You might be surprised to hear about a news outlet starting a new education project — without outside funding — but that’s exactly what’s going on. Launched in September, the Christian Science Monitor has launched a new education section, called EqualEd.
It’s being headed by Yvonne Zipp with the help of longtime education reporter Stacy Teicher Khadaroo and others. The Twitter handle is @CSMEqualEd and email newsletter.
What makes EqualEd different is that it’s an in-house effort produced by veteran education reporters and former teachers who, according to Zipp, “had the sense that we were writing the same headlines over and over again.”
They were sick of writing stories about the achievement gap not just because it was repetitive but also because that kind of journalism wasn’t making a difference. “It’s not fixing it,” said Zipp in a recent phone interview.
So Zipp et al went back to the drawing board and came up with Equal Ed, which Zipp describes as a solutions-oriented deep dive into what’s working in education that might help making it clear to general readers that there are “people doing great programs” out there.
When top editors approached Zipp about how she would approach the topic of inequality, she jumped at the chance. Part of the inspiration for Zipp came in the form of her son’s friend Noah, who barely missed making the score needed to get into a gifted program in Kalamazoo, where she lives. Zipp’s son just missed the cutoff, too, but Zipp was told by teachers how to file an appeal and had the time to do so. And so Nate got into the program and Noah didn’t. “Nobody talked to [Noah’s mom], and no teacher stepped forward to explain,” said Zipp.
The page was planned over the summer and launched in September, and the effort includes a partnership with the Hechinger Report. “We’re trying to bring these ideas to a more general readership,” said Zipp. “Schools are not failing, and are not all broken, there needs to be a counter to that narrative,” according to Zipp.
A Louisville story about replacing recess with modified meditation caught a lot of readers, she said, as did a story about the rise in the number of African-American families homeschooling their children.
“Tired of hearing about failing schools and the broken US education system? So are we,” announces the introduction page. The CSM section is “all about giving voice to constituencies that often aren’t heard. It’s about making connections and helping those outside of education better understand barriers that can keep young people from reaching their full potential.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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.
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