(Praise, Caution for Alabama's Pre-kindergarten expansion)

An editorial in the Montgomer Advertiser on Sunday hit the right note of praise and skepticism regarding Alabama Gov. Bob Riley's plan to expand a pre-kindergarten program that is considered one of the best in quality, but that simply isn't reaching enough children.

Riley's expansion will bring the number of children served up to 3,384, but as the editorial points out, that's far less than the state needs. The editorial told the public of the importance of quality, including low student-to-teacher ratios, highly qualified teachers and a program that evaluates the academic, social and basic health needs of children.

At a time when so many states are expanding their programs, it's important for the local press to stay on top of all new developments, and not simply praise or criticize politicians for their efforts to expand pre-kindergarten.

Journalists must understand both the fiscal challenges their state faces along with what makes an effective pre-kindergarten program, how many children it will reach and what the obstacles to success and expansion are. There are legislative reports and several sites that help define what a quality pre-kindergarten looks like that are worth consulting for broader perspective.

This editorial showed homework was done.

(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.

Winnie Hu's story in the New York Times over the weekend highlighted a barrier to universal pre-kindergarten that's not often discussed: reluctance of local school districts to participate. The front-page story reported that a third of the states nearly 700 school districts do not have programs and that only 38% of the state's 4-year-olds are being served.

School district leaders quoted said state funding, which according to the National Institute on Early Education Research yearbook amounts to only about $3,500 per pupil, is inadequate. Space is a problem. Contracting with private providers to offer the services requires administrators to oversee the programs---a cost that would come out of the district budget.

But the piece also highlighted another issue that's gotten little attention from journalists: many affluent parents think school district pre-k programs are remedial and will do little to help their kids. As the superintendent in the affluent Bronxville district in Westchester County said, parents there prefer to send their kids to private programs. A map
of the counties around New York City showed that about half the district's on Long Island applied, about a third in Westchester, and only a few in Dutchess County (a horsey county to the north) and none in Putnam County (just north of Westchester.)

Journalists in other states where district's apply for state pre-k funds, such as Wisconsin, Tennessee, Illinois and New Jersey, might well find similar patterns.

Coming up on Wednesday: Pre-K Now's annual "Votes Count" report, which monitors changes in states' budgets for pre-kindergarten. Conference call on Wednesday with Libby Doggett of Pre-K Now, a representative from Oklahoma ("one of the best") and a representative from Kansas ("one of the worst"). Information for the call available from Holly Higgins at Pre-K Now. contact info: 202.834.6846, hhiggins@preknow.org

Given the news of the past two weeks one would expect a group calling itself the "Partnership for America's Economic Success" to talk about credit availability, productivity or market regulation (or deregulation.) But as radio documentarian Emily Hanford reported this past weekend, the partnership of business leaders and foundations actually is devoted to expanding investment in early childhood education. In a piece titled "The Business of Pre-Kindergarten" for American Public Media's Weekend America service, Hanford reported that a founder of the group, Rob Dugger, is an economist and a partner in an international hedge fund. He is trying to get business leaders to think about the return of such investments over the long term. Hanford has great audio of Dugger using business rhetoric that can sound awkward when applied to investments in children.

Speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Dugger says: “Our goal for five years has been to informationally weaponize those of you in the early childhood development community so that you can compete successfully in a budget world in which evidence-based long term returns is what is going to be the deciding factor of who gets money and who doesn’t."

A number of foundations are investors, including MacArthur and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund. The Pew Charitable Trusts, which is a supporter of this blog, invests in and manages the partnership. Sara Watson, who heads up that effort, champions the economic arguments. But she also says: “There are some investments in children we should make that will never show an economic return but we have to do them or we should do them. So we want to be careful that we don’t set too high of a bar.”

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.

Who Should Be Eligible For Pre-Kindergarten? Tune in to Hechinger Webinar November 12 at 1:30 p.m. EDT

The troubled economy is taking its toll on the middle class in many ways, including the cost of pre-kindergarten for the many who are not eligible for publicly funded programs.

Doug Besharov, American Enterprise Institute

Speakers will include Albert Wat of Pre-K Now, who is working on a major report on what the organization calls the "middle class squeeze." The report – which will be released during the webinar -- will analyze the financial challenge many families face in accessing and paying for high quality pre-kindergarten education and include case examples of actual families across the country.

Participating journalists will have an exclusive chance to speak with Wat, and hear expert

commentary and ask questions of Douglas Besharov of the American Enterprise Institute and William Gormley of Georgetown University.

Reporters can sign up on line here

William Gormley, Georgetown University

A good place to read more on the topic comes in Jay Mathews' Washington Post piece this week.

Meredith Kolodner of the New York Daily News did a nice job on Sunday describing the staggering cost of child care in New York City and the lack of viable choices for working mothers as the economy struggles.

Kolodner profiled a young, college-educated mother who finds herself number 32,909 on the list of city residents who qualify for child-care vouchers that would help defray some of her child care costs, which are more than the $622 a month she pays in rent.

The story noted that only one-third of city families who qualify for federal and state aid for child care are able to get it, pointing out that such aid has dropped by $50 million since 2004.

To be eligible for a voucher in New York City, a family of four must have an income of no more than $47,000. Kolodner notes that child care costs for two young children in the city are $23,000 or more. She also found a family who earns $95,000 a year but can only afford paid child care -- $2,000 a month -- for one of their sons. A relative cares for the other.

It isn't hard to find examples in any community of the difficulty working and middle class families face. What are their child care options? What are the cut-offs for receiving vouchers or any kind of subsidized care? Are the waiting lists growing longer?

In Fairfax, Virginia, for example, a family of four with an annual income up to 275 percent of the poverty level, or $56,784 can qualify for state vouchers to help pay child care costs, according to a Washington Post article last year.

What, if anything, are states and cities doing to meet the demand? What has been the impact on early childhood centers and pre-school providers?

These are all important questions for journalists to ask and answer in these tough times.

Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts announced a lot of grand education plans when he was elected in 2006, including free community college for all and an ambitious agenda to expand pre-kindergarten. This week, as the Boston Globe noted, his education secretary Paul Reville acknowledged the state's $1.4 billion budget gap means the governor will have to pull back on many of these initiatives, including his planned expansion of universal preschool and full-day kindergarten.

Further complicating his agenda is a ballot initiative before Massachusetts voters next week that would eliminate the state income tax and mean further cuts, according to USA Today

The budget crisis prompted op-ed piece by Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute. The center "seeks more school choice for parents and an accountable system of public education for all students,'' and the piece pushes other alternatives it believes would be less costly.

As the economic crisis continues to unfold, reporters should take a closer look at other educational initiatives their states may be trying to see if they are truly less costly. Is interest in such initiatives growing as a result? What is the educational value? What are the obstacles?

Education reforms may be limited by tough economic times, but several state officials are putting their weight behind recommendations contained in The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce and its “Tough Times, Tough Choices,’’ report.

Journalists from anywhere in the U.S. can call in between 10 and 11 a.m. on Thursday morning, Oct. 30 at 800-954-1051 to take part in a conversation that will include governors, state education commissioners and other policy leaders from a range of states. The press conference comes at a time when many states, including New Yorkand New Jersey, are seeking federal help to prevent devastating budget cuts.

The report, first released in December 2006, urged drastic changes to the U.S. education system and warned that it is way behind other countries. The report also recommended that states put in place a system of high quality early childhood education for all four-year-olds and for all low-income three-year-olds.

The call will provide journalists with an opportunity to ask about states and their commitment to pre-kindergarten programs in tough economic times. With many governors already scaling back planned expansion, what comes next? The report initially recommended a system of high quality early childhood education for all four-year olds and for all low-income three year olds.

The press conference itself takes place at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. at 529 14th Street N.W., Washington, D.C.

Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy and co-chair of implemention, says states who take the recommendations seriously can build “internationally competitive education systems…their students will be competing with the best anywhere in the world.’’

It’s not clear yet which aspects of the report will be adopted, but so far, Utah, Massachusetts and New Hampshire are committed to building support for the new agenda, Tucker says.

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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Headlines proclaiming cutbacks in pre-kindergarten expansions and other education programs are common in these tough times, as are editorials questioning the extent states can afford them. An example of the new cautionary tone appeared in the Topeka-Capital Journal in Kansas earlier this month.

Journalists who are covering the story of strapped state legislatures are reporting on governors like Deval Patrick, who is scaling back early childhood education reforms in Massachusetts. There's no shortage of examples, including Stateline.org's Legislative Year in Review , which comes at a time when some states are considering asking the federal government for loans.

It's important to note that in the midst of all the bad economic news, many state legislatures are continuing to make pre-kindergarten a priority. Pre-K Now released a report last month noting that net state investments in pre-k will increase by more than $309 million nationally, to $5.2 billion in the next fiscal year.

The report is a good resource for journalists as the story of the economic downturn and its impact on education spending continues to unfold on the eve of the presidential election.

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.

High quality pre-kindergarten has become something of an elusive luxury for middle class parents, caught between rising prices, the housing crisis and stagnating wages, according to report released by Pre-K Now during a Hechinger Institute Webinar on Wednesday.

The report provides a great starting point for rich and worthwhile stories journalists should be telling about the hard choices middle class American families are making as they struggle to pay mortgages and credit card debt and worry about holding onto their jobs.

Families earning too much to qualify for state-funded programs but not enough for higher quality private schools in some cases are choosing substandard care or keeping their children out of pre-kindergarten altogether, said the report’s author Albert Wat, a policy analyst for Pre-K Now.

Middle-class families and their children need and would benefit from voluntary, high-quality pre-k indergarten programs funded by their states but they often don't have access to them, notes the report, which calls for states and the federal government to expand such programs. Wat found that the average middle class family of four, living in a state with a public pre-k program, spent about 29% of their income on pre-kindergarten for their two children.

"Middle class families are feeling increasingly pessimistic about their financial situationn,'' Wat noted during the webinar, which will be available on the Hechinger Institute's website.

The webinar also offered views from William Gormley of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, the author of a study on the benefits of Oklahoma's early childhood programs. Gormley's study found students experienced substantial gains and that the negative effects of family and environmental risk factors can be lessened by a strong preschool program.

Douglas Besharov of the American Enterprise Institute, , pointed out that emphasizing the needs of the middle class can divert attention from the most needy children in the U.S. He said the federal government help poor children by strengthening federal Head Start programs.

The report comes at a time when 80 percent of Americans believe it is more difficult to maintain their standard of living than it was five years ago, and some twenty percent think their children will have a lower standard of living than they do.

Rising expenses and declining incomes are leaving more Americans in debt, although many still earn too much to qualify for state-funded pre-k programs.

The report's recommendations include a phase-in plan to expand pre-k to all children, using factors other than family income to define eligibility, creating full-day programs to meet the needs of working families and extending eligibility for voluntary pre-k to three year-olds.

I'm really sorry I missed a talk at New York's 92nd Street Y by child psychologist Michael Thompson last week, because I would have enjoyed the chance to see preschool teachers squatting on the floor and pretending to be cave men. The scene was described in an Associated Press story carried by USA Today.

Before a packed audience of early childhood educators, Thompson made an impassioned plea for more play-time, taking up a cause endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics two years ago. Somewhere along the line, he noted, play-time has slipped off the agenda for U.S. children, resulting in eight to 12 fewer hours of free play per week since the 1980s.

Thompson told the crowd that play has been replaced by video games (a form of play kids I know would vigorously defend if given the chance), television and an emphasis on formal learning in preschool, along with pressure from parents to push their children into more structured activities.

Fretta Reitzes, director of the Goldman Center for Youth & Family at the Y, told the crowd it is up to preschool teachers to lead by example. It's probably why the conference included pre-school teachers drumming and pretending to be cave-dwellers.

I'm all for play, but I found it amusing that a conference advocating more of it took place in a building that houses what might be among the most competitive -- and expensive -- nursery schools on the planet. Spots at the 92nd Street's program are so hard to come by that parents start speed-dialing the number the day after Labor Day just to get an application.

They are so coveted that stock analyst Jack B. Grubman told a friend in an e-mail message that Citigroup Chairman Sanford I. Weill, his boss at the time, helped him get slots for his twin children after he recommended investors buy AT&T stock, according to a New York Times story in 2002.

For the record, tuition at the Y this year is $23,000 for 4 and 5-year-olds or $18,780 for 3-year-olds who attend three hours a day. That's awfully pricey play.

Without knowing all that background, I might simply have been able to enjoy an evening with early childhood educators pushing fantasy play and recess instead of phonics and banging on musical instruments.

Journalists don't always have time time to visit preschools while covering the weightier academic battles in their districts, but this story reminded me of some really excellent questions to ask. Just how much time is devoted to play these days in an age of accountability? Is play for play's sake okay anymore?

Protests and a police presence at a kindergarten Thanksgiving celebration?

While recent research is shining a spotlight on the value of role play in early childhood education, a California community found itself so divided over a time honored tradition of having kindergarten students dress up as Pilgrims and Native Americans this week that the students got a different kind of lesson entirely.

The costumes first came under attack in the college community of Claremont, after a parent complained they "demeaning and dehumanizing,'' according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Seems even play has political and racial implications, and the school decided to take the objections of a parent seriously and ban the costumes. Parents who disagreed protested and sent their children to school in Pilgrim hats and other garb nonetheless.

All of it led to a spirited protest and the presence of police at the school.

The clash left the superintendent claiming he was threatened and other parents angered at school officials for bowing, as they put it, to political correctness.

Lessons learned, anyone?

So, with headlines about the nation's economic problems dominating the front page, what are some early education stories that might get on the front page?

In no particular order:

1. Are companies that now provide child care at the job site reducing their support? Charging families more? Closing programs altogether?

2. How are private programs faring? Are families asking for financial help to offset tuition for programs in churches, synagogues, and for-profit programs?

3. With more workers cobbling together two or even three part-time jobs, who is watching the children?

4. Young children need stability in their lives. Are programs seeing more families move in and out as their family circumstances change?

5. Are center directors seeing evidence of the recession in the children they serve? More need for winter clothes? More hunger?

6. Are state-funded programs seeing more demand for their services, as families who previously could afford private preschools seek cheaper alternatives?

7. How are the children being cared for while their laid-off parents look for work?

Keep the human angle in mind. Every time you see a story about budget cuts, think about people and how they may be affected.

Sam Dillon's front-page piece in today's New York Times offers education journalists a guide to the early care and education stories that will bear watching in the coming year and also a list of some of the key experts and resource people.

Over the past few weeks I've talked to a number of Washington education folks involved in the transition and they all have told me that, whatever the economic situation, President-elect Obama's plans to invest in early education will very likely go forward. If the federal government does become a significant source of funding for preschool, it would redefine the relationship between the federal government and parents and families.

A little more on the sources in the article:

Barbara Bowman happens to be the mother of Valerie Jarrett, a key Obama adviser. She also is a legendary figure in the field of early childhood education. She was one of three founders of the Erikson Institute, the nation's premier graduate school for child development, was a 2005 winner of the McGraw Prize and today is the head of the Chicago Public Schools' Office of Early Education. Chicago superintendent of schools Arne Duncan, Obama's nominee for Secretary of Education, no doubt learned a lot from Dr. Bowman and now will be charged with helping carry out the president's agenda on that issue which, by the way, Duncan had a big hand in developing.

Cornelia Grumman, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune editorial writer, heads up the First Five Years Fund. The fund is dedicated to promoting investments in expanding early learning services for children birth to age 5. She keeps close track of what's going on nationally on these issues.

Libby Doggett, the executive director of Pre-K Now, will be a good source on how the federal efforts connect with what states are doing in preschool. Pre-K Now advocates for universal pre-kindergarten.

Bruce Fuller of the University of California, Berkeley is a good source as well. Fuller will voice concerns about using public funds to make preschool available to all, regardless of income. This will be something to watch in the administration's specific proposals. Most state programs now are targeted to the poor.

Sharon Lynn Kagan of Teachers College is a leading policy expert on early education who has studied pre-kindergarten quality extensively. Look for a paper from her on how the federal government can invest in high quality programs out soon from the Center on Education Policy.

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.

Could cookies, milk and sandbox play give way to a regime of veggie sticks and jumping jacks?

Paige Parker of the Oregonian notes that food and exercise regimes may be the last thing on the minds of parents looking for day care. But perhaps they shouldn't be. One third of 2- to 5-year-olds enrolled in a state nutrition program in Oregon are overweight or obese in a state where about 53 percent of children younger than 5 are in child care settings, Parker reports.

Oregon officials have come to believe they can reduce obesity rates by targeting the way children eat and exercise outside of their own homes. A statewide obesity prevention task force is recommending the upcoming Legislature require state agencies to develop standards for healthy eating, along with the amount of time spent engaged in physical activity or in front of a screen while in child care settings.

Part of their thinking may have been influenced by a study of South Carolina children that found kids in child care settings were sedentary, on average, for 42 minutes of every hour.

They engaged in a little less than eight minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each hour -- the equivalent of one hour of heart thumping activity for an eight-hour day, says Stewart Trost, one of the study's authors and now an Oregon State University professor.

Nationally, 26 percent of children that age are overweight or at risk of being overweight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2006. So it is worthwhile finding out if any other states will follow Oregon's example. Journalists have been on top of the trend of public schools providing healthier lunches for students in elementary schools and beyond, but are any other states trying to put their youngest charges on a diet?

The Akron Beacon Journal took an in-depth look this week at a possible solution to really bad behavior in early childhood. Meltdowns, screaming fits, hitting and all kinds of irrational toddler behavior can change the classroom dynamic and undermine everything a teacher is trying to do.

The story by John Higgins focused on a possible solution: a pilot program that places a behavioral specialist in the preschool to help the staff learning coping techniques. Higgins also did a good job at describing the despair of parents whose children have trouble adjusting to preschool settings.

One caregiver Higgins interviewed described getting three or four calls a week from parents whose children have been kicked out of multiple pre-school settings and don't know where to turn.

The story Higgins described is one reporters in any state can find without much digging. Children in state-funded preschools are more than three times as likely to be expelled as children in grades kindergarten through 12, according to a 2005 study by the Yale Child Study Center. A follow-up study was released last year.

Stories about out-of-control kids make good copy, but taking it further and focusing on ways of dealing with the problem -- as Higgins' story did -- are just as important. Are teachers getting enough support? Are child psychologists and behavioral specialists able to change behaviors? What works? If nothing is done, are the kids who have been kicked out of multiple pre-schools creating problems once they get to kindergarten and first-grade?

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.

EarlyStories has been keeping a close eye on how small children are faring in the worsening economy, and applauding the efforts of journalists who report on the connection. A story in the Detroit News took note of how auto industry woes and rising unemployment are hurting child care providers in a state where the jobless rate has reached 9.6 percent. -- the highest monthly rate since 1992.

Child care centers in Michigan are cutting staff and reducing payroll hours and more children are remaining at home or in scattered child care arrangements that threaten their sense of security and could lead to emotional problems down the road, the story notes.

Other journalists, including Donna St. George of the Washington Post, have discovered troubling trends such as the large numbers of children who have been pulled out of child care arrangements and left to fend for themselves at home. It's an example of a sad and frightening education trend that has society-wide implications.

The tough times provide an opportunity for education journalists to connect the work they do with the broader economic troubles their communities are facing, including the youngest and most vulnerable.

It's refreshing to see newspapers stay on top of the many ways the economic downturn hurts small children and their families. In ailing Michigan, the Heritage newspapers reported some startling data from the annual Kids Count survey in the Michigan Data Book, finding that poverty affects one out of every four children in a state hit hard by auto industry layoffs.

The report, produced by the Michigan League for Human Services, found "stark disparities for minorities in Michigan threaten the well being of large numbers of young children and their families.''

EarlyStories would like to see journalists go beyond reporting the depressing but not surprising numbers and talk to some of the families about how they are coping. What government efforts, if any, are there? What programs are being cut? Who is hurt? What are nonprofits, also struggling, doing to help?

Are any leaders emerging during these terrible times? Journalists might want to look for inspiration at the story Paul Tough, a New York Times wrote this week in Mother Jones Magazine about the efforts of Geoffrey Canada of Harlem's Children Zone to combat poverty and educate children in a poor New York City neighborhood.

The piece describes the efforts of Canada and Harlem Children's Zone to educate poor parents and children in ways large and small, including a simple trip the Harlem Children Zone aimed at exposing young children to everyday language.

"The point wasn't to learn about nutrition, but rather about language—how to fill an everyday shopping trip with the kind of nonstop chatter that has become second nature to most upper-middle-class parents, full of questions about numbers and colors and letters and names,'' Tough wrote, describing what he saw on the trip with parents to a local supermarket. "That chatter, social scientists have shown, has a huge effect on vocabulary and reading ability.''

Tough's magazine piece looks at an effort to solve some of the most intractable problems of poverty, and grew out of his new book on the Children's Zone.

The supermarket anecdote is great example of the kind of show-don't-tell journalism needed more than ever right now, alongside the data and statistics quantifying the ways children are hurting in tough economic times.

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.

In the past, working parents had to rely heavily on word-of-mouth to learn the reputation of child-care homes and centers. In many instances they still do, but some states are now providing an online record system that in the best cases provide details on problems that can range from discipline to cleanliness and safety measures, according to an article in the Washington Post that looks at what both Maryland and Virginia are doing.

Twenty-two states now post online inspections and complaint records, and Early Stories would love to see newspapers delve into these databases and publish the results, which could go a long way toward helping working parents make the best decisions -- and could push providers to clean up their acts.

First Lady Michelle Obama made it clear she shares her husband's priority of expanding early childhood education programs on a symbolic first visit to the U.S. Department of Education.

She told employees: "I am a product of your work,'' the department's website proclaimed on Tuesday.

Obama chose the Department of Education for the first of her planned federal visits, according to CBS News, where she noted to applause that early childhood education programs would be preserved.

"....All of you know here the importance of investing in early childhood education, and imagine what we can do with millions of dollars of more investment in this area,'' she said. "We can expand opportunities in low-income districts for all students, and particularly for students with disabilities.''

The visit comes at a time when the Senate is debating President Barack Obama's $885 billion stimulus plan.

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.

Early Stories took David Brooks of the New York Times to task recently for railing against Head Start without detailing what it is about the program he dislikes. Over the weekend, a more persuasive Times opinion piece by Douglas Besharov detailed why he believes Head Start has not filled its promise.

As the House and Senate debate different versions of the $800 billion plus economic stimulus package that could see Head Start losing the $2.1 billion originally earmarked for the program, it's important for the public to ask hard questions.

Besharov, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland,says that Head Start as it is managed now is failing children, although he pointed out that Head Start programs and centers differ widely. So
what does a truly effective Head Start program look like and what kinds of statistics are available to measure it? Who is keeping track?

Besharov acknowledges that there are some "really good,'' Head Start centers and urges the centers that are less than successful to follow their example. He also notes that this is difficult to do because Head Start advocates in 2007 "persuaded Congress to eliminate the program’s new National Reporting System, which would have measured how well individual centers were doing.''

That leaves education journalists, who are busy covering K-12 systems and rarely visit Head Start centers, with a large and largely unfilled responsibility to try and find out what is happening in their own communities.

How are the Head Start graduates faring down the line? Do teachers in K-3 and beyond note any kind of differences among the children who have been through such programs? How do they measure their academic success? Are any local studies or research available?

As the political and financial support waivers and the arguments continue, these questions will remain relevant and well worth asking. In the meantime, journalists tracking the early childhood provisions can check out the different versions in this excellent chart.

Early Stories has pushed for better journalism on Head Start and for more explanation from early childhood experts who have criticized the program and urged that it not get any more federal money.

On the same day the Senate voted its approval of an $838 billion stimulus plan that provides $1 billion less than originally anticipated for Head Start, U.C. Berkeley professor David L. Kirp weighed in with a defense of the program in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Kirp warns that any decision to cut money for Head Start "is a mistake whose reverberations will be felt long after the recession is over."

Kirp, author of "The Sandbox Investment,'' argues that Head Start is indeed an "economic pump-primer,'' and noted that every Head Start dollar "means new jobs for teachers, aides and staff, many of them poor women who are the economic anchors of their communities.''

Early Stories has suggested that it's time for reporters to take a hard look at centers in their own communities. What is the quality of instruction? Are there long waiting lists to get in? How do the children do once they get out? Is anyone tracking their long-term performance?

Still confused over the differing views about Head Start? Further explanation is available over at Early Education Watch ., which takes a look at a number of recent articles on the topics and offers some new ideas as well.

While pondering the role of Head Start in the economic stimulus package, Early Stories has looked at a variety of views and lamented the lack of journalism on this longstanding and often maligned federal program.

We somehow missed an excellent piece in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, a paper whose clock may be sadly running out since the Hearst Corporation announced last month it is putting it up for sale.

The article makes several good points, noting that stimulus funding could create 300,000 more spots for children in child care -- and some 5,530 in Washington state, quoting an analysis by the national Center for Law and Social Policy.

"If you want to get smart people back in the work force, then you have to give them the opportunity to get child care that makes sense," Anna Lemchen, a North Seattle mother of two daughters told the paper.

Head Start, meanwhile, issued a press release urging that the original $2.1 billion earmarked for Head Start be maintained as negotiations continue, noting: "the truth is that up to 60,000 jobs could be created – and that is not even including related construction positions – with the $2.1 billion that Congress has discussed for Head Start and Early Head Start.''

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.

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.

Early Stories likes nothing better than coming across good journalism about pre-kindergarten. It's fascinating to read about the struggles many states are having over how -- and if -- to fund early childhood education. It's even better when the stories go beyond rhetoric and politics at a time when state governments are strapped for cash. The best stories help the public understand what quality pre-kindergarten can do, and are supported by research and clear examples.

Few stories manage to do that, however. For example, a story in the Bismarck Tribune included an unexplained quote from a state representative who was arguing against the inclusion in a $110 million education bill of a $1.5 million grant to allow school districts to implement pre-kindergarten.

"I just don't think its right for government to be taking kids away from home at the age of 4," said Rep. Bette Grande, R-Fargo.

And exactly what language in the bill described how the government would accomplish that?

The Fargo Forum also quoted Grande as follows: “Pre-K is another chance for government to reach into the families,” taking children away from their homes at the age of 4.'' Again, no explanation.

So what exactly did she mean by that?

Granted, Grande isn't the most progressive of legislators. She introduced legislation that would require any abortion provider to offer a woman a look at an ultrasound picture of her fetus at least 24 hours before she gets an abortion. She also pushed a bill that would have allowed students to drop classes and demand tuition refunds if they claimed they couldn't understand their instructor.

That doesn't mean she shouldn't be asked to explain.

There are numerous resources available for journalists that describe how and why pre-kindergarten can make a difference in the lives of children. They can compare what is happening in the state they are covering with others.

The old argument about government taking away children -- even if it is a deeply ingrained belief -- must be explained, not just reported.

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.

In the days and weeks to come, details of President Barack Obama's stimulus package will begin to emerge. His budget is now a public document. Enterprising journalists from Ohio to Arkansas are beginning to report on how much money their states will get for pre-kindergarten, Head Start and other early childhood programs.

Early Stories firmly believes the reporting should not stop after that. Who will get the contracts and the jobs? How can the public be assured the new programs will be high quality? What types of programs will states and school districts offer and what does the research say about which are best? Who will make decisions and how will the decisions be made? Will opponents and others attempt to steer the money toward different types of programs? Will political connections play a role?

More excellent questions are posed by Sara Mead at Early Education Watch, who keeps a close eye on both the money and the larger policy implications.

It's not enough, in the recession economy, to simply report on how much money each state will get. The number is just a starting point for the many important stories waiting to be told.

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 President Barack Obama was getting ready to deliver a speech this week that called for a renewed committment to early childhood education, citizens of South Dakota were gathering in their state capital to fight a bill that might have been the first step toward creating a state funded preschool program to serve low-income families.

Those opposing the bill argued that it would "give incentive to alternatives to parenting,'' and noted on their website that "documented studies show... Moms are the #1 educator for early-childhood.'' The site did not point to any specific research to back-up this claim.

South Dakota is one of 12 states that offer no state-funded pre-kindergarten. Bills to change that have faced fierce opposition from groups that compare state-funded programs to "government intrusion on the family.''

It has been interesting watching the steadfast opposition to funding pre-kindergarten in this rural state, even as other are coming around toward viewing early childhood education as a necessary and worthwhile investment.

On Tuesday, a House Committee in Pierre voted 9-6 to kill a measure that proposed a community planning process simply to gauge statewide interest in preschool for children from low-income families.

The opposition in South Dakota comes at a time when Obama is pushing for greater investment in early childhood education, as noted in the Early Ed Watch blog. Lawmakers in the past have tried to lay the groundwork for state funded programs in South Dakota, but have had no luck.

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.

EarlyStories blogged yesterday about ABC News' partnership with a libertarian foundation to produce a so-called "news" report that, guess what, espouses libertarian anti-government ideas. The item was based on a Reason.tv video on the same topic. The program segment (to air tonight) mainly features Mia Levi, the operator of a string of private preschools who is worried about having competition if the government supports preschool. Levi advertises herself as one of leading opponents of universal preschool in Southern California. (Here is the response from Pre-K Now, which advocates for universal preschool. Download file

Here is a link to one of those schools, the Manhattan Academy in Manhattan Beach, California. Manhattan Beach,
for those who aren't familiar with it, is a very affluent beach town in Los Angeles. A place where small homes sell for seven figures. That's her market. Her school is preschool-to-sixth grade. Not surprisingly, enrollment tails off after kindergarten, because, despite her comments in Stossel's report about failing public schools, the schools in Manhattan Beach are terrific. It's hard to sell a product for $12,000 or more per year when parents can get a much better product--i.e. the public schools--for free.

Here are some comments about the Manhattan Academy
posted by parents on the Web site Greatschools.net:

Individual teachers are great while they last. Director is very difficult to work for or deal with. Parents have no input and those who complain are troublemakers. Lots of drastic staffing changes happen at school year end, but parents can't comment or question, and those who dislike the way the school does things can just leave, since there's a pre-school waiting list.

Frightening turnover. Wonderful teachers/staff disappear suddenly leaving parents and kids stuck with an administration that cares only about $$. They put on a good show, until they rope you in, then forget you're paying the bills. Parents & staff jumping ship as fast as they can. Almost no kids left beyond upper primary (kindergarten).

The teachers at this school are dedicated and the curriculum is good, but unfortunately the school is run as a business first and educational facility second. Parent participation is not always appreciated by the directress.

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.

As the House Committee on Education and Labor begin hearings this week on early childhood education, it's a good time for journalists to think about visiting centers of early learning, including Head Start and Early Head Start.

Questions about the quality of programs abound at a time when President Barack Obama's stimulus package includes some $5 billion to grow Early Head Start and Head Start and to expand access to quality child care and early learning.

These excellent questions about how to assess the quality of programs come courtesy of the First Five Years Fund, whose goals include increasing the number of policymakers, private foundations and business leaders who believe in the value of supporting young children early.

On this list are some red flags for the kinds of things you don't want to see when visiting an early childhood center:

What you don’t want to see:

Inattentive, overwhelmed, or unengaged staff
* Unengaged teachers sitting on the side of the classroom but not participating
* Shouting, swearing, or other displays of hostile discipline
* Infants and toddlers crying without being attended to

An unsafe, unhealthy, or un-stimulating environment
* Small, cramped centers or homes without designated appropriate spaces for different ages
* A center or home that smells of urine, has visible safety risks, or is unclean
* Frequent use of television or video to occupy children
* Children easily distracted or frightened by visiting strangers

Activities and routines that are too chaotic or too inflexible
* Children wandering aimlessly, left unsupervised, or displaying unchecked aggression
* Children restrained in car seats or in high chairs at times other than meal time
* Children spending a lot of time waiting around for turns
* Children expected to sit at desks, perform highly structured tasks, or other forms of age-inappropriate expectations

What you want to see:

Educated, attentive, and engaged teachers and staff
* Teachers with four-year degrees and specific training in early childhood education
* No more than 8 infants and toddlers and no more than 20 preschoolers in a classroom
* Teacher to child ratios of 1:3 for infants and 1:10 for preschoolers
* Teachers who crouch to eye-level to speak to children and who hold, cuddle, show affection, and speak directly to infants and toddlers
* Families and teachers exchanging information about the child's development and learning progress

A safe, healthy, and child-friendly environment
* A room well-equipped with sufficient materials and toys
* Classrooms in which materials and activities are placed at eye level for the children
* Materials and toys accessible to children in an orderly display
* Centers that encourage safe, outdoor playtime
* Frequent hand-washing by children and adults
* Visitors welcomed with appropriate parental consent

Stimulating activities and appropriately structured routines
* Children who are engaged in their activities
* Children offered breakfast and lunch and a time to nap
* Children participating with teachers and each other in individual, small-group, and large-group activities
* Children receiving a variety of stimuli in their daily routine using indoor and outdoor spaces and age-appropriate language, literacy, math, science, art, music, movement, and dramatic play experiences
* Preschoolers who are allowed to play independently

It's not always easy for busy journalists to find the time to go out and visit pre-schools and Head Start programs, but stories describing what actually happens in these programs go a long way toward helping the public understand what policies are actually working, and where drastic improvement is needed. At a time when the U.S. is poised to invest significant public dollars in early childhood programs, journalists can shine a light on how its littlest citizens are learning -- or not.

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

A recent television report scratched the surface of the many issues journalists ought to start exploring when looking at the planned expansion of the federally funded Early Head Start and Head Start.

The story reported on the lack of qualifications of Head Start teachers in Orange County, Florida and noted that many teachers involved in Orange County's Head Start program may not be qualified. The story also cited recent test scores showing that Head Start students were falling behind others in the state and nation "in all the critical areas that help prepare them for elementary school.''

It did not delve into what will be a critical issue in the coming years as Head Start teachers will be asked to be certified with at least a bachelor's degree. The issue comes at a time when Head Start should face scrutiny by journalists and the public after President Barack Obama pledged an expansion of Early Head Start and Head Start using $5 billion in federal stimulus money.

EarlyStories has noted that few journalists bother to visit Head Start centers and report on their quality or effectiveness. A recent conversation with W. Steve Barnett of NIEER yielded some excellent questions and points journalists might think about when covering Head Start.

Barnett, Co-Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University, suggested that reporters take a look at the extensive research available on Head Start, including a study by Westinghouse Learning Corporation and Ohio University, which concluded that Head Start produced few sustained educational benefits.

The study, Barnett noted, had "numerous methodological flaws and has been roundly criticized.''

Other studies are quite mixed; Barnett said the best long-term studies suggest "modest positive benefits across a wide range of outcomes including mortality and health."

Barnett urges journalists to take a look at the ongoing Head Start Impact Study, a nationally representative randomized trial that he said provides the most rigorous evaluation to date of Head Start’s effects.

Initial results from the study released in 2005 found very modest gains from participating in one year of Head Start, "with the largest impacts on parent reports of their children’s literacy skills and receipt of dental care,'' Barnett said in an email to EarlyStories. He added that while the results may be strong enough to justify the cost of Head Start on purely economic grounds, "even the most generous assessment of the results finds that the impacts on language and mathematics are disappointing and compare poorly to the impacts of other large scale preschool education programs as the programs providing the rationale for Head Start."

Barnett wants to know why the federal government has released no further findings from the study -- a question journalists may want to pose. He added several more good questions. For example, it how much of the Head Start budget is spent at the center level and classroom level and how much goes to particular aspects of the program’s mission such as: education in the classroom, health related services, and services to parents?

The Orange County story did not attempt to answer this questions, but it managed to create a dialogue in the community about what qualifications Head Start teachers -- who in this case earned little more than $13 an hour -- should have. In addition, it raised questions about the value of the program and the quality of what learning is -- or is not -- taking place.

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.

Education journalists who are busy juggling the many K-12 stories on their beat don't always recognize the importance of what does -- or does not -- come before. That's why it is an excellent idea to listen in next week to the 2008 State of Preschool report from the National Institute for Early Education Research that ranks all 50 states on quality standards, funding and access to state funded programs. This year the report will also look at how state budgets have been effected by the recession, and will consider the likelihood of cuts. Take a look at the yearbook from 2007 for comparison.

Journalists can tune in for a phone briefing about the 2008 report at 2 p.m. on April 6 or attend a news conference on April 8 at 10 a.m. at the Oyster Adams Bilingual School, 2801 Calvert St., NW, Washington, DC. To participate in the conference, contact Jen Fitzgerald at jfitzgerald@nieer.org or Mary Meagher at mmeagher@nieer.org. Registration for the conference call constitutes agreement to honor the embargo of the report until April 8; call-in information will be available upon registering for the call and an embargoed copy of the report will be made available.

Listening to the report is no substitute for something EarlyStories has long advocated -- visiting pre-schools and early childhood centers to see what is -- or is not -- happening. The report may provide an excellent starting point for an overview of some of the key issues at a time when planned expansions may be stalled by the weak economy, and will likely provide some excellent questions to ask as well as some stories well worth pursuing.

It's worth taking a look at what is happening to promises of pre-k expansion in states beset by economic woes, like hard-hit Michigan. Governor Jennifer Granholm, who has been a champion of education, may now be cutting a program that helped fund early literacy efforts and provided free books to poor families, the Muskegon News reports. The state has a budget gap that may be growing by $100 million a month.

Granholm has been a longtime advocate for early childhood education, proposing $31 million in her 2009 school aid bill to expand early education for children. With the state facing an unprecedented economic crisis, it's not clear what will survive.

The Great Parents/Great Start program brought nearly $90,000 to Muskegon County and is part of a project Grahom started to coordinate public and private efforts, the Muskegon News reports. But funding for the project comes at a time when auto industry woes and growing unemployement are creating a dire situation for the Midwestern state.

It is uncertain how much the federal stimulus package will ease cuts and smooth the way for long sought after education improvements.

The dichotomy between a governor's promises and expansion plans vs. economic reality is one all education journalists should be following, as governors everywhere are forced to roll back lots of earlier promises made during better times. Journalists should look up what these governors said at the time and closely scrutinize some of the programs, promises and priorities, which are now constantly shifting. Are they worth the investment? Would the money better be spent elsewhere?

EarlyStories has been urging reporters to think hard about dueling trends in pre-kindergarten education as long planned expansions run into hard fiscal realities. The National Institute for Early Education Research has explored the issue in depth. Their annual survey of state-funded programs, released in Washington D.C. on Tuesday is a must read for journalists, especially because it provides state-by-state snapshots. NIEER, based at Rutgers University In New Jersey, has produced an annual report on state preschool programs since 2002.

NIEER found ample evidence of the growth of pre-kindergarten programs, as follows:
• Enrollment increased by more than 108,000 children. More than 1.1 million children attended state-funded preschool education, 973,178 at age 4 alone.
• Thirty-three of the 38 states with state-funded programs increased enrollment.
• Eleven states improved the quality of their preschool programs, based on quality standards developed by NIEER. One fell back.
• State funding for pre-k rose to almost $4.6 billion. Funding for state pre-k from all reported sources exceeded $5.2 billion, an increase of nearly $1 billion (23 percent) over the previous year.

But the report also noted that the economy has taken a toll on expansion, as Sam Dillon of the New York Times noted. Nine states have announced cuts to state-run pre-kindergarten programs while legislatures continue to debate cutting others.

As the debate over the value of spending money on pre-k programs continues, Congress is raising federal funding for preschool while President Barack Obama continues to promise new investment in early childhood education. That means reporters will be monitoring state budget cuts, use of stimulus money to boost early childhood education and long-planned state expansions all at the same time. In this confusing and quickly changing landscape, the NIEER report is an especially helpful tool.

EarlyStories was hoping Florida journalists might pick up on this week's NIEER 2007 report card, which found that Florida's voluntary pre-k program is among the poorest quality in the U.S. The state earned high marks for access, as it is open to every 4-year-old, regardless of income. News about the program is hugely important in Florida's tough economy, where more and more parents are taking advantage of it; some 61 percent of the state's four-year-olds enrolled last year.

The Tampa Tribune noted in a piece this week that Florida educators are worried that the findings did change much over the course of a year. EarlyStories would now like to see journalists spend some time examining Florida's pre-k programs and explaining to the public how to tell the difference between a high and low quality program.

It's not enough to tell us that a program is of poor quality. What are the kids -- and teachers -- doing, or not doing? Are they being prepared for kindergarten? Are they learning letters, numbers and sounds or just playing on a playground? How is quality measured -- what do the standards look like -- and how can parents steer clear of poor programs? What -- if any -- efforts are under way to improve Florida's pre-k's?

The NIEER report should be a starting point for journalists. What are the stories that come next?

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.

President Barack Obama, who has been pushing a major investment in early childhood education, provides some more details in an interview with Fortune Magazine about why corporate leaders -- who have been something of a target in the sinking economy -- will advocate for investing in education.

"We cannot ignore the fact that our education system is not adequately preparing our workers for a 21st-century economy," Obama said in an interview with Fortune's Washington editor Nina Easton. "Our businesses cannot compete and win in the global economy without a more effectively trained workforce - especially in areas like math and science. That is why so many corporate leaders are advocating for more effective investments in education - from early-childhood education to cultivating more homegrown engineering talent."

Obama's remarks come at a time when businesses have been active in promoting preschool and early childhood education; some examples include Billionaire oilman George Kaiser, who has put up funds in Tulsa Oklahoma. while rallying other business leaders, to Robert H. Dugger, managing editor of Tudor Investment Corp. in Washington, D.C.

Obama has said early childhood initiatives will help reduce welfare, healthcare costs and crime rates, but how real and substantial will the business community's involvement in education be? It's a question that is well worth asking and following as the Obama administration is poised to push for the largest new federal initiative for young children since 1965. Will corporate leaders follow through -- how large will there investment be, and will they retain an interest in the quality of new programs and initiatives?

The downturn economy is taking a toll on grown-ups, with a confluence of stressful events: rising unemployment, a housing crisis, income cuts and an overall sense of fear that is permeating everyday life. But how are children faring? EarlyStories was reminded why journalists should be paying closer attention, after reading Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times this week.

Herbert didn't speak to any children for his column, nor did he focus on any particular family. He wrote rather broadly and stated some obvious facts that really could be the starting point for taking a closer look at the lives of children in just about any U.S. community: "Official statistics are not yet readily available, but there is little doubt that poverty and family homelessness are rising, that the quality of public education in many communities is deteriorating and that legions of children are losing access to health care as their parents join the vastly expanding ranks of the unemployed," Herbert wrote.

He went on to describe the efforts of a Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician who also is a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and president of the Children’s Health Fund in New York. Redlener is headed to Detroit this week with a medically equipped mobile operated by the Children’s Health Fund that will provide free health and dental care to children whose parents cannot afford to pay for care. Just imagine the stories he will hear along the way.

It's important for journalists to delve into the health and well being of children in these tough times, along with covering local school news and pre-k battles. What kinds of stories are teachers hearing? Have requests for free lunch doubled and even tripled? What are schools doing in particularly hard hit communities to help the many newly laid off families along with those that have struggled in poverty for years? And how are children faring? Are they displaying signs of stress, and are schools dealing with more discipline issues, more children coming to school hungry, angry and stressed? Are they looking for these signs and providing any kind of help or assistance?

Journalists who spend time speaking with and listening to children and their families right now will find some terribly sad -- but important-- stories, just waiting to be told. EarlyStories would like to hear them.

It did not take EarlyStories long to predict the reaction to an opinion piece in The Star Press of Indiana, which described how the economically depressed state -- one of 12 that doesn't offer publicly funded pre-kindergarten -- is lagging in student achievement.

"It's obvious public schools need help when less than half of East Central Indiana schools and only half of schools statewide made adequate yearly progress benchmarks," the story notes, adding that early education advocates believe that preschool education is the logical place to start.

Many of the comments posted at the end of the story appear to be written in response to a concept, not to the story itself -- the concept that parents, and not educators, should be responsible for their child's education. "When I was a kid, I did not attend kindergarten,'' said one poster, who described going onto get two master's degrees.

Then the tired old argument comes up again in the comments; parents who cannot afford to stay home with their kids and teach them what they need in early childhood; children learn better without forced socialization, and the rant: "Why do I have to pay for your babystitters with my taxes?''

EarlyStories sees the arguments come up again and again on the comments posted to stories -- usually in states that aren't funding pre-kindergarten. And we offer one suggestion -- more high quality journalism is needed that exposes the public to latest research about the benefits of early childhood education. We also strongly believe journalists should visit early childhood programs to illustrate what is happening in the classroom -- and how effective it is -- or perhaps is not, as not all programs work well.

Fair and balanced journalism with meticulous reporting can help chip away at pre-conceived notions about pre-k, along with the many strong and sometimes ill-informed opinions that creep onto the pages of newspapers. The opinions will still exist, but some may be tempered or shaped through education.

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.

Journalists covering early childhood education may want to check out a national report to be released from Pre-K Now that will be available on Tuesday, May 5th.

The annual report will address how governors from a range of states are planning to fund pre-kindergarten programs. The report will also help journalists see instantly which governors are not pushing to fund voluntary pre-kindergarten programs, and to take a look at how much those who are planning to fund such programs have earmarked.

"Leadership Matters: Governors’ Pre-K Budget Proposals FY10,” is a good tool for helping journalists track how states compare and examine national and state spending trends. It will be available starting at 10 a.m. at www.preknow.org.

EarlyStories urges journalists to see the report as a starting point. There is no substitute for visiting pre-k and other early childhood education programs to help understand and explain to the public what is happening.

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?

It read almost like a throw-away item, just a small story in the Kalamazoo Gazette that described how some visiting educators would get a chance to learn about the local pre-school curriculum in Western Michigan.

But any journalist who wanted to take a deeper look and truly help the public understand what happens in a preschool classroom could use the visits to probe much deeper.The story notes that area preschools and Head Start centers are "phasing in a common curriculum as well as shared training and support programs for teachers."

What does the curriculum look like and how does it instruct teachers to help little minds acquire skills?

The story points out that the curriculum "is designed to develop language and early literacy skills,'' and that it includes "reading, writing and storytelling."

So what does the curriculum look like and how does it instruct teachers to help little minds acquire skills?

Why is this important? At a time when states are strapped for cash and public money for pre-school education must win legislature approval in many cases, the public has to understand and appreciate why pre-school is helpful (or not). For pre-school to be effective, it helps to have a sense of a purposeful curriculum aimed at boosting literacy and getting students ready to achieve in kindergarten and beyond.

Pre-school is sometimes seen as nothing more than organized -- or even unorganized -- play, and it can be resented by taxpayers who no longer have children in education systems. That means journalists must play a part in the debate by getting inside classrooms and programs to explain what is happening -- or, in many cases, to describe missed opportunities.

So it's not enough just to note that educators see the new curriculum as "a real paradigm shift in how we operate," according to Esther Newlin-Haus, project director for Western Michigan University's Early Reading First early-childhood program. Newlin-Haus tells the Kalamazoo Gazette that that the old model of teaching was not working well "to help close the gap in achievement. We need more systematic instruction with vocabulary development, letters and letter sounds in early ages. What we're finding is that if they're systematically taught, they get it."

EarlyStories would now like to see a story that describes what systematic instruction looks like for the three and four-year-old set -- along with follow up research on how it might be working and what happens to graduates when they move on. A new curriculum is just a starting point.

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?

More than half a million children school-aged and younger are suddenly stranded at home due to swine flu concerns, leaving parents who in many cases are already experiencing financial hardship scrambling. On very quick notice, they must find alternative child care settings or leave children home alone because they can't miss work. As the New York Daily News pointed out, parents who work in hourly-wage jobs or who are off the books are hurt the most because they can't easily take time off.

The sudden and mysterious spread of the virus is exposing the lack of back-up care and safety nets for families throughout the U.S. With schools closed amid fear of spreading disease, alternative child care settings aren't easily arranged. In Texas, children were fighting cabin fever earlier this month while their schools were being disinfected.

Some 14,000 New York City children are home this week and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked companies to show some flexibility and allow parents to take time off if they can; he's said that decisions to close schools must be weighed with inconvenience to families.

Texas families have been scrambling as well, with many schools closed for two weeks. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has urged teachers and parents to continue learning at home, via a series of government websites described here.

The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies compiled resources for families, but the emergency situation many find themselves in now won't be solved by a web site. It's not entirely clear that closing schools will stop the spread of flu, but one thing is clear: once schools are shut down, working parents have to find instant child care solutions for as long as the doors remain shut.

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.

As EarlyStories anticipated, it didn't take long for opposition to Chester Finn's opinions on universal pre-kindergarten to emerge. Finn's op-ed, "Slow the Preschool Bandwagon,'' appeared on May 15 in the Washington Post, introducing some of the arguments against universal pre-k that appear in his new book, "Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut.''

Finn, a former assistant secretary of education who is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation,has already generated two letters of objection, and Sara Mead of Early Ed Watch questioned some of his assertions this week as "just plain wrong.''

Finn responded here.

Finn's views are not expected to be popular at a time when politicians and President Barack Obama are pushing government to fund pre-school, but they must be considered by journalists who are exploring pre-k issues and need to understand the arguments against expansion.

Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said Finn had "inaccurately assessed the effort to secure high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten education,'' noting that it would be wrong to focus such programs only on low-income students.

And W. Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research weighed in, noting that Finn's approach is not one the U.S. can afford at a time when 1 in 10 children are dropping out of high school. "....good state pre-K programs improve the readiness of all students,'' Barnett wrote.

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.

Without even a nod to his new book, an editorial in the The Examiner of San Francisco managed to pick up on many of the arguments Chester E. Finn Jr. has been making in his new book "Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut." (Hoover Press, 2009)

The editorial noted that "there is no evidence that expanding the time American children spend in state-run schools will produce any educational benefits at all,'' an assumption that many educators, researchers and pre-kindergarten advocates vehemently disagree with. Journalists who are covering this issue have to challenge such views by finding an array of research and visiting programs and classrooms to see what is -- or is not -- happening.

The editorial notes that President Barack Obama's top domestic goal is government-financed preschool for all 3-and 4-year-olds and concludes that his "Zero to Five'' initiative would most likley "drive small, privately owned preschools out of business in order to create more jobs for NEA members, who will be the real beneficiaries of this latest educational scam.''

The editorial has already produced some nasty disagreement; one comment on the Examiner site complained about misinformation and suggested that all the writer can do "is pound your highchair."

EarlyStories for months has lamented the lack of substantive reporting on Head Start, , the program the United States Department of Health and Human Services started in 1964 that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families.

It's an area few journalists delve into, leaving the public without the benefit of understanding what happens inside Head Start programs. That's why it was refreshing to see a story appear in the Danville News in Danville, Virginia, where a reporter actually attended a Head Start graduation and attempted to find research that addresses the effectiveness of such programs. The Danville program received more than $1 million in federal and state funding and donations for the 2007-08 fiscal year, so it makes sense to find out what kind of impact it is having on the lives of small children.

The reporter tried -- but could not find -- local data about the program. She was also unable to reach the school superintendent to hear more about what happens to the graduates later on and how they perform in elementary school. She did include the results of a national Head Start impact study by the Society for Research in Child Development for the Department of Health and Human Services, which found that "nationally, Head Start reduced the achievement gap by 45 percent in pre-reading skills between Head Start children and the national average for all 3- and 4-year-olds.''

At a time when President Barack Obama's budget allocates $800 million in grants and incentives for states and local districts to invest in early child programs, it's more important than ever for journalists to visit and and ask questions. Interviewing parents and educators and watching the young children in action, along with seeking out research, is an important way of explaining the effectiveness of investing in these programs to the public.

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.

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.

EarlyStories spends a lot of time urging journalists to go out and visit pre-kindergarten and early childhood programs to see first hand what is, or is not happening. We came across a article that takes this advice even further with some thoughts on why pre-k teachers turn over so rapidly.

Valerie Carver notes the reason is they aren't paid enough -- their average salaries are less than $22,000 a year -- and don't earn enough benefits to deal with the demands of the job.

Some states also require that they hold a bachelor's degree; those who don't will make even less. There are different schools of thoughts and a good deal of research and solid recommendations on this topic for journalists, who should take a good look at what teachers are, or are not doing, when they visit programs -- and ask what kind of credentials they have.

The reason high turnover rates are a concern, Carver notes, "is that preschoolers have poorer outcomes and less stability. Studies show consistently that high turnover lowers the quality of preschool altogether - not good news for these crucial and delicate years."

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. "

It's difficult to imagine just how much parents of children with disabilities depend on programs that help their children integrate with their peers. A quote in the Chi-Town Daily News of Chicago brought it home, from a father describing how Rebecca, his four-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, interacts with her classmates in a public preschool program:

"The key thing comes when she interacts with other kids," says Harry Hoynes, Rebecca's father. "They learn patience, and that other kids their age are different, too. They come to these wonderful understandings at the age of 4 and 5."

The reporter thought to interview Rebecca's dad to illustrate what might happen to pre-school programs where disabled children learn alongside those who are not, and whose programs could be cut under a proposal in the Illinois General Assembly. The state faces a $9 billion deficit.

The reaction to the cuts?

"Most of us who work in early childhood education, and all of the human services, are deeply distressed," says Barbara Bowman, director of early childhood education at Chicago Public Schools. "People don't realize how much of a blow this is going to be."

Bowman was a logical person to seek out for comment. In addition to her longstanding role as an award-winning childhood education expert and author, she is a co-founder of the Erickson Institute , a top graduate school for training child development experts.

But EarlyStories applauds the journalist at Chicago's nonprofit online newspaper for also finding Rebecca's father, and reminding the public that when such programs are cut -- a trend that can be found throughout the U.S. in this struggling economy -- the consequences are real and painful for children and their families.

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.

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.

Depression seems to be a big media topic lately, and not just the economic kind. The New York Times Magazine in May featured a front page article by Daphne Merkin entitled: "A Long Journey in the Dark: My Life with Chronic Depression. The Today show just featured a segment on anti-depressants. And now comes a new study reminding us that pre-schoolers also get depressed.

Dr. Joan Luby of the Washington University School of Medicine found that depression among preschoolers is a real disorder, and that preschoolers with depression were four times as likely to develop a major depressive order.

"Our study is the first available, to our knowledge, to follow-up and describe the 2-year course of preschool major depressive disorder in a large systematically assessed sample,” Luby was widely quoted as saying. The study, published in n the latest issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, got a lot of play and made for some alarming headlines.

EarlyStories would like to see some follow-up. The study, for example, did not examine how depression is treated in children, or address any controversy about medication. It said little about what course of action teachers should take when they see children who exhibit symptoms of depression.

At least one article about the study voiced some skepticism: University of Massachusetts psychologist Lisa Cosgrove said she is skeptical about the accuracy of labeling preschoolers as depressed, because diagnostic tools for evaluating mental health in children so young aren't as well tested as those used for adults.

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.

Press attention on President Barack Obama's early childhood education agenda focused much on a perceived expansion of Head Start, the national program that promotes school readiness and also provides services such as health and nutrition to enrolled children and families. But in these increasingly tough economic times, with states locked in budget battles over federal and state resources, some Head Start programs are in big trouble, according to an excellent article in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

EarlyStories has often noted the lack of attention Head Start gets from journalists. When any early childhood program that families depend upon shut down or reduce their hours, the press should take notice. A quote in the story from a father named Nathanael Pomiabo -- worried that his son would lose out on all that he gained by attending a Head Start program -- summed up the importance instantly:

"I see the difference in him," said Pomiabo, 31. "It's all changed how much he's learned and how much he wants 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?

EarlyStories has pointed out early and often how little credible journalism exists about Head Start, even though investing in the program is part of President Barack Obama's early childhood agenda.

Busy education reporters pay more attention to pre-kindergarten, in part because such stories often involve statehouse debates and are either part of budget stories or can go into the K-12 mix. But Head Start gets left out a lot, and that could be because journalists don't know much about the national program that promotes school readiness "by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families."

Kudos goes to the New America Foundation and its Early Ed Watch blog for its seven-part series that contains a great deal of helpful background, and could be a terrific starting point for journalists who want to delve into this critical issue.

The most recent entry looks at the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Law, which former President Bush signed into law in December 2007.

This fall, as the economic downturn continues, journalists are starting to notice cut-backs and closings of Head Start centers. Bringing more background and understanding to the stories will be enormously helpful as the issues and debate continues to unfold. The background is a great starting point for visiting centers and finding out what value they add -- or don't add -- in a given community, as well as providing context and understand about the national agenda.

Typically, stories about pre-kindergarten focus on one school district or the cuts and issues facing one state. That's why EarlyStories is a big advocate of seeing the big picture, something that is particularly difficult for journalists who cover early childhood education as part of a larger K-12 system to do. Education Week had a story this week that does a good job of describing some of the new and major trends in early education that provide a context for what is happening locally.

The story noted that "the worst recession in decades has certainly taken a toll on state budgets,'' citing figures from The National Conference of State Legislatures showing that states faced revenue shortfalls of $143 billion collectively -- a figure that won't come as a surprise to those who have been covering statehouse budget battles. At the same time, though, President Barack Obama is attempting to push an ambitious early childhood agenda that will include many new sources of funding.

Education journalists should be looking for local angles and ways to follow the money within the Early Learning Challenge Fund bill which is expected to provide $8 billion over the next eight years to improve early learning programs.

A Washington Post story noted that bill will "help states improve a hodgepodge of early education programs from birth to kindergarten,'' via a state grant competition akin that will push reforms and aim "to raise the quality of child-care and preschool programs that often provide highly uneven educational results.''

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.

Every now and then, EarlyStories stumbles across an early childhood story that truly stands out. A piece by Sara Carr last week in the Times Picayune of New Orleans is a great example for many reasons, including solid writing and reporting that included a great deal of context. The story described in detail the plight of many parents attempting to find a decent education for its little learners in a city still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.

A quote from one frustrated parent summed up the situation perfectly: "The low cost of living in New Orleans is all well and good, and works fine if you want to own a dog, " a parent told Carr. "But it's not so great if you want to send your child to prekindergarten."

Carr described how some 1,300 New Orleans children are languishing on a wait list for the federal programs Head Start and Early Head Start in the city, and how early childhood education has managed to take a backseat and become "the Achilles heel of the educational-reform effort in New Orleans,'' according to one professional.

Carr also did a masterful job of summing up two major trends -- and a major dichotomy -- in early childhood education. One is a willingness among states to invest in prekindergarten programs and a recognition that it can help students later on. The second involves the harsh economic reality of a recession that is forcing many states to scale back planned expansions.

Carr's story has another unique context, as she points out: Post-Katrina New Orleans is "widely considered the nation's school-reform capital of the moment.''

Journalists who write with context and authority tell better and bigger stories, and that is what Carr did. It's worth the extra effort.

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?

Diane D'Amico of the Atlantic City Press in New Jersey went where few journalists venture last week, when she took a close look at New Jersey's state nurse family partnership program. The story notes that by age three, children from low-income families "are lagging behind their middle- and upper-class counterparts in vocabulary development," and describes a program that is attempting to reach younger children.

It showed how a nurse with the program worked with a young mother throughout her pregnancy, encouraging her to graduate from high school and providing tools and tips, including a book, to help the mom give her baby a jump start on learning.

The issues D'Amico points out are timely, in part because President Barack Obama pushed an agenda that included an emphasis on early education. The higher education bill the House of Representatives passed in September includes $8 billion over eight years for the Early Learning Challenge Fund -- aimed at improving programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, D'Amico points out.

Journalists should be on the lookout for ways this money will be spent. D'Amico wrote about the state's nurse family partnership program, and Family Success Centers that provide various services; she even attended a Baby Bounce program at the Atlantic City library. Similar programs exist or may be starting throughout the U.S.

EarlyStories suggests reaching out to see what kinds of new programs or money might be available for youngsters, even before the enter pre-school. Who are the funders? What is the agenda and the reach? Are families taking advantage -- is there a documented need, or waiting lists? The EarlyEd watch blog is also a terrific resource for following early childhood policy and funding developments.

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.

One of the country's top experts on early childhood education made an interesting observation during a discussion of equity in after school programs this week: Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, the co-director of the
National Center for Children and Families noted at a forum sponsored by the Campaign for Educational Equity that after school programs have a lot to learn from what has happened with early childhood programs in the U.S.

Brooks-Gunn, the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development at TC, found similarities while working on study of after school programs that "remind me of early childhood education, like a time warp.'' Both are moving toward improving quality as well as "continuous improvement.''

The packed forum at Teachers College included observations by TASC (The After School Corporation) and prompted an interesting discussion of how and if after-school programs can level the playing field for disadvantaged youth -- especially because their participation in such programs is so low.

The forum came during a week after school programs or the lack of them has been in the news, due to a report by the After School Alliance , which found that some 15 million children are alone and unsupervised after school, and that the parents of some 18 million would enroll their children in after school programs if they were available.

EarlyStories enjoyed the discussion, especially because it prompted an opportunity to think about where early childhood education has been and where it is going in the U.S. After school programs, like early childhood education, can play an enormous role in the lives of children, yet neither issue gets the attention it deserves from the media.

Remarks made at the forum also led to the re-discovery of an important resource for education journalists and others trying to get a helpful overview and handle on early childhood issues: a June 2009 report entitled "American Early Childhood: Preventing or Perpetuating Inequality?"

The report is authored by Brooks-Gunn' colleague, Sharon Lynn Kagan,, who is also the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy at TC and with Brooks-Gunn co-directs the National Center for Children and Families.

A re-read of Kagan's report served as a reminder of why what happens in the early years is so critical right now. The report spells out both important historical developments in early childhood education as well as sketching out the urgency of the current landscape.

As Kagan noted, "...expectations and investments are soaring now as never before....domestically, early childhood is on the agenda of every governor; bills are in the hopper in early every state legislature...internationally, other nations look to America to see if and how we are education our youngest children."

With all the attention focused on the eating habits of New York City's public school children, from bake sale restrictions to new vending machines, EarlyStories was struck this week by an over-the-top example from, of all places, Great Britain.

It seems that parents at a school outside of London can actually log onto a computer to check up on what their children had for lunch, according to a story in the Daily Mail.

Children who attend St John's Church of England School are issued photo ID cards when they buy their lunch, the story notes. A list of all the items are then sent to a website, and parents can then log on and see if their children ate, say, nothing but chips and cookies.

A school official in charge of the program defended it to the Daily Mail: 'This isn't a case of Big Brother but we think it is important that parents can see what their very young children are eating during the day so that they can help them make better nutritional choices,'' the official said.

It's not clear how such a system would go over in New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been somewhat obsessed with health issues, and where school vending machines will soon contain no sodas, candy or sweetened drinks.

Studies have shown the importance proper nutrition plays in early childhood academic success, but the electronic check-up idea the London area school is trying has yet to show up in the U.S. -- or has it? Are extreme measures needed to make sure our littlest learners are getting the nutrition they need?

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.

Sara Mead at Early Ed Watch this week put together a comprehensive blog posting that really helped frame an important debate in early childhood education.

Mead used the opportunity of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's speech at the University of Virginia to detail some of the arguments and debate about the credentials needed for early childhood educators, an issue in many states and school districts.

In his speech, Duncan harshly criticized the country's education school as "neglected stepchildren,'' who don't attract the best and the brightest students or faculty members.

Journalists may have heard complaints about education schools before, but Mead succinctly lays out why the issue is relevant to early childhood education, noting that early childhood advocates have been fighting for more than a decade to raise credentials for educators of the youngest students. She also lays out important policy and legislative developments that could make a difference. including the Early Learning Challenge Grants that are now before Congress as part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

"Research documents the tremendous amount of learning that takes place in children’s earliest years, as well as the importance of nurturing, consistent and stimulating caregivers to children’s development during this time.'' Mead wrote. "Yet childcare and preschool teachers often earn less than parking lot attendants or hotel maids, and many also have correspondingly low education levels."

Journalists can and should ask for the background and credentials of the early childhood teachers in the districts they cover, and find out if there is a debate about their degrees and credentials. What do they earn? How do salaries compare with those of K-12 teachers? What kind of background and experience do they bring to their positions?

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.