Does education journalism need a ‘new’ Chalkbeat?

Journalists weigh in on whether the beat needs a new education-only outlet, what that might look like, and other ways to shake things up. 

By Andrew Bauld

There’s no shortage of great education reporting these days.
 
From hyperlocal coverage to big national stories, investigative to solutions-oriented journalism, outlets are covering the beat like never before.
 
But it’s been quite a while since the field has launched a national education-only outlet like Chalkbeat, the Hechinger Report, or The 74.
 
And, thanks to industry-wide layoffs and ever-changing foundation support, there are coverage gaps aplenty. As Minneapolis parent-turned-education reporter Melissa Whitler recently wrote in The Grade,  “There are times when I am the only reporter at school board meetings.”
 
So, what does the education beat need?
 
Is it more dedicated education coverage, like AL.com’s Alabama Education Lab model? Is it about building a network of resources to expand coverage, like what ProPublica is working on? Do we mostly need more journalists covering the topic? Or do we need another education-only outlet to bring some new approaches and practices in journalism into the beat?
 
Talking to a handful of veteran education reporters, I got a range of responses. Some of them wanted to see more deep, investigative-style journalism, while others wanted more local coverage. Some wanted to see a shift from covering the politics of education to covering what’s actually happening inside classrooms. And a few offered ideas for how to use new media, from podcasts to TikTok, to bring education stories to new audiences.
 
On the question of a new outlet, no one gave me an outright “no” — ­or an emphatic “yes.” But they all agreed that today’s education reporting needs changes.

All agreed that today’s education reporting needs changes.

The politics of education
 
“Education is key to preserving our democracy and addressing climate change, the biggest existential threat facing humanity,” according to former NPR education reporter Anya Kamenetz. “But there is very little comprehensive coverage of the education-climate intersection, and not much more about civics,” Kamenetz writes in an email.
 
Now focusing on the intersection of children and climate change, Kamenetz thinks the education beat is missing “in-depth education coverage that combines a deep knowledge of education with a deep knowledge of politics, and technology for that matter.”
 
But rather than creating another education-only news outlet, Kamenetz says she would rather see enhanced coverage of education across mainstream media, and she points to nonprofit co-publishing models like ProPublica and the Hechinger Report as examples to get there. (Hechinger recently launched a climate newsletter.)
 
See: Climate and schools: The biggest education story you’re probably not covering
 
New voices in coverage
 
Jesse Holcomb doesn’t write the news, but he closely follows it. The journalism researcher has written several studies over the years on the challenges the education beat faces and what audiences are craving.
 
Holcomb says that innovation, research, and development in the news is always a good thing, though he’s seen less of it over the last five years. And while he’s all for experimentation, he cautions that any new outlet must stick to the fundamentals, “which is delivering a product and service that is essential to communities and that they can’t get anywhere else,” he writes in an email.
 
What topics would Holcomb like to see getting more coverage? Teaching and learning, especially teaching labor, he says. And a focus on finding new voices.
 
One of the big takeaways from his 2022 report was the need for new voices featured in local coverage. Two years later, his opinion hasn’t changed much. “It’s difficult logistically to get unfettered access to students, but it would be wonderful to see children’s voices centered in more coverage (not necessarily all coverage).”
 
See: Schools coverage should serve parents’ needs, says journalism researcher

Above: In an interview earlier this year, Holcomb shouted out Detroit’s Outlier Media, Signal Cleveland, and Resolve Philly.

Coverage that encourages action

The Emancipator launched just over two years ago. While it doesn’t exclusively cover education, it’s an excellent model for rethinking what a new education-only outlet might look like.

Anti-racism and equity are the focus at The Emancipator, and it should be a driving force for any new education coverage, says Frankie Huang, a senior editor at The Emancipator. “In my opinion, that’s the cornerstone of any education outlet, seeing as racism is attacking the education system in this country,” she says.

And, borrowing from The Emancipator’s own philosophy, Huang believes more needs to be done in education coverage to get people to act. “Just look at what’s happening in Florida,” she says as an example. “It’s being reported on by various outlets, but maybe still not with enough alarm or describing the stakes with enough specificity or making it clearer for people what could happen to this country’s future if something isn’t done.”

Any new education outlet should be “one that is both very accessible but also calls people to action so that they know the future is unwritten.”

See:  5 elements of community-driven education coverage

Any new education outlet should be “one that is both very accessible but also calls people to action.” – Frankie Huang (The Emancipator) 

Getting inside the classroom

Veteran education reporter Emily Hanford knows something about how to tell the story of what’s happening inside America’s classrooms. Her hit podcast Sold a Story revealed the faults in how students have been learning to read, upending a teaching model that has persisted for more than a generation.

Hanford says that whatever a new education-only outlet might focus on, she hopes that it will shift the focus away from politics and controversy and instead really examine how things are being taught in schools.

“We need more focus on the actual doing of education, and not the doing to of education,” Hanford says. “I think we need more coverage of learning, and the connection to teaching.”

See: How to report from inside a school — even when they won’t give you access

More podcasts!?

Podcasts might be the perfect medium to bring audiences directly into classrooms. A few, including Hanford’s own and Chana Joffe-Walt’s “Nice White Parents,” have shown there is an eager audience for stories from inside the classroom.

“There’s an audience of people who crave narrative storytelling about education and in particular learning and the stakes in education and the real consequential conflicts, opposed to the screaming and yelling happening at school board meetings,” Hanford says.

But she also warns that while the field could certainly benefit from more in-depth narrative podcasts, those kinds of shows are also more time-consuming and expensive — something a new education outlet should take into account. 

“The difference between a really well-done podcast and a not-so-well-done podcast is big,” Hanford says, noting costs and expertise required. “You want to make sure you can do it well.”  

See: What happens when a non-traditional podcast fills in to cover school board meetings?

Using social media to reach younger communities

Whatever a new education-only outlet might look like, it would do well to think outside the box. And that means rethinking how its stories get delivered.

The Emancipator’s Huang says she thinks social media, in particular TikTok, offer astonishing “versatility and creativity” for people to drive home a point or tell a story. “It would be a mistake for a new outlet to only focus on traditional written articles when there are all these forms of narration.”

Huang points to The Emancipator’s new “social op-ed,” a highly produced and visual version of one of their stories. Recently, a post on the harmful stereotypes of Black women and Kamala Harris was very successful, not only getting clicks but actually getting people to learn something. 

“We’re trying to do that more with people who aren’t as familiar with longform articles,” Huang says. “It’s easier through social and packaging it in something that’s essentially flashier, and I can see other outlets doing it. It’s fast, it gets attention, and it reaches young people.”

Above, clockwise from top left: The Emancipator’s Frankie Huang, The 74’s Beth Hawkins, freelance education reporter Andrew Bauld, APM Reports’ Emily Hanford, former NPR correspondent Anya Kamenetz, and media expert Jesse Holcomb.

A willingness to confront readers
 
The 74’s senior writer and national correspondent Beth Hawkins says she is increasingly concerned about the lack of veteran beat reporters who are willing and able to tell readers things that they don’t already know or believe.
 
“As someone who haunts numerous online spaces where parents, teachers, and policy geeks interact, I am increasingly concerned that the rumor shared at a neighborhood school’s site council meeting increasingly trumps deeply reported material gathered by someone trained to sort fact from conjecture,” Hawkins writes.
 
Although she doesn’t know what the answer is, it seems that any new education outlet would do well to consider how to reach an audience not only bombarded by fake news, but in many cases one that wants to be told only what they want to hear.
 
As Hawkins shares, the reluctance to tell readers things they don’t believe or know about it is an issue that transcends political parties. “This is not a problem that accrues to one ideology or mindset,” Hawkins writes. “My neighbors increasingly want their ‘news’ to reinforce their existing beliefs — and are increasingly prone to writing off serious journalism that doesn’t do that.”

“My neighbors increasingly want their ‘news’ to reinforce their existing beliefs.” – Beth Hawkins (The 74)
 

After talking with these journalists and others, I’m still not convinced another education-only outlet is necessary.

What the beat seems to need most is more reporters, both experts in education but also those from other backgrounds to inject new perspectives.

The next big thing isn’t an outlet at all; it’s trying new and different approaches.

And those approaches could be stitched throughout any outlet’s education reporting.

Andrew Bauld is a freelance education reporter based in Brooklyn, New York. His writing regularly appears in the School Library Journal, US News and World Report, and Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Ed. Magazine.

Previously from The Grade

Cover kids, not schools (2023)
In San Diego, an alternative approach to education news (2024)
Candor, urgency, & action: How to transform the education beat (2023)
Hope, agency, and dignity: How the education beat could save journalism (2022)
Education journalism is stuck. What’s holding it back?  (2022)
Rethinking K-12 education coverage for the post-pandemic era (2021)