About the Job

So you cover K-12 education for your paper.

You may not know it, but your beat leaves some people out. Sure, they might be little people. In fact, they're some of the littlest.

They're the kids who can't tie their shoes on their own. And while they haven't made it to kindergarten yet, lots of them have already begun their educations.

Today, nearly 75 percent of five-year-olds and almost half of three-year-olds who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten are signed up for some type of "center based" program, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Some of them are in pre-school. Others are in child care.

A report released by the Education Writers Association in April found that few newspapers dedicate a reporter to cover this growing population [PDF]. Most often the beat is picked up by an education reporter -- like you, perhaps -- already stretched thin by stories about elementary schools and high schools. "The pre-K beat is almost always an appendage," said Tom Linthicum, president of TDL Group, Inc., the firm the EWA commissioned to conduct the survey.

Dave Lawrence, former publisher of the Miami Herald, became so convinced of the importance of early childhood education that he's been working full-time in the area since 1999. See a Q & A with Lawrence below.

Not sure where to begin? Start with the EWA. Preschool gets its own section on the association's Web site. Learn about how early childhood education is financed, how it effects the economy and how well those who provide it are doing their job. All three of those links lead to PDF files.

Some great research can be found at the National Institute for Early Education, Child Care and Early Education Resource Connections, the Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting and the University of Minnesota's Center for Early Education and Development.

And here's a story idea to work on. Earlier this week, Slate.com's Emily Bazelon pointed out that some states are changing educational requirements for preschool teachers and child caretakers. Bazelon reported that these people are often paid surprisingly low wages -- rarely more than $25,000 a year. If a state mandates formal training, how will those who don't have it afford to pay for it?

What are the educational requirements for preschool teachers and child caretakers in your state? Are they about to change -- as they are in Delaware? And if the changes require more schooling, who is going to foot the bill?

For more ideas, the EWA offers links to early childhood education stories from across the country. Check out what your colleagues are writing about. And see if you can apply their findings to your work.