Analysis of Early Childhood Education Newspaper Coverage

Analysis of Early Childhood Education Newspaper Coverage

Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

Interest in early childhood education has existed for centuries, stimulating
discussion, research and debate over the effects of early schooling. But only within the
last few decades has a groundswell of demand brought about dramatic changes. Waves of
change keep on coming for pre-kindergarten, most in three forms: (1) enrollments that
evolve to meet demands from varying social, economic and age groups formerly
unconcerned with education outside the home; (2) programs that offer greater variety and
availability, often provided by state or federal funds; and, perhaps most important, (3)
research that yields new and conclusive justifications for sending children to school prior
to age 5.

The new developments in early childhood education have gone largely uncovered
by major newspapers, unlike recent waves of change in other fields - say, for example,
business and technology. Even some of the nation's largest newspapers pay little
attention to this issue. A Lexis-Nexis search of The New York Times for the year 2000, a
year of significant research findings about early education, yielded 51 stories focused on
early education. This number compared to 286 stories in the same year on mortgage
innovations and more than 1,500 about new technologies.

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