In this week’s newsletter: School shootings, newcomer immigrant students, and childcare make Tuesday’s VP debate. The sad story of the honor roll student who can’t read — and probably isn’t the only one. Not being a full-time education reporter might be ProPublica reporter Alec MacGillis’s hidden superpower. An education reporter’s harrowing escape from Hurricane Helene. And a story from The 19th’s Nadra Nittle debuts on “Last Week Tonight.”
THE ‘MEH’-DUCATION DEBATE
The big story of the week
The big education story of the week is the discussion of childcare, school gun safety, and newcomer students at Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. It was a big improvement over last month’s presidential debate — and apparently as close to discussion of core education issues as we’re going to get this year.
Childcare got the most air time, and both candidates surprisingly overlapped on some key points. They both believe the federal government should provide more cash assistance to families, for example, but their ideas on what that looks like — and whether all parents or just mothers are the prime beneficiaries — differ (New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post).
On school gun safety, the winning line was probably Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s “sometimes it just is the guns,” refocusing the discussion on weapons over schools. Walz advocates measures to prevent school shootings, while U.S. Senator JD Vance (Ohio) wants to add more police to schools and make “doors lock better” (EdWeek, Chalkbeat, The Hill, USA Today).
Immigrant students also got a brief mention from Vance, who said they’ve “overwhelmed” K-12 schools. Walz responded by saying that Vance and the Trump campaign’s rhetoric about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, led to the need to “send state law enforcement to escort kindergartners to school” (EdWeek).
Other big stories of the week include temporary school closings in the wake of Hurricane Helene, the NYC schools chancellor abruptly reversing course on the proposed cell phone ban in schools (just as he’s on his way out), and more districts considering school closures. Check out @thegrade_ for daily headlines!
ON THE HONOR ROLL, BUT SHE CAN’T READ IT
The best education journalism of the week
The best education journalism of the week is This Hartford Public High School grad can’t read. Here’s how it happened. by CT Mirror’s Jessika Harkay.
Harkay methodically lays bare the heartbreaking case of 19-year-old Aleysha Ortiz, a recent high school graduate who spent her entire career in Hartford schools, only to emerge unable to read or write.
It’s rare that a journalist gets intimate access to a student’s records and interactions with a school district, but Harkay uses hour upon hour of Ortiz’s recordings of meetings with district personnel to tell a jaw-dropping story of educational neglect.
Through Harkay’s reporting, Ortiz emerges as both a victim of a dysfunctional bureaucracy and a resourceful teen who figures out how to get by. Though she spent her entire school career with a special education plan, the district never provided her with direct reading instruction. She can’t read most one-syllable words other than those she’s memorized during karaoke or from TV subtitles. She uses voice-to-text and records classes to fully absorb lessons. Despite her difficulties, she’s attending college part-time this fall.
Much of what we learn about Ortiz is via her attorney, who calls her story one of the “most shocking cases” of educational neglect she has seen in 24 years. Harkay’s clear writing and sensitive handling of Ortiz’s case can’t mask the anger that simmers beneath the surface. The district comes off as detached and a bit clueless, which should make readers — including reporters! — wonder how many other Aleysha Ortizes are out there.
In related news, check out Rose Horowitch’sThe Elite College Students Who Can’t Read, about high-achieving students who lack the stamina to read complete books.
Other education journalism of the week we liked include stories about the fifth-grade teacher behind an MCAS ballot initiative (Boston Globe), longstanding problems in Milwaukee schools (Journal Sentinel), a 45-year-old contract that’s making NYC students wait for school buses (NYT), and a tragic story of teens and fentanyl in Wisconsin (ProPublica).
THE MACGILLIS EFFECT
Our latest columns and commentary
This week’s new piece is an interview with a part-time education reporter who — in case you hadn’t noticed — has been putting out memorable stories about kids and schools for the last four years: How ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis dominates the education beat.
To be clear, MacGillis doesn’t dominate the beat the same way that national education reporters do. His pieces only come out once in a while. Folks who follow education closely won’t necessarily learn a lot that’s new.
But he encapsulates what’s happening on key education topics — school closures, teen mental health, chronic absenteeism, learning loss — and he isn’t afraid to connect these challenges to the effects of the prolonged school closures during the pandemic.
He’s careful to credit national education reporters who put out big stories much more often than he does. But “sometimes it helps to be able to come to a subject with a fresh perspective, unencumbered by long-held assumptions or obligations to various official sources.”
Want to listen rather than read? Feel free to check out this creepy/amazing AI-generated snippet from the interview.
Above: So glad to see that Hechinger Report reporter Jackie Mader and family are safe after a harrowing journey following Hurricane Helene. Her account generated an enormous response.
PEOPLE, JOBS, & EVENTS
Who’s going where and what’s happening
📰 Career moves & anniversaries: The Wall Street Journal’s Melissa Korn is leaving the higher ed beat after 10 years to be deputy bureau chief with the paper’s media team. (Keep an eye out for a job posting for her old gig soon!) The latest in a long line of print reporters moving to broadcast, former AL.com Ed Lab reporter Trisha Powell Crain is headed to Alabama Daily News and Alabama Public TV. Ed reporter Cory Turner celebrated 20 years at NPR — and was recently celebrated by the station’s public editor for his FAFSA fiasco coverage. And former ed journalist Brianna Sacks, reminds us with this Helene story how important it is to report on why something happened.
📰 Podcasts, segments, documentaries, & TV shows: In a second segment, WBUR “On Point” host Meghna Chakrabati, ProPublica reporter Eli Hager, and others dissect lessons from Arizona’s universal school vouchers. On WBUR’s “Here and Now,” WUNC’s Leoneda Inge reports on the uptick in enrollment at HBCUs after the Supreme Court outlawed affirmative action. Season 1 of Hulu’s sitcom “English Teacher” sends up school culture wars and got a nice segment on NPR this morning.
📰 Research & resources: At least half of states have yet to release results from state tests that students took last spring — signs of a trend in delayed release dates. More than half of states have taken steps to ban or restrict cell phone use in schools, according to Axios (see a great map here). And 50CAN released a 200+ page report on the state of education opportunity in the U.S. (See here for an AI podcast recap, thanks to John Bailey.)
📰 Sound-off: Journalists “need to go and report and see things and places,” says Ta-Nehisi Coates in a New York Times Q&A. He describes going to a conservative school district in South Carolina where his book was being challenged, only to find a roomful of folks opposed to the ban. How’s that for a counter-narrative?
THE KICKER
We saved the best for last
“OMG my dinner just dropped out of my mouth seeing this,” writes The 19th editor-in-chief Julia Chan about this shoutout on “Last Week Tonight.” “Nadra Little’s story, everyone!!”
That’s all, folks. Thanks for reading!
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By Alexander Russo with additional writing from Colleen Connolly.
