Education, Coverage of

[Page 537]Media coverage of education largely revolves around a broad swath of K–12 issues related to students and teachers and to a lesser extent higher education. Coverage generally focuses on curriculum, test scores, teacher competency, and graduation rates at the public school level. Higher education coverage centers primarily on the cost of and accessibility to colleges and universities by middle-class and minority students. This entry opens with a brief overview of early education coverage and then examines the role of the federal government in education coverage. The entry also discusses criticism of education news and trends in education reporting, as well as coverage of higher education and the impact of the Internet on education news.

Much of the coverage since the 1960s has largely been framed ...