Study: Quality Waning for Kids' Educational TV
Nov. 12, 2008
Study: Quality Waning for Kids' Educational TV
Educational TV may not be so educational after all.
A study released Wednesday found that high-quality educational programming for children is at its lowest level in nearly two decades.
Only one in eight shows billed as educational was rated "highly educational," according to research co-authored by a professor at the University of Arizona.
The findings suggest that commercial broadcasters may be falling short of meeting the educational needs of children. Since 1990, a federal law called the Children's Television Act has required commercial broadcasters to provide at least three hours of weekly children's educational programming in exchange for using the publicly owned airwaves.
The law, however, does not set guidelines for educational quality.
In their analysis, researchers evaluated the content of the shows labeled as educational to determine whether they were highly, moderately or minimally educational.
The yearlong study, paid for by Children Now, a California-based child-advocacy group, found that although broadcasters met the three-hour requirement, the educational quality of shows has declined.
Only 13 percent of TV shows for children were rated highly educational compared with at least 20 percent in 2000.
Most shows, 63 percent, fell in the middle category of moderately educational, while 23 percent were judged to have minimal educational value.
The study did not evaluate individual networks, but it noted that public-broadcast episodes averaged higher educational scores than programs aired on commercial channels. Because the law applies only to commercial airwaves, programming for cable channels was not evaluated.
Researchers judged children's TV programs on several factors, including whether the episode had a primary lesson and how clearly the show conveyed that lesson to children.
Shows that averaged the highest quality included PBS classic Sesame Street, followed by the commercial Beakman's World, PBS' Between the Lions and the commercial 3-2-1 Penguins. Some of the lower-rated programs included PBS' Curious George, the commercial Magi-Nation and the commercial Replacements.
Quality educational television is important because it can have positive effects on a child's social and intellectual development, said Dale Kunkel, a UA communications professor and one of the study's lead authors.
He hopes the study will prompt the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that oversees broadcasting licenses, to devote more time to monitoring compliance with the law.
