornelia Grumman of the First Five Years Fund and Scott Palmer, a partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC, an affiliate of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.

Sign-up on the Hechinger website.

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 Tribune that described the battle to expand and improve early childhood education in the state of Minnesota.

The editorial noted that the state's children are not doing as well as they should by the time they enter kindergarten, according to a recent report card. "Fewer than half of the 6,310 kindergartners surveyed -- 10 percent of the state total -- were deemed "proficient" and fully ready for school. About two out of five were rated "in process" toward readiness. On two key measures, language/literacy and mathematical thinking, one child in eight was judged "not yet" prepared,'' the editorial noted.

It also pointed to progress -- a preschool voucher pilot project, a law the 2009 Legislature approved and Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed that provides a quality rating system for preschool and child care providers, the promise of $26 million for child care-related services in this state. The editorial concluded that recognizing the importance of early childhood education and finding ways to fund it is key. "Minneapolis and St. Paul schools have recognized something important: Their own success, and that of many of their students, is vitally connected to the quality and availability of preschools. They're backing their resolve with resources."

For years, educators have believed that very young children were not capable of learning math. But a new book finds that children in public and private preschools, including Head Start and other programs aimed at low-income children, should be spending much more time receiving high quality math instruction. Reporters can request a copy at from the Office of News and Public Information.

The report is a terrific starting point for journalists who are interested in how math is taught for young children. It concludes that activities around math should include mathematical reasoning, measurement and spatial thinking, and suggests that teachers receive professional development to help implement a strong early childhood math curriculum. Teachers College experts Sharon Lynn Kagan and Herbert Ginsburg contributed to the report. Ginsburg developed an early math education program called "Big Math for Little Kids,'' that he is now evaluating, and has long pointed out that most preschools either don't teach math or instruct children in a narrow range of math content.

Journalists who visit early childhood programs should ask about math instruction and ask to see a curriculum or for an explanation of what concepts are being taught and why. According to Ginsburg, "...there is a growing consensus that early childhood math education is not only necessary....but should be comprehensive. It should include play with materials and objects that set the stage for math learning, teachable moments, in which teachers in which teachers observe kids in spontaneous situations that can be exploited to promote learning; teacher-guided projects of complex topics—like figuring out how to create a map of the classroom; and deliberate instruction using a planned curriculum to actively introduce math concepts, methods and language. This curriculum is not, of course, a textbook, but a carefully sequenced set of exciting activities. "

EarlyStories spends a great deal of time commenting on the way early childhood education is covered by journalists, and pointing out new ways to think about the issue and get inside classrooms for visits. Now there is a new guide available with a wealth of resources all in one place: "Covering the Pre-K Landscape: New Investments in Our Littlest Learners,” the newest publication from the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media. The 20-page publication includes guidance for covering all aspects of the rapidly expanding pre-k landscape, from Head Start to state-sponsored pre-k programs.

Barbara Kantrowitz, staff editor for the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, edited the guide, conceived by the Institute's director Richard Lee Colvin and written largely by longtime former Education Week assistant editor Linda Jacobson, along with Karen Springen, formerly of Newsweek and Hechinger Institute staff.

Kantrowitz notes that the guide is important because education reporters for years neglected coverage of preschool in favor of k-12 or higher education issues. But in the last decade, early childhood education has jumped to a prominent place on the national agenda with huge increases in state and federal spending for the littlest learners. The Obama administration is accelerating that trend, by allocating billions for Head Start and other programs that reach young children. Suddenly, preschool is on the front pages. What brought about this dramatic change? And what’s the wisest way to spend the new federal dollars?

A major message is the importance of skepticism when covering preschool. Policy makers and advocates often cite studies showing that every dollar spent on preschool returns as much as $17 in savings on future social services. The guide points out that much of this research was conducted on high-quality programs and many preschools today do not meet those same standards. There’s a useful list of things to look for in assessing whether a preschool is doing a good job (and signs that the school is failing its students). The publication also includes a rundown of experts and research studies to guide further reporting. The publication was funded with a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

To request a copy, email Hechinger@tc.edu.

EarlyStories keeps a sharp eye out for trends and issues in early childhood education, but every now and then comes across something we hadn't really thought about before. In this case, we stumbled upon a column and almost dismissed it as a cute and folksy item in a local newspaper. But then the idea moved beyond heartwarming and made a lot of sense: senior citizens, with children long grown, pushing for an investment in early childhood education as a way of looking out for future generations.

The author, Shirley Caudill, is a former newspaper editor/publisher and longtime freelance columnist who has lived in Kentucky for 40 years, and belongs to an organization called "Seniors4Kids. She makes the following argument in the Times Tribune:

".....the first five years are imperative to give a child a heads-up in the learning process..so that our youth will be prepared to compete in the adult world. We don’t want the next generation to remain low on the totem pole in education. A head start is so important!"

If more senior citizens felt this way, journalists wouldn't spend as much time as they do covering school budget battles where taxpayers without kids or whose children have grown consistently vote down school budgets.

For more on Kentucky's pre-school program, check out Pre-K Now or NIEER., both of which post detailed profiles of the state's pre-kindergarten progress.

EarlyStories was an early admirer of Sophia Pappas, a Teach for America recruit whose blog about her pre-k classroom in New Jersey provided tremendous insight into the lives of children. Pappas now has a new book based on the blog, entitled "Good Morning, Children,'' about her experience, and it's well worth reading.

A lot of what is written about pre-kindergarten is framed around academic research, policy debates or budget battles. The book allows Pappas, now a graduate student pursuing a master in public policy at Harvard University, to describe the lives "of the 14 incredible four-year-olds,'' in her class and what they learned, from sharing space to solving problems. The blog, and the book, showed first hand the impact that early childhood education can have and why it matters. In Pappas words, "...I gave my students and their families a voice in this country's discourse on how best to serve our youngest and most impressionable learners."

Stephanie Banchero of the Chicago Tribune is staying right on top of an important political and financial battle in Illinois that could shut some 30,000 children out of preschools. Like many financially strapped states, Illinois is facing difficult budget choices, resulting in an $180 million cut in the State Board of Education budget earlier this week. The state's popular and highly regarded early childhood programs took a huge hit, Banchero noted -- losing a third of its $380 million budget.

What will that mean?

"Without high-quality early-childhood programs, low-income children will arrive at kindergarten unprepared and will struggle throughout their school years to catch up," Diane Rauner, executive director of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, told Banchero.

Reporters throughout the U.S. are doing story after story about painful budget cuts that are causing wholesale elimination of programs and forcing educators and lawmakers to make difficult choices. The situation in in Illinois is far from settled, as Banchero pointed out, with education advocates pressing lawmakers to restore the cuts.

In these tough times, it's a good idea for journalists to closely examine some of the programs that may be eliminated and try to help explain their value to the public, who will be clamoring to preserve everything from arts programs to foreign languages -- and of course, early childhood education. Each has some value, and many will be unsustainable. Advocates are likely clamoring to let the public and lawmakers know how important the programs they support are and journalists will have to document, explain or illustrate value with the help of anecdotes, examples, research, interviews and visits whenever possible.

EarlyStories often pushes journalists to spend time visiting early childhood classrooms and to see the area as a rich source of story ideas. Sometimes it takes a little jump start to see the connection, and that's why it's an excellent idea to apply for the Journalism Center on Children & Families conference in September "Ladder of Success:Covering Early Childhood Learning.''

Competitive fellowships are available that include travel subsidies, and the 20 journalists who attend will have a chance to hear from some of the top experts in the field. Topics will include the debate about who should attend public preschool, how to train early childhood teachers and ways of educating immigrant children. Experts include Ellen Galinsky, Gene Steuerle, Margaret Freedson and Joan Lombardi.

It's a great chance to get out of the newsroom and come back with ideas, sources and perspective on an issue that is gaining increasing importance due to President Barack Obama's agenda of unprecedented federal involvement and investment in early childhood. Anyone with questions can call 301-405-8808.

Rhode Island, the smallest state in the U.S. is about to launch a small pre-kindergarten program for low-income children. It will be the first of its kind in a state that is one of just 12 in the U.S. that don't offer public programs. A story in the Providence Journal of Rhode Island notes that the tiny state is starting small: just four to six classrooms taught by qualified teachers.

The Journal included an interesting quote that goes to the heart of pre-kindergarten education: Quality counts. Larger states with free programs have run into questions and concerns about the quality of their offerings for years.

“Quality is everything,” Robert G. Flanders Jr., chairman of the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, told The Journal.. “We are not just talking about daycare, but a quality preschool environment where learning takes place according to certain standards. So it’s terribly important that any program we initiate has quality factors built in and has certified instructors who have the appropriate skills to deal with early learning, and not just people who are good babysitters.”

It will be interesting to watch efforts in Rhode Island, a hard-hit state economically that managed to find $700,000 in the state budget for the program.

Jennifer Jordan of The Journal raised all the right questions in her solidly reported story. But it would be interesting to see stories and hear from journalists who have uncovered quality issues in their state programs. How is success measured? What works and doesn't, and how will the state keep track of progress and problems?

EarlyStories would love to see (and post) some examples.

While EarlyStories is pleased to see attention focused on the Harlem Children Zone and Geoffrey Canada's efforts to combat poverty with education, it would be nice to see some other examples of early childhood programs that work. Do they not exist, or are education journalists too caught up with other stories to visit them? What research is available on such programs?

Here's why it's important:President Barack Obama has said to be a great admirer of Canada's model, and he hopes to replicate it in 20 cities, according to a front page article in the Washington Post. A closer look at just about every aspect of Canada's quest can be found in Paul Tough's excellent new book, "Whatever it Takes,'' which should be required reading for anyone who is covering early childhood issues.

The Post piece laid out Canada's approach, which starts in the womb and includes programs "that begin before birth, end with college graduation and reach almost every child growing up in 97 blocks carved out of the struggling central Harlem neighborhood,'' according the the Post story.

The U.S. Department of Education is poised to offer applications for grants that could expand the program in 20 cities, in so-called Promise Neighborhoods. Some $10 million in the 2010 budget has been set aside for planning.

It will be interesting to see what other kinds of programs emerge from this and whether the Harlem Children's Zone can be replicated or emulated elsewhere.

Journalists who wonder how early childhood education fits into the larger K-12 landscape have a great opportunity to learn more about this critical topic. The Journalism Center on Children & Families in Maryland has extended the deadline for its September training conference and fellowship, entitled "Ladders of Success: Covering Early Childhood Learning."

The conference features experts including Ellen Galinsky of the Families & Work Institute and Gene Steuerle of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. It takes place Sept 13-15, 2009 (Sunday through Tuesday) at The Inn & Conference Center and the University of Maryland in College Park, Md.

The two-and-a-half day seminar will encourage 20 journalists to examine the best way to fix the country’s underfunded and fragmented early childhood system.

Sessions will include:

Born Learning: A look at the science of early education

Economic Reality: Funding early education during a recession.

Leveling the Learning Field: One out of every five children in the United States is the child of an immigrant. How do communities address the needs of immigrant families and their young children?

Early Intervention: For many children, learning the alphabet and counting comes before they start their formal education. But many children struggle with these early concepts because of limited exposure to learning or because of undiagnosed disorders in cognition or learning.

What Works: Where to find pre-k programs that are thriving in at-risk communities?

Ready to Learn: in 2005, only 31 percent of fourth-graders read at a ‘proficient’ or better level. What do young children learn in early education that helps prepare them for lifelong success? How do programs successfully link early learning to the early grades?

For details and an application, visit at www.journalismcenter.org

At a time when many states are having to scale back on long-planned pre-kindergarten expansions, Oklahoma is taking advantage of $15 million in stimulus funds to help support three new early childhood centers, according to published accounts.

Oklahoma is is indeed facing tough fiscal times. Gov. Brad Henry has noted that state revenues are declining, but has pushed for the early childhood programs with the help of the Kaiser Family Foundation and matching funds from the Tulsa Public Schools.

Oklahoma has long been thought of as a leader in early childhood education, especially the state's emphasis on enrolling disadvantaged children. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact the early childhood education centers will have on education in the state in the years to come.

Henry is making some pretty big promises, and the press -- along with researchers -- are going to have to do a lot of follow-up work to get a sense of both the quality and the impact the new centers will have in Tulsa and beyond.

"They will be the first of their kind in the nation," Henry said during his annual state-of-the-state speech to the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce this week, according to the Tulsa World. "Tulsa will continue to be a leader in early childhood education."

What kind of a leader remains to be seen.

EarlyStories is keeping a close eye on efforts to bolster early childhood education in North Dakota, one of only 12 in the U.S. that does not offer any state-funded programs. The state has long resisted the idea, so any conversation around the concept brings out advocacy groups in force.

That is what happened last week at a summit organized in Bismarck by the Head Start State Collaboration Office, according to an article in The Bismarck Tribune.. The story pointed that out only about 8,725 children out of some 40,000 children in this rural state are enrolled in either a nursery school or a special program such as Head Start.

Those are very small numbers, so it will be interesting to see what could change as a result of these early conversations. Will North Dakota continue to resist funding programs at a time of unprecedented federal interest and involvement in an early childhood agenda? Will it embrace President Barack Obama's belief that what happens in the early years pays big dividends for education later on?

It's particularly interesting to watch what is happening in North Dakota, a state where kindergarten teachers backed a proposal to require youngsters to be a bit older when they enter first grade. If they get better preparation beforehand, will the age matter as much?

EarlyStories remembers well what it's like to drum up school stories during the summer. Typically, education journalists focus on administrative changes and budget matters. That's why it was nice to see Gregory Trotter of the Springfield News Leader delve deep into an important early childhood initiative in the state of Missouri. The state lags in its support for early childhood education, ranking 33rd out of the 38 states that provide funding for preschool programs, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research.

Trotter's story described "Kindergarten Camp,'' as "a Community Partnership of the Ozarks summer program and a pivotal part of a new federally funded community initiative designed to prepare more children for kindergarten.''

The story pointed out that about 20 percent of children in the Springfield Missouri area show up to kindergarten ill-prepared for learning, and described (by visiting the program and spending time in it) how the various lessons help get children ready for what they will experience when they enroll in school.

It's important to see such efforts highlighted in the state if Missouri at a time when the state's new education commissioner is touting the benefits of early childhood education. Journalists play an important role in describing how programs such as Kindergarten Camp work. How do they help kids get ready for school and why are they important? Is it the best use of public money in tough financial times? How well run are they and is the staff well trained and prepared? Kindergarten camps exist in many states, and are often well worth a visit and a story.

Tough economic times have made the concept of back-to-school shopping particularly painful for needy families. That's why it was at first heartwarming to read a New York Daily News story about a $200 gift to New York families who receive food stamps or welfare, courtesy of billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The gift was supplemented with $140 million in federal stimulus funds.

The News story interviewed parents who are plenty grateful for the cash, and who were planning to buy backpacks, school supplies, notebooks and clothing they could not otherwise afford. The money is intended to be a grant for children ages 3 through 17, and it comes with no restrictions.

But EarlyStories stumbled across one troubling quote from Ana Barcos of Corona, Queens, where according to the story some 200 people waited outside a check-cashing business.

"Times are really tough right now. The situation is bad with money. So it's easy to want to use the money for other things," Barcos said.

How can anyone be sure just how the money will be used?

Critics have complained that money should be used instead to create jobs or reduce property taxes, but EarlyStories wonders instead why the money wasn't instead doled out as gift certificates, to make sure the littlest learners come to school prepared with the supplies they need to learn.

The waning days of summer have made at least one expert nostalgic for more play time. Stuart Brown, founder and president of the National Institute for Play, (yes, there is such a thing) blogged in the New York Times about the importance of play, and he particularly lamented the amount of time spent in front of electronics:

"Physically engaging play is actually more fun than the virtual sort, and the enlivenment one gets from it can transcend the allure of sedentary life in a two-dimensional, electronic world,'' Brown wrote.

The whole concept of play is ripe for exploration in the post No Child Left Behind Era. It's always interesting to hear the shifting views of educators. Also, in a time when schools are being forced to make budget cuts, playground time and sports can suffer. What will the impact be on learning? And what do schools consider play -- is it just free time, or purposeful, part of the learning experience of early childhood activities? Are big changes in store for playtime? Do parents want their children to have more playtime or less so they can learn more? All these questions can be incorporated in back to school stories.

EarlyStories is always intrigued by stories about kindergarten, which often include phrases such as "Kindergarten is the new first-grade,'' No such phrase existed in an Omaha World-Herald News Service story, but the concept -- that kindergarten has become too academic -- was up for debate, as it surely should be.

The story noted that kindergarten teachers in the state of Nebraska are calling for more playtime in kindergarten, and noted that both teachers and children "feel intense pressure to perform and meet increasing standards and expectations.''

The story did not get inside a classroom to describe that pressure, but there is plenty of room for follow-up, since the story was based on the draft of a report written by the Nebraska Department of Education, with input from kindergarten teachers statewide and many others.

The story did include a concrete example:kindergarten students in Nebraska used to work on printing letters of the alphabet and their names, and now must work on words and sentences. They also are expected under new state standards to leave kindergarten reading fluently.

Are such goals realistic? Since standards vary from state to state, it's worth visiting kindergarten classrooms this year to get a sense of the expectations. Are students struggling to meet them? Are parents upset about what their children are being asked to learn? Do teachers believe the goals they must set are realistic? Finally, is there enough time for play, and does the play have a purpose?

Colleen Wixon explored at a very important issue this month when she examined what happens to children who don't attend pre-school -- in many cases because of the economic situation they find themselves in. Wixon's story in the Indian River Press Journal of Vero Beach, Florida, laid out the many reasons why children who skip preschool are behind socially once they enter kindergarten, and described how the hard-hit Florida communities she covers are feeling the impact of the economic downturn.

"Non-working parents are keeping their children home. Preschools and day care centers are seeing a decline in enrollment. Many day cares and preschools along the Treasure Coast are closing because of that declining enrollment,'' Wixon reported. Those facts alone are newsworthy, but she also reached out to experts who could help families understand just why and how early childhood education is important before the start of kindergarten.

The lag in pre-school attendance in the Vero Beach area comes at a time when more than 300 families are on the waiting list for subsidized child care in one of the counties Wixon covers; in another 800 families are on a list.

EarlyStories believes it is more important than ever for journalists to explain what should happen in a high quality pre-school so that parents who are strapped economically can make the best choices and understand the consequences -- and the choices.

It would also be useful for readers to hear from kindergarten teachers on their experiences.
Do they notice a big difference in students who have been to pre-school vs. those who have not? And what difference has Florida's free, voluntary prekindergarten made in terms of school readiness?

EarlyStories has been watching The New York Times blog "The Choice,'' with great interest, waiting for Harvard Admissions Dean William Fitzsimmons to be asked about the connection between "the right pre-school,'' and getting into Harvard. Inevitably, it just had to be among the flood of angst-filled queries that in many cases read like an out and out plea for Harvard acceptance.

Two such questions were posed, but even the parents who asked them seemed bewildered by the concept of Ivy League dreams for the toddler set. Fitzsimmons, however, has been asked about the pre-school connection before; he once assured Bloomberg News of a fact that he's often repeated to parents: Harvard ultimately admits, in addition to countless valedictorians and peerless scholars, students who have never set foot in a formal classroom in their lives.

Fitzsimmons made the remark in the context of straightening out parents who bring a similar mentality to finding "the right preschool.'' In New York City, the quest has become something of a competitive sport, as the hilarious documentary "Nursery University,'' detailed last spring.

The early learning questions to The Choice unfolded as follows: "How do you manage to deal with all these Harvard-obsessed parents and students, who begin a mindless academic death march in kindergarten with the sole purpose of being the last one standing at the end of the admissions process? " A second parent described attending a preschool admissions tour where a parent actually asked how many of the preschool’s graduates had attended Ivy League colleges.

Fitzsimmons did not address them head on, to his credit instead focusing on a more important and far reaching issue in education: equity.

"As important as it is to help students cope with the pressure found in many (usually more affluent) communities, a bigger public policy issue is how to assist the 30 percent of students who want their parents to be more involved in their college search,'' Fitzsimmons responded. "The waste of talent in America—the denial of the American dream for a large portion of our youth—is a serious threat to our nation’s future. A student from the top income quartile is more than six times as likely as a student from the bottom income quartile to graduate with a BA within five years of leaving high school."

Imagine if instead of obsessing over how to get one's progeny into the most selective schools, parents, policy makers and the press would turn more attention to the challenges facing needy students and their efforts to attain a better education in the United States. President Barack Obama is pushing degree completion and access, and focusing on community colleges as a way of meeting the goal of getting more Americans to graduate from college.He also is pushing an early childhood agenda that would raise the quality of early learning and care programs that serve children from birth through age 5.

Still, far more children want to get a high quality pre-school experience than can afford it, and cash-strapped states are finding it difficult to forge ahead with promises of expansion.

These issues should take center stage and are far more critical than the make-up of the class of roughly 2,067 talented and able students Harvard will accept this spring. The more than 22,000 highly qualified applicants they will turn down are not the students we need to be worrying about either.

Has kindergarten become too "rigorous?"

EarlyStories could not help but wonder at the meaning behind a recent headline: "Increased academic rigor in kindergarrten questioned.''

The word rigor is one of the new buzz words in education, and it is often misused. The Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media produced an entire guide aimed at understanding academic rigor.

But the idea of a kindergarten being academically "rigorous,'' left much to ponder. Turns out, though, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review , that many schools now expect kindergartners to read and write complete sentences and count to 100 by ones and tens. And of course, the story included the stock phrase EarlyStories sees way too often: "Kindergarten has become the new first grade."

Is it reasonable in the post No Child Left Behind era to expect so much of five and six-year-olds, if indeed those expectations aim high? The topic has been getting a fair amount of debate lately, particularly with the release of "Crisis in the Kindergarten,'' by the Alliance for Childhood -- which included a plea for more play time.

The Tribune Review story noted that "the impact of academic rigor in kindergarten is not yet well-researched.''

But first, what evidence exists that kindergartens throughout the U.S. have indeed become more rigorous? And what specifically does academic rigor look like for the five and six-year-old set? EarlyStories would love to see some examples.

Two recent articles shed light on some of the pressures our youngest learners are facing, not through any choice of their own. The first was a fascinating piece in Sunday's New York Times magazine by Paul Tough, the author of "Whatever it Takes.'', which focuses on the Harlem Children's Zone's efforts to improve education for children from birth on.

Tough's piece, entitled, "Can the right kind of play teach self control?'' examined a relatively new way of getting little learners ready for the world they will one day face, via a curriculum that addresses a cognitive ability known by the non-child friendly term "executive function.''

According to Tough, the "new buzz phrase has emerged among scholars and scientists who study early-childhood development, " although he acknowledged that the phrase "sounds more as if it belongs in the boardroom than the classroom.''

EarlyStories enjoyed reading all about the concept, but could not get past the photographs that told their own story: the children looked positively grim, and in some cases deeply unhappy.

On Monday, Meredith Kolodner of the New York Daily News broke a story about an assessment regime for three and four-year-olds in the city's public pre-kindergarten programs, aimed at getting information about developmental delays.

The story raised questions about the relability of testing for children so young, and included the voices of parents who wonder why their children would be tested.

Reading the two stories comes at a time when the press has been focusing on the need for early childhood education to become more playful, so it set up some interesting questions.

What do we want from our next generation of learners, and what are the best ways to get them there?

From one of the new websites aimed at covering education came a comprehensive and well reported piece that put together the many challenges facing early childhood education in Pennsylvania, specifically Philadelphia. The Notebook describes itself as "an independent voice for parents, educators, students and friends of the Philadelphia public school system."

The story by Dale Mezzacappa, a former longtime education reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, described the many obstacles to getting more young children into pre-kindergarten classes in the city and the state, along with providing a progress report that detailed many state developments.

Despite an increase in quality and access, Mezzacappa wrote, "early education options in the city remain a confusing hodgepodge. While spending for child care subsidies has gone up, less than half the eligible low-income families actually get them, and thousands are on waiting lists."

The lengthy, well reported piece reminded EarlyStories of what is missing in education coverage, as beat reporters struggle in many cases to cover both multiple school districts and higher education at the same time. Too often, important developments and stories about what happens even before children enter a classroom are neglected.

Mezzacappa's piece contained important information about an array of programs and services, described lengthy waiting lists for slots and detailed confusion and uncertainty that exists around early childhood education. She performed an important public service -- one that is more needed than ever as newspapers cut back on education coverage.

EarlyStories has heard journalists say they don't know how to figure out what is happening when they visit an early childhood classroom. In a room filled with toys and toddlers, it can be difficult to tell what kind of learning, if any, is happening.

That's why it was so refreshing to read the excellent piece by Cathy Grimes of the Daily Press in Newport News, Virgina, which described in great detail how one school district weaves assessment of its littlest learners in its early childhood centers.

The topic, in the era of No Child Left Behind and standards, is extremely important to parents, educators and the public. And any mention of testing little children can arouse opposition and misunderstanding.

"From the moment they walk in the door until the time they leave, students are gauged on their mastery of a wide range of skills outlined in Virginia's Foundation Blocks for Early Learning, sometimes called the PreK Standards of Learning,'' Grimes wrote in a story that truly explains what kind of skills are important for the age group and how they are monitored.

Preschool teachers, Grimes notes," watch for more than budding academic ability. They also keep tabs on the students' social, emotional and physical development. That includes large and small motor skills, self-control and self-reliance, and the ability to work with classmates and communicate.''

The story notes that ""Even activities such as dress-up or playing with puppets are linked to skills.''

In other words, the play is purposeful; designed to help teachers see what students need to progress to where they should be.

Not all early childhood classrooms are as purposeful or as structured as the one Grimes visited. And journalists don't get inside them enough to let the public know what is happening. The story Grimes did -- which will be part of a series -- is aimed at describing what testing, or assessment, looks like across the grades.

If the rest of the stories are as descriptive and telling, the public will get an excellent glimpse at what is happening inside their public school classrooms. The school district should also be commended for giving a reporter access -- such stories cannot happen without it.

While the U.S. is pushing early childhood education and an expansion of publicly funded pre-kindergarten, some in Britain are politely saying no thanks. A BBC report this week shed light on a review panel's recommendation that children should continue to learn by playing, and not start a formal education until they are six.

The review found no evidence 'that an early introduction to formal learning has any benefit,'' and noted that "it can do some harm."

The BBC has asked for, and is posting, responses from around the world on the question of what the right age is for children to begin formal learning. The responses should provide a fascinating glimpse at how this issue is viewed around the world.

Tiny Rhode Island is a struggling state economically. The unemployment rate of some 13 percent in September is among the highest in the U.S. The state's economic woes are outsized. That is one reason EarlyStories found it so refreshing to see the excellent story the Providence Journal ran this week describing life inside the state's first publicly funded pre-kindergarten program. Education perhaps cannot save the economy immediately, but it's important to continue reporting on education developments in the toughest of times.

The story did everything a well reported piece on pre-kindergarten education should do. The reporter spent time in the classroom, observing children and talking with teachers. The story included the perspective of researchers and state officials. It described how students were admitted and included interviews with parents on the difference pre-kindergarten is making in the lives of their children.

Readers came away with a much better understanding of how and why such programs matter, a story even a state in the grips of an an economic crisis can embrace.

"In Providence, research suggests that as recently as three years ago, almost a third of children arrived in kindergarten ill-prepared to learn their letters,'' Gina Marcris wrote. She added later on that the program "is designed to build bridges between home and school by regularly reporting progress and educating parents about the purpose of their children’s play.''

It hasn't been easy to get such a program off the ground in the tiny state, which was previously one of only 12 in the U.S. without a public program. Previous stories have noted the difficult fight the state had to get the pilot program started.

EarlyStories managed to miss an excellent series on math education in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that included an interesting look at how math can and should be introduced to the littlest learners.

Talking to young students about math, it turns out, is very important. So is counting, and introducing shapes, all part of "teaching preschoolers in a deep, interesting and systematic way, with lots of activities and without textbooks,'' according to the story, which leans upon a report by the Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics, and the work of Herbert Ginsburg at Teachers College.

Education journalists get caught up in covering math scores and math wars, not realizing what to look for in a high quality early childhood program and how critical it is to math success later on. Locating the excellent series in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette served as a reminder of the good work that can be done on this important topic.

Shameless plug -- the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media has a new guide for journalists on covering math education that includes an extensive interview with Ginsburg on early childhood and math, and is filled with tips, resources and story ideas.

You can download "Math Matters: A Journalist's Guide,'' on the Hechinger Institute website.

For years, the term "school readiness,'' has centered on how literate young children are when they enter school for the first time, based on both their familiarity with numbers and related concepts. A new study from Madhabi Chatterji, Associate Professor of Measurement-Evaluation at Teachers College, found that early supports outside of the home can play a critical role in determining how ready a child is for kindergarten.

Chatterji, who is director of the Assessment and Evaluation Research Initiative at Teachers College, focused her research on the Chemung County School Readiness Project, a community collaboration that’s providing child and family services and has a goal of cutting by half the percentage of children in this southern Finger Lakes region of upstate New York county who come to school unprepared.

Factors known to help a child in kindergarten include having a mother who is at least college-educated, with exposure to informal educational experience and some pre-school. The study aims to develop a comprehensive measure of school readiness based on a number of factors, ranging from a child's health to their social and emotional adjustment. According to Chatterji, the results could be used "to build awareness among parents about the need for comprehensive education,'' along with the role county services might play.

EarlyStories is curious about other county and grass roots collaborations aimed at helping little learners get ready for school.

EarlyStories will be keeping a close eye on coverage of the new education agendas in New Jersey and in Virginia, two states where tightly fought governors elections went to Republicans. The New Jersey race between Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine and Chris Christie was particularly notable because of remarks Christie made during the campaign, attacking Corzine's record on early education spending and likening preschool to "babysitting.''

Christie has said he is in favor of authorizing more charter schools and establishing a private school voucher system; Corzine at one point hoped to bring all day pre-school to every district in the state, although budget realities interfered. New Jersey has become a national leader in providing high quality pre-kindergarten; what will happen now?

EarlyEd watch blog also did a good job of explaining the education landscape in Virginia, where transportation, taxes, and social issue took center stage, and where Democratic former state senator Creigh Deeds lost to Republican Attorney General Bob McDonnell.

In the next few months, journalists covering both education and politics in the two states will have their hands full covering the transition to a new administration. With campaign rhetoric dying down, it will be time to truly listen and cover how the two new governors will approach publicly funded pre-kindergarten. Their agenda will likely be different from the one President Barack Obama has laid out; and is pushing for. What will it mean for children?

Every now and then EarlyStories come across a reminder of how important early learning is, even when there is an agenda attached. This reminder came from an article in the Washington Post about the sad condition of America's youngsters, age 17-to 24.

It seems some 75 percent of this age group is ineligible for military service "largely because they are poorly educated, overweight and have physical ailments that make them unfit for the armed forces,'' according to a report by Mission: Readiness, a Washington-based nonprofit organization.

The proposed solution? Greater investment in early education, to boost both academic achievement and social development.

EarlyStories would like to propose a modest amendment: why not add a mandatory fitness regime for all pre-schoolers? Couldn't a dose of push-ups, sit-ups and say, wind sprints be used as a counting exercise as well?

Mission Readiness, for the record, is pushing Congress to pass President Barack Obama's Early Learning Challenge Fund, which would grant states $1 billion annually for early childhood development programs.

EarlyStories has been waiting for the post election stories to settle down and hoping New Jersey reporters would start tackling Governor elect Chris Christie's education agenda, particularly when it comes to pre-kindergarten. The Associated Press took a look at the issue in a piece that ran in Education Week, but the story did not mention the stir created during the campaign, when Christie likened the state’s preschool programs to "glorified babysitting," in remarks that offended many who believe New Jersey has made great strides in early childhood education.

The Newark Star Ledger on Sunday published an excellent editorial entitled "Don't mess with success: Gov.-elect Chris Christie should catch up on preschool,'' that laid out strong arguments for keeping the state's hard fought pre-kindergarten programs funded:

"The children graduating from these programs are now in elementary school, and their scores on fourth grade reading and math tests have risen substantially,'' the editorial noted. "This is a key reason why the racial achievement gap in New Jersey is closing faster than in any other state."

There are many questions for Christie about these programs and about how and if he intends to support and maintain funding. The election quips are over; it will soon be time to watch not just what Christie says but what he does.

Anyone involved in covering pre-kindergarten issues at some point hears a reference to the Perry Preschool study, which examined the lives of 123 African American children who were born in poverty. The study was the first of its kind to quantify the impact a high-quality preschool program had on the lives of children, and it is still widely quoted.

Over the years, EarlyStories has heard countless references to the study, but never really thought more deeply about what the actual experience was like for the people involved in it before listening to Emily Hanford's excellent broadcast on American RadioWorks. Hanford's "Early Lessons,'' report should be required for any journalist -- or anyone, really -- with an interest in preschool.

Hanford, a producer at American Radio Works, acknowledges she didn't know much about preschool issues, or about the Perry Preschool Project until she tackled the same question the study attempted to answer: Can preschool boost IQ scores and prevent children from failing in school?

In three visits to Yipslanti, Michigan, where the study took place, Hanford grew fascinated with both the history of the study and the profound questions it attempted to raise about equity in education. She learned a great deal about David Weikart, the Perry preschool founder who died in 2003. Weikart started the Perry preschool in 1958, according to Hanford, "in response to frustration with what he describes in his memoir as "the pace of needed changes in a small, local school system.''

Hanford tracked down at least three of the teachers at the school, who share stories about visits to apple orchards and other ways the children learned about the world around them. The Perry preschool, Hanford's report notes, focused "on cognitive development – stimulating children’s brains, increasing their vocabulary, teaching them letters and numbers.''

Hanford's piece is filled with powerful interviews and descriptions of what life was like at the school: “I would do whatever we needed to do,” former Perry teacher Evelyn Moore told Hanford, “to prove that this many African-American children were not retarded.”

Hanford noted in an interview with EarlyStories: "This is history that is going to go away soon. "The researcher is dead. The teachers will be gone -- most are gone already -- and even the kids are going to be gone, so it was a great thing to capture this history at a moment in time.''

Hanford had not heard of the Perry study before she began the project, made possible with support from the Spencer Foundation which investigates ways in which education can be improved around the world and believes research is part of the equation.

"I literally spent a month just reading and talking to people and trying to figure out what education research has had an impact on policy,'' Hanford said. "I was more interested in the question of how research effects policy...and whether and how research informs public policy in a positive way. It's an open question -- sometimes research doesn't do what it should.''

A transcript of Hanford's project is available here, and the program can also be downloaded.

It is sad fact of life that in a time of economic crisis, as states are scaling back on promised expansions of publicly funded pre-kindergarten, that a few upscale Washington D.C. parents are whining.

In some ways, it's even sadder that their concerns have become a story, but indeed they provide a window into the unfounded fears that may accompany thinking about education.

And why are these parents whining, according to the Washington Post? It seems that a blog posting about the new academic focus in kindergarten set off waves of fear about how prepared their offspring might be, according to the Post's Valerie Strauss.

Strauss writes that parents have been begging school directors to let their 1 1/2 -year-olds into programs for 2-year-olds. In interviews with a few dozen preschool directors, Strauss learned that parents have been, among other things, demanding to know why their 2-year-old isn't being given the alphabet to copy over and memorize and enrolling their 3-year-olds in so many activities "that the kids are falling asleep on their preschool desks.''

Why all this anxiety? "Unknowing parents see their kids playing at a water table and think they are wasting their time,'' Strauss notes.

To her credit, she notes that there is an enormous amount of research showing that play has great developmental benefits.

In this case, it seems like the pre-school directors need to do some educating of parents. Several told Strauss they were afraid of offending them. As educators, they need to be clear about how and why play matters, and if they don't explain and defend the value of play, they might as well just start assigning homework to two-year-olds.

Sometimes it takes a jolt from a rural state to remind EarlyStories of the struggle it can be to help the public understand the benefits of high quality early childhood education, and how it fits into the bigger picture. Reading about what happens in other states is also a reminder of how old-fashioned notions about parents and the workplace can still impact public policy.

An editorial in the Lewiston Tribune that also ran in the Spokesman Review noted that the state has repeatedly declined to fund early pre-kindergarten programs and called it "outside the mainstream,'' with some of the country's weakest day care regulations as well.

"Some of its legislators openly pine for the days of Ozzie and Harriet when mothers stayed at home,'' the editorial noted. "Such longing puts Idaho out of touch with the way children are raised at a time when mothers work outside of the home and many of them are single parents."

The context for the editorial is Idaho's status as one of only 12 states in the U.S. that does not provide state funding for pre-kindergarten.

The editorial also comes as a group known as the Education Alliance of Idaho is pushing to improve education in the state without mentioning or pushing for a better early childhood education system.

EarlyStories read the New York Times piece on an outdoor kindergarten in Saratoga Springs New York with interest. Finally, a story about something other than how kindergarten has become so academic: "It's the new first grade.''

Ultimately, though, the story was disappointing. It noted that 23 children in upstate New York are spending three hours each day outside, no matter what the weather, and that it is an extreme version of outdoor learning that is taught at Waldorf schools -- which are largely private and emphasize nature and the arts. The story noted that forest kindergartens are "increasingly common in Scandinavia and other European countries like Germany and Austria.''

It's nice that a handful of kids whose parents can afford it are enjoying the great outdoors while in school. But the story gives no context for what the nature-based curriculum can and cannot do, nor does it compare the Waldorf program to what kindergarten looks like for millions of U.S. children.

What goals do we have for these four, five and six-year-olds? (The age range varies according to district entrance requirements). What evidence is there that tramping about in the woods for several hours a day will make for a better thinker or reader later on? What does the research show?

A cute woodsy feature story about one program can and should go further at a time when the U.S. is seriously considering national standards and much debate is taking place about what children should learn and when. Is the program prompting urban schools to consider taking more field trips, for example? Do the kids who don't get outdoors suffer? Is anyone proposing a different approach for city schools, based on the Waldorf's results? And what are those results?

At a time of unprecedented federal involvement and investment in education, coverage of the issue is so lacking it makes up only 1.4 percent of national news coverage, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution.

The report, entitled: "Invisible: 1.4 Percent Coverage for Education is Not Enough,'' finds scant coverage of critical issues like teaching, learning and curriculum; most stories "dealt with budget problems, school crime and the H1N! flu outbreak,'' according to the report, funded with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The findings are not surprising, coming at a time when newspapers are under pressure simply to survive and other news outlets are struggling due to declining ad revenues and other economic pressures. And there were some bright spots: local reporting still produces quality journalism about important education topics in cities like Providence, Minneapolis and and Phoenix.

At EarlyStories, we often lament the lack of substantive reporting on pre-kindergarten and early childhood issues; the Brookings report did not isolate the issue, but noted that budget issues dominated coverage of pre-school programs. The report zeroed in on wire service coverage of education and noted that much of it "focuses on stories that have nothing to do with education itself,'' and instead are about crime, sex and scandals involving educators.

You can watch a webcast of the event, which includes recommendations, on the Brookings website:

At a time when public policy discussions are focused on state funding for pre-schools, it was interesting to see a San Francisco parent call for more programs that charge $10,000 or less. It seems that residents of the city by the sea are taking out second mortgages in some cases to afford preschool feels of between $12,000 and $20,000.

Those prices are daunting, of course, but anyone familiar with the insanity of preschool in Manhattan might consider such numbers a bargain.The highly coveted 92nd Street YMCA nursery school program, for example, charges $24,380 for a 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. program; some city nursery schools are charging close to $30,000 for full-day programs.

The upscale urban programs in New York City promise prestige along with sandbox play and alphabet training of course, and parents appear far more concerned about getting in than about the pricetag.

It's not so clear that the same is true of early learning centers in San Francisco; William Shireman wrote in his Chronicle column that "paying these prices is criminal,'' and noted that the kids who most need preschool aren't able to afford it. Shireman's argument is a good one for publicly funded, free pre-school, but he said he'd settle for more preschools "with fees of $10,000 or less that offer safety, warmth, love and a smart curriculum for children from all kinds of families. Not through subsidies but through well-designed programs and regulations that enable and encourage affordable preschool and child care, and give parents a choice."

A smart and well reported piece on so-called helicopter parents in Time Magazine at first produced in EarlyStories the kind of reaction such pieces intend to produce -- a sigh and a shrug, directed, as it should be, at parents who have once again gone too far.

But a second read produced a different reaction. At a time of high unemployment, and with so many families struggling financially, the timing seemed a bit off. Do parents worrying about foreclosures, credit card debt and job loss really have the time and inclination to over manage their kids lives in the way the Time piece described?

The answer is that that most don't, although the more upscale parents Time spoke with seem to have more than enough, according to the extreme examples from Nancy Gibb's cover article. Parental transgressions ranged from buying macrobiotic cupcakes and hypoallergenic socks to hiring tutors to correct a 5-year-old's "pencil-holding deficiency,'' and showing up at school unannounced to bring matching accessories. Let's not forget hooking up broadband connections in a treehouse or buying leashes for children and knee pads for toddlers.

"We were so obsessed with our kids' success that parenting turned into a form of product development,'' Gibbs wrote. "Parents demanded that nursery schools offer Mandarin, since it's never too soon to prepare for the competition of a global economy.''

All of this may be true. But so is this: More than 75 percent of the nation’s four-year-olds and an even larger percentage of 3-year-olds still have no access to state-funded pre-k programs, much less mandarin programs. Despite worries about the overscheduled child, some 18 million children need, but don't have, after school programs. Some 28 million parents work outside the home and as many as 15 million "latchkey,'' kids go home to an empty house.

So EarlyStories has concluded the following. The helicopter parent may not be hovering in many U.S. households at the moment. But reading the story was a nice substitute for buying Entertainment Weekly.

With so much debate and discussion over charter schools lately, EarlyStories found it fascinating to read the New York Times style piece Sunday, entitled, "Scholarly Investments.''

First thought: What on earth is a story about charter schools doing on the style page? The answer of course, can be seen in the picture of Ravenel Boykin Curry IV, who helped found two Girls Preparatory Charter Schools, posing with six uniformed young students in the Bronx.

Turns out that well connected, socialite hedge fund managers like Curry are are embracing charter schools as their new cause; these maverick investors have decided they like this new model -- whatever that means. So now it's in vogue to be supportive of charters in the largest school system in the U.S., with more than 1.1 million public school children -- although according to the story, only about 30,000, or 2.5 percent of them, attend attend charters.

So why are the money folks choosing charters instead of embracing some of the other struggling public schools, many of which could use an infusion of hedge fund cash at a time of deep budget cuts?

Because, according to Nancy Hass of the Times, "their obsession — one shared with many other hedge funders — is creating charter schools, the tax-funded, independently run schools that they see as an entrepreneurial answer to the nation’s education woes.''

Curry himself explained that hedge fund mavericks see charter schools as “exactly the kind of investment people in our industry spend our days trying to stumble on.''

The story did not explain why the wealthy fund managers are attracted to the type of education that charter schools offer, or how it differs from what happens in some of the 1,600 New York City public schools. Are they excited about the quality of teaching and learning, and the success of students? It did point out that studies on the effectiveness of charter schools differ in their conclusions.

One manager suggested the attraction has to do with the way charter schools rely "on metrics and tests to measure progress,'' -- a concept that is also deeply ingrained in the public school culture in the aftermath of No Child Left Behind, and also part of U .S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's education agenda. (He is also a big fan of charter schools)

The hedge fund managers appear to be excited by the notion that charter schools are “scalable,” with models that could be emulated in many communities that have long waiting lists of parents looking for free alternatives. Charter schools, for the record, also pay their employees differently and don't choose their staffs from teachers unions.

There are many good questions that should be raised here, and the style piece attempted to raise some of them. EarlyStories can't help but want to see more journalists spending time in charter schools, starting in pre-kindergarten if at all possible, to let the public know how these schools are different. Are they changing lives for children? How so?

EarlyStories welcomes new websites, collaborations and any efforts by journalists to understand the complicated landscape of early childhood education in the U.S. The area gets little media attention, so it was nice to see the brand new Texas Tribune taking on the issue in Texas, with this promising start:

"The battles over Pre-Kindergarten are no place for children. Scarce resources and passionate people make for the political equivalent of street fights.''

The opening line by Abby Rapoport sets the reader up nicely for a look at the many divisive arguments and issues that have characterized pre-k education in Texas , which has the largest enrollment of any U.S. state. Rapoport poses some good questions about what works throughout, along with describing some unsuccessful attempts to evaluate programs in the state.

A person outside of Texas might be confused about how pre-school concerns in Texas relate to overall battles and issues pre-kindergarten faces nationally; little context is provided. And while the story attempts to provide a view of what happens inside some pre-kindergarten classrooms, there isn't much evidence of an actual visit that describes what children and teachers are doing, or what teaching and learning is -- or isn't -- taking place.

Still, it's a promising start, and terrific to see new education journalism in any form, with hard questions being asked about both the public policy issues surrounding pre-kindergarten and the quality of taxpayer financed programs. EarlyStories hopes this issue will stay on the radar for the Texas Tribune.

Picture this: A four-year-old boy is isolated in a library during the two and half hours he is supposed to be in pre-school, and is on the verge of being kicked out completely.

And just what did this four-year-old do to face expulsion? It's about his hair, according to articles in the Dallas Morning News.

Taylor Pugh is in Big Trouble for making an end run around the dress code rules at Floyd Elementary School in Mesquite Texas, the kind of place where students "can't go to class out of dress code,'' according to the associate superintendent. It's also the kind of school district that sent a 19-year-old boy home back in the seventies because his hair touched his collar, and told a boy wearing skinny jeans he had to change or go home.

EarlyStories likes to remain neutral and balanced, but can't help in this case wondering why the length of a four-year-old boys hair -- and in this case the boy is of Native American heritage and has a legitimate cultural reason for keeping his hair long -- should prevent him from getting a pre-school education.

Where is the outrage? Free Taylor Pugh!

The best pre-kindergarten classrooms are teeming with books -- books in baskets, on shelves, on the floor and most importantly, in little hands. During the highly commercial Christmas season, it's nice to remember that books make excellent gifts for some of the little people in your life as well, and EarlyStories was inspired to find a few lists after reading a Washington Post column filled with recommendations.

Education columnist Jay Mathews is a big fan of an excellent list compiled by Renaissance Learning but that list is geared more toward books for older readers in grades 1-12.

So what about the pre-school set? EarlyStories set out looking for good lists, and came up with a few, including one from TeachersFirst, of course Amazon, and the Brooklyn Public Library. Most local libraries will have their own list -- and very likely, classics like Caps for Sale and anything by Eric Carle will be on them. There's a terrific selection of books for toddlers through three at BankStreetBooks.com; a good list at PreKinders and a great read
aloud list at the Children' Literacy Initiative, which also isolates the best books for kindergarten students.

EarlyStories also wants to offer a few suggestions for books journalists -- or anyone else -- who is interested in learning more about pre-kindergarten might like to read, courtesy of Pre-k now.

The list doesn't include personal favorites, like Carle's "The Very Quiet Cricket,'' and "Just One More Story,' by Jennifer Brutschy' -- oh wait, and of course, the much read and beloved "Ghost Train,'' by Stephen Wyllie.

But there comes a time to pass those books down and move on to more scholarly pursuits like "The Sandbox Investment,'' by David L. Kirp..

Happy reading!

EarlyStories could not help but be struck by the photo of three special needs children in wheelchairs in the New York Daily News, in an excellent article that described how some disabled children are forced to leave school well before the end of the day. The story found that across the city, these children are boarding buses as much as 40 minutes early, missing valuable instruction time.

The story had the kind of immediate impact that should serve as a reminder of why journalists do the work that we do. Even before the story was published, the New York City Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg told the Daily News the students would immediately be dismissed at the end of the day -- no earlier.

Still to come is an explanation of why these children were allowed to end their day so much earlier than their classmates.

Imagine thinking about getting a newborn, still in the hospital, ready to start school. In cities with long waits for high quality day care and killer competition for private pre-school, parents may be obsessing about early childhood education long before labor and delivery.

A Forth Worth public school district has taken it one step further, handing out welcome letters to all newborns as part of a school-readiness program, according to the Star-Telegram in Forth Worth. The efforts of this one school district and hospital in Texas are worth noting; they come at a time when research shows as many as half of U.S. children who enter public schools are not ready to learn.

A packet of information produced by the Hurst-Euless-Bedford School district includes advice on everything from early childhood activities to benchmarks parents can look at to asssess how ready their child is for school. The North Hills Hospital has played a role as well.

"Anything we can do to help new parents prepare, we think, is a benefit," Randy Moresi, chief executive officer of North Hills Hospital, told the Start Telegram.

It would be fascinating to follow the families who participate in this program and see how their children fare once they enter school. Will the suggestions be followed or tossed away with the Pampers? Will parental awareness of school readiness benchmarks make a difference in how their children fare once they enter school? Are any studies available to see if such programs have worked elsewhere in the U.S. or is this one groundbreaking?

EarlyStories found it impossible not to feel a sense of anger and outrage upon reading the tale of yet another youngster left alone on a bus in New York City. Thanks to Gotham Schools for providing links to the story from both the New York Daily News and the New York Post .

It's difficult to imagine a driver leaving a bus without checking. Even tougher to fathom is how depressingly familiar the story is. Two years ago, the New York Daily News published a major investigative series on problems with city school buses, devoting an entire part to students left behind or dropped off far from their home

In October 2009, an autistic boy was left alone on a school bus for six hours. A kindergarten girl in Brooklyn arrived home after her first day at a new charter school after spending more than four hours on a bus with a lost driver.

An account in the Associated Press found up to 75 school bus strandings every year across the U.S.

In New York City, the driver and matron are facing charges for abandoning the girl in yesterday's incident. What will prevent it from happening again?

This is not okay.

A potentially fascinating fight could be underway in Tennessee, where Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen, who has pushed to expand pre-kindergarten in the state, is finding himself at odds with the state's teachers union.

At issue, according to several accounts, is Bredesen's plan to have student test scores account for at least 50 percent of how teachers are evaluated. The Memphis Commercial Appeal noted that he called for a week-long special session of the legislature in hopes of getting the law that bars use of student data in teacher evaluations changed. He's also asking for the support of business leaders to try and change the law.

Bredesen's goal is one governors and educators in cash-strapped states across the U.S. can relate to -- the deadline is looming for states that hope to get a piece of the $4.35 billion in stimulus dollars outlined as part of President Barack Obama's Race to the Top plan that could give Tennessee as much as $400 to $500 million. States must meet criteria for reforming their education system to get the money, though, and that's why Bredesen is pushing to take advantage of the state's vast collection of student performance data that measures academic gains.Under state law, that data cannot be used to evaluate teachers for either licensure or tenure.

Bredesen has had to scale back some of his plans to expand state-funded pre-kindergarten in the state, which has been hailed as a national leader. Bredesen wants to expand the program, but first he is calling for changes in state education law, including requiring student performance data to be used in evaluating teachers and requiring annual performance assessment of teachers.

States that win the competitive grants will get much needed cash to improve their education system. But can Bredesen meet his goals without support from the teachers union?

EarlyStories will be keeping a close eye on what happens in Tennessee.

Every now and then, EarlyStories runs into a piece of journalism that attempts to answer what could be perhaps the most important -- and mysterious -- question about the U.S. education system: What makes an effective teacher? It's a question with implications for students of all ages and sizes, and it matters from the minute they enter a classroom.

At a time when journalists who cover education are focused intently on Race to the Top applications and impending deadlines, it's critically important to stop and think about how children are being taught and what they learn. And that's exactly what Amanda Ripley's illuminating story in the The Atlantic this month does.

In clear prose, Ripley explains why the question of what makes good teaching is so important at this point in time.

"Parents have always worried about where to send their children to school; but the school, statistically speaking, does not matter as much as which adult stands in front of their children,'' Ripley notes. As states are competing for money, they must also "try to identify great teachers, figure out how they got that way, and then create more of them."

Along with the politics of covering the Race to the Top grant program, it's important to really think about how teaching might be improved and examine the most recent rsearch and data. Reporters covering early childhood education rarely focus on the topic of teachers and teaching, and indeed the credentials and qualifications required are often different.

Regardless, the questions Ripley raises and examines thoroughly are the right ones. Properly trained, effective teachers are key to improving the quality of education in the U.S. How are we going to get there?

One of the more interesting chapters in Paul Tough's "Whatever it Takes,'' -- a book about the Harlem Children's Zone -- describes how young parents go to school to learn how to be parents. The Harlem Children's Zone is the brainchild of Geoffrey Canada, whose goal is to "end the cycle of generational poverty.''

The book describes in detail the nine week parenting workshop known as "Baby College,'' aimed at expectant parents as well as those with children up to the age of three. One of the major goals of the program is to improve the lives of children born into poverty -- all part of the Harlem Children's Zone attempt to surround children within a 97-block section of the city with social services and educational advantages from birth through college.

Baby College instructors promote everything from teaching early reading skills to lessons on how to turn a trip to the supermarket into a learning experience. Tough's book on the program weaves in a great deal of research showing that what happens during early childhood is key to building a foundation for a child's educational future.

All of this is a very long introduction to a piece in the Times-Union of Albany, New York that described how the Harlem Children's Zone's efforts in New York City captivated parents and educators in upstate Albany, who are already moving forward with a similar plan and will be launching their own Baby College in the coming months. Already, there are waiting lists.

EarlyStories is trying to keep an eye on any expansion of the Harlem Children's Zone because President Barack Obama said he'd like to see it expanded to 20 cities nationally -- and he set aside $10 million in seed money to develop a national model. Journalists should look out for applications and see if communities are finding ways to address and improve the quality of early childhood education -- and what existing models they hope to emulate. Are new programs to be offered? Will they be eagerly embraced? How can the public know if they are of high quality?

(photo from "This American Life")

EarlyStories has been waiting, watching and wondering what would happen to Taylor Pugh, the suburban Dallas boy suspended from prekindergarten because of his long locks. With so much national attention focused on the issue, it seemed the school board in Mesquite might, perhaps, back off and decide the time spent in a classroom would be more important than the length of his hair.

Not so. On Monday, night, the board voted unanimously to enforce its ban; they offered a compromise that would have allowed him to braid and pin his hair up, according to the New York Times, which caught up with little Pugh's plight.

Quote of the day comes courtesy of school board member Gary Bingham, an insurance agent who told the New York Times: “It’s a trade-off....do the parents value his education more than they value a 4-year-old’s decision to make his own grooming choices?”

EarlyStories would like to reframe the question: Is the length of a child's hair more important to the school board then the benefits of early education?

And add one more: Are the clocks in Dallas still set for 1963? The desire to enforce its ban on what they still call "Beatles haircuts,'' can mean only one thing: They are still mad about the moptops.

Thanks to our colleagues over at Early Education Watch for raising iquestions about the important new study that may not bode well for Head Start, the national school readiness program that is integral to President Barack Obama's early childhood strategy.The study made its way to Congress on Wednesday.

The study found that while Head Start had a positive influence on school readiness after one year, the gains were minimal by the end of first grade. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services immediately announced plans to strengthen Head Start programs, and it will be important for journalists to follow up.

Early Ed Watch concluded that the study points to the need for giving disadvantaged children more than a a year of high quality education, and that improvements in teacher training for Head Start and all pre-kindergarten programs are needed. W. Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, offered another perpective: he noted that the findings "are based on comparing children who went to Head Start with other children who likely also received some kind of preschool experience – sometimes Head Start in another place or a state-funded pre-K program. It is especially significant because that kind of comparison will not likely show big differences."

He also pointed out in a press release released by NIEER that "the promises of Head Start can only be fulfilled if the program is funded and staffed at the levels that have proven to make a real difference in the lives of children, something that has not happened in the entire 40-year history of the program.''

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius noted in a press release that Head Start must be improved. “The program provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition and social services to low income children and families,'' she noted. “Still, for Head Start to achieve its full potential, we must improve its quality and promote high standards across all early childhood programs.”

How will questions and concerns about the future of Head Start be addressed? EarlyStories has noted repeatedly that this is an issue worth paying attention and too often ignored by the press.

A study about childhood literacy and then an unrelated story about adults who cannot read out of Chicago prompted some thought about literacy here at EarlyStories.

The study from the University of British Columbia, found that neighborhoods where children live while they are in kindergarten predict their reading comprehension skills seven years later. Published in the journal Health & Place, , the researchers found a "delayed effect" of the residential environments in which children are raised.

"The researchers say it's possible that the socioeconomic conditions of children's early residential neighborhoods exert a strong effect later because acquiring reading skills involves the collective efforts of parents, educators, family friends and community members, as well as access to good schools, libraries, after-school programs and bookstores, '' according to an article about the study in Science Daily.

The interesting story about adult illiteracy out of Chicago prompted EarlyStories to think once again about how and why some 23 percent of the U.S. population cannot read, according to statistics from the National Center for Family Literacy. The story described a vibrant volunteer culture for a program known as Open Books in Chicago, where the number of adults who cannot read is even higher.

The story did not delve into what kind of early childhood education, if any, the adults who want to learn how to read had previously. And yet, the question must be raised. How could such large numbers of our population be so deficient in reading skills? What does that say about the way reading is -- or is not taught?

Children need to read more in and out of school and they need more challenging materials, conversations and discussions to help their skills blossom into academic competence later on, new findings show. And along with decoding letters, "systematic early attention must be paid to developing oral language skills."

These are among the interesting ideas on how children develop literacy skills and language in a piece entitled "Ensuring Early Literacy Success,'' found in Research Points, a publication from the American Educational Research Association.

The piece pointed out the need for children to develop oral language skills to improve their reading, with some key suggestions for policy makers about how to make this happen. Some suggestions include a target for schools to have 90 percent of children fluent in decoding words by third grade, along with earlier intervention for children who are not on track. In addition, instruction for children from third grade up must focus on writing, comprehension and language development.

Visiting classrooms to watch and see how reading is taught is vitally important, but it's also a good idea to keep an eye on the latest research and thinking about how children learn and how they actually acquire language skills.

An interesting report today from the recession battered state of Michigan: It found that pre-school attendance saves taxpayers money and can be a sound investment by giving youngsters a foundation they need to become productive members of society.

The report comes at a time when Michigan, struggling with reduced tax revenues and high unemployment, has cut many of its publicly supported early childhood programs back drastically.

The report, entitled "Cost Savings, Analysis of School Readiness in Michigan,'' found that investments the state has made in fully preparing young children for school has saved an estimated $1.15 billion over 25 years because the boost children got in pre-school programs decreased their need to repeat grades. The solid foundation also saved the state money by identifying disabilities in children early and cutting down on juvenile delinquency.

Wilder Research completed the study, commissioned by the state's Early Childhood Investment Corporation., a state-wide initiative aimed at fostering school readiness.

A story on the report in the Grand Rapids Press noted that the state-funded programs that began in Michigan some 25 years ago are geared largely for poor children who don't come to kindergarten with the same level of vocabulary and school experiences of their peers.

"Based on past participation and success rates of early education programs in Michigan, an estimated 80,000 adults, age 18 to 29, in the Michigan labor force today are high school graduates who likely would have dropped out of school if not for Michigan's past investment in their school readiness,'' the report found.

Michigan was among 10 states that lowered funding for pre-kindergarten for 2010, despite early promises from Gov. Jennifer Granholm.