Did someone forward you this newsletter? You can sign up here

Convincing reluctant families to return

The big story of the week, according to us.

After a year of remote learning and mixed messaging about what’s best for their kids, the challenge now is getting hesitant families to change their minds about going back to the classroom.

🔊 President of Key Teachers’ Union Shares Plea: ‘Schools Must Be Open’ in Fall (New York Times). Also: Washington PostDallas Morning NewsAssociated PressChalkbeat.

🔊 California high schoolers are saying no thanks to reopened campuses and are staying home  (LA Times)

🔊 Schools Are Open, but Many Families Remain Hesitant to Return (New York Times)

🔊 One school district wooed parents and students back with pandemic safety demos (CNN)

🔊 Returning this Fall, By Popular Demand: Virtual School. For Communities of Color, it’s Largely a Matter of Trust (The 74)

🔊 Masks, Tracking, Desk Shields: How Much Do School Measures Reduce Families’ COVID-19 Risk? (Education Week)

🔊 One third of Boston Public Schools students eligible to return to class have stayed remote (Boston Herald)

🔊 COVID fears keep many Latino kids out of classrooms (PBS NewsHour)

High school in the pandemic

The best education journalism of the week, plus a runner-up or two.
🏆 BEST: The best story of the week is ‘I Feel Like I’m Just Drowning’: Sophomore Year in a Pandemic by Susan Dominus in the New York Times Magazine. Dominus spent most of the past year reporting this story, following teens as they marked important milestones, like 16th birthdays and getting their driver’s licenses, in relative isolation and dealt with family illnesses and remote schooling. She paints detailed portraits of students that show the deep toll the past year has had on them. “They all tell me the same thing: They’re struggling. They’re sad. They’re overwhelmed. They’re hurting. They’re not learning. And they’ve almost given up or they’ve already given up,” a high school orchestra director said. The piece earned praise from other reporters, including ProPublica’s Pam Colloff and the NYT’s Dana Goldstein, who called it “beautiful and deeply upsetting.”

🏆 RUNNER-UP: This week’s runner-up is Vulnerable and long neglected, many English learners with disabilities languish with unmet needs in city schools by Jenna Russell in the Boston Globe. A follow-up to Russell’s and Bianca Vázquez Toness’ recent feature about a group of immigrant students learning English in the pandemic, this story looks at a specific subset of this population. A good example of accountability journalism, Russell interviewed more than two dozen families, advocates, educators, and researchers to figure out what happens to these students and how they slip through the cracks. “Though state and federal laws require schools to address both needs, Boston schools too often accommodate just one — language or disability — sometimes forcing families to choose between two critical supports,” Russell writes.

🏆 BONUS: We also want to call attention to this story in the Wall Street Journal: Cheating at School Is Easier Than Ever—and It’s Rampant by Tawnell Hobbs. In addition to all the other myriad problems with remote learning, Hobbs points out another one that’s unlikely to end when students return to class. “Students have found a way to cheat and they know it works,” said an academic integrity researcher.

To get daily education headlines and education news events, follow @thegrade_.

An open letter to education reporters

New from The Grade

Last week’s open letter from Sarah Carpenter, the executive director of Memphis Lift, to education writers was so powerful that we asked for permission to republish it.

I’m hoping journalists will respond to what she’s saying. All too often, coverage of schools discusses parents of Black and Brown children — but doesn’t include them.

In the letter, which was presented at the EWA conference, Carpenter urges education reporters to find out what “low-income families of color have … to say when it comes to public education in America.”

“Don’t write about us until you’ve talked to us,” she writes. “We actually know what’s going on with our kids and in our schools.”

People, jobs & awards

Who’s going where & doing what?

ABOVE: The 87th National Headliner Award winners for 2020’s best journalism in the United States honored the LA Times staff for first place in education writing by an individual or team for  “The new reality of school.” Among the judges’ comments: “The depth and breadth of the reporting was stunning and became the yardstick by which competing versions of the story from other towns and other places were judged.” Second place went to the prolific Nader Issa of the Chicago Sun-Times.

🔥 Jobs: A while back we mentioned that KPCC education editor Tony Marcano was promoted to managing editor, and now his old post is available: apply here. And there are lots of reporter openings at Chalkbeat.

🔥 On the move: Former Tampa Bay Times ed reporter Megan Reeves is leaving the paper after six years to work in communications, citing burnout and pay inequities as part of the reason. And the New York Post’s Susan Edelman tells us she retired in February after 24 years with the paper, but she’s still writing for them on a freelance basis and continuing to break education stories.

🔥 Melissa B. Taboada has started her new gig as the editor of The Great Divide, and she hopes to keep up the work they’ve done with accountability journalism, data-driven stories, and features. “The focus has been on examining inequities and opportunities in education and I hope to continue pursuing such stories,” she tells us.

🔥 ProPublica’s Aliyya Swaby shares some words of wisdom in response to Ko Bragg’s Columbia Journalism Review piece on the exploitation of sources: “I’ve tried to push back on editors who demand quick turns that I can’t meet without leaving out certain voices or doing a poor job representing certain communities. But this problem is systemic and needs us to change how we think about readers/sources.”

 

Events

What just happened & what’s coming next?

ABOVE: In case you missed it, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a big feature earlier this month called The same four walls about how the pandemic has upended life for one family with three children who have significant special needs. Reporter Kristen A. Graham and photographer Heather Khalifa spent a year following the family. “I wouldn’t say all this — online learning, everything — has grown on me, but it’s all we have,” mother Syrita Powers said.

⏰ Congrats to the staff at The Hechinger Report, which celebrated its 11th birthday this week!

⏰ Check out the Louisville Courier-Journal’s new education newsletter, The Hall Pass, written by Olivia Krauth. In its first edition, out this week, Krauth introduces herself and explains the push against critical race theory in Kentucky classrooms. Lots of education reporters are writing about this topic now, and Adam Harris, a higher ed reporter and author of “The State Must Provide,” writes for The Atlantic on how the GOP became fixated on it.

⏰ Education reporter Naomi Martin participated in a Boston Globe event for young journalists on May 10 about how to choose sources and use them appropriately.

⏰ The San Antonio Report launched its three-part event series on education on Wednesday, with the first event focusing on the $18 billion in federal relief funds intended for Texas schools. The next two parts will be on June 30 and Aug. 11.

Kicker

Even after a year of remote learning, the digital divide remains a problem for many school districts. The Verge published a map this week showing just how stark it is.

That’s all, folks. Thanks for reading!

Read more about The Grade here. You can read all the back issues of The Grade’s newsletter, Best of the Week, here.

By Alexander Russo with additional writing from Michele Jacques and Colleen Connolly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexander Russo

Alexander Russo

Alexander Russo is founder and editor of The Grade, an award-winning effort to help improve media coverage of education issues. He’s also a Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship winner and a book author. You can reach him at @alexanderrusso.

Visit their website at: https://the-grade.org/