Last-minute CDC guidance, de-catastrophizing teacher shortages, & inspiration from Erica Green: 🏆 Best Education Journalism of the Week 🏆 (8/12/2022)

In this week’s newsletter: The CDC finally released its updated COVID guidance, though many schools eased restrictions long ago. You might be surprised to see how Florida teachers really feel about new laws limiting instruction about gender, sex, and health. Two RAND experts offer tips on how to produce more accurate teacher shortage stories. And ICYMI read and watch New York Times reporter Erica Green’s inspiring words from last month’s EWA awards.

CDC PLAYS CATCH-UP
The big story of the week, according to us:

The big story of the week is the CDC’s release of updated school safety recommendations, which had been floated more than a week ago. Belated as they may be — roughly half of American schools are already open — it’s good to know that the agency recommendations no longer call for people to quarantine if they’ve been exposed to the virus but haven’t tested positive. Random testing of people without symptoms is no longer recommended. The general tone of the guidance supports as much uninterrupted in-person school as possible. However, the agency is still recommending people who test positive isolate for at least five days, and they are encouraging people to mask up indoors where COVID rates are high. While not unexpected, as the New York Times notes, the guidelines are “a sharp move away” from the polarizing measures earlier in the pandemic. (See also Chalkbeat, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The 74,  CNN.)

Other big stories this week: As back to school continues, some Bay Area schools are scrambling to hire teachers. Others like Clark County, Nevada, are ramping up security. In California, a new law has gone into effect mandating later start times for teenage students though it’s causing new headaches.

Also: For students heading to college this year, instructors are finding many of them are way behind and “academically malnourished” from two years of pandemic learning in high school. In Missouri, a quarter of school districts — many of them small and rural — are testing out four-day school weeks. (Great thread from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Blythe Bernhard here.)

UNFAZED FL TEACHERS; WANING VAX MANDATES
The best education journalism of the week, according to us:

🏆 BEST: The best story of the week is Florida’s new parental rights laws annoy but don’t faze these teachers by Jeffrey Solochek in the Tampa Bay Times. We’ve seen a lot of dramatic coverage of these controversial new laws, often featuring teachers who feel like they can’t speak out and will have to make major changes in what they teach. But too few reporters have checked in with everyday teachers who aren’t already vocalizing their views publicly. In this piece, Solochek does just that and offers somewhat of a counter-narrative. Reporting from inside a Florida school as kids head back for the first day, Solochek describes how teachers for the most part don’t feel that the new laws are changing the way they teach. One first grade teacher noted that they already review classroom libraries to make sure books are age-appropriate and have never taught about sex and gender in kindergarten through third grade — and never planned to. She didn’t feel the laws were necessary. However, the teachers Solochek interviewed also don’t feel trusted and respected as professionals, and are frustrated that they have to defend themselves against accusations they have hidden agendas. Solochek’s story may seem less flashy than others, but it’s an important story to tell and I wish more reporters and editors would take this approach.

Other recent counter-narratives: Conservative rural Texas rebels against school choice. A handful of schools including one Fresno high school are bringing back cell phone bans. Berkeley schools are fully staffed, and so are Los Angeles Unified’s. (See more about teacher shortage coverage below.)

🏆 RUNNER-UP: This week’s runner-up is School vaccine mandates for Covid-19 are not happening by Rachel Cohen in Vox. As Cohen reports, student vaccine mandates were once a hot-button issue that seemed to be spreading. But now? Only Washington, D.C., is requiring vaccines for students 12 and over. Cohen looks at why and comes up with a range of perspectives. For one, it seems many districts don’t want to court controversy by mandating student vaccines. Another reason is that a lot of kids still aren’t vaccinated, and the FDA still hasn’t fully approved vaccines for kids under 12. A mandate would potentially keep vulnerable kids out of school. And lastly, Cohen says, indifference is playing a role, too. No agency or major advocacy group is pushing for vaccine mandates for kids — and parents aren’t either. “Even teacher unions — which were influential in shaping school reopening decisions in the 2020-21 school year — have not staked out youth vaccination as a dealbreaker for safe in-person learning,” writes Cohen. This is a very policy-focused story, but it’s important to trace the evolution of thinking and to explore a range of factors playing a role, including both scientific knowledge and politics.

BONUS STORIES:
🏆 The Massive Effort to Change the Way Kids Are Taught to Read (TIME)
🏆 1 in 5 Homeless Students Left School Since the Pandemic. Can Funding Help Find Them? (EdWeek)
🏆 Some RI school districts not saying whether COVID dollars are spent (WPRI)
🏆 Oakland School for the Arts Students Shared Allegations of Sexual Misconduct. Then Chaos Broke Out (KQED)
🏆 For Students’ Academic Recovery, It’s Acceleration vs. Remediation (US News)
🏆 Period equity expands in Texas as Austin schools provide free pads and tampons (Texas Tribune)
🏆 The Excruciating Echo of Grief in Uvalde (New York Times)
🏆 The Unclear Future for Gifted-and-Talented Education (Wall Street Journal)

RECONSIDERING THE TEACHER SHORTAGE CRISIS
New commentary from The Grade

Above: ABC News and other national outlets keep pumping out stories about a national teacher shortage, but researchers, practitioners, and even education reporters have questions.

While national news outlets including the Washington Post and ABC News have featured stories about a catastrophic shortage of teachers, researchers, former practitioners, and even some education journalists are raising questions about how the story is being covered.

Among news outlets, questions about the true nature of the teacher shortage are being covered by Hechinger Report, The 74, and Chalkbeat, whose story about the topic notes almost a third of vacancies reported last year were for newly created roles and that there isn’t much evidence at this point to support the notion of an unprecedented crisis. “When American students return to school, the vast majority will be greeted by a classroom teacher,” noted Matt Barnum in the story.

Concerns about teacher shortage coverage are numerous, but one particular problem has been the misuse of survey data responses where teachers are asked if they intend to stay or leave the classroom. In a new piece for The Grade, RAND researchers Elizabeth D. Steiner and Sy Doan wrote Your teacher shortage stories are all wrong; here’s how to improve them, describing the dangers of relying on teachers’ and principals’ self-reported intentions to leave their jobs when only about a third of teachers who indicate they want to leave actually do so the following year.

Steiner and Doan, who recommend that reporters ask tough questions about the teacher survey data they are using: Do they reflect actual departures? Are they current? And are they representative?

Follow @alexanderrusso for thought-provoking commentary on education journalism all day, every day.

PEOPLE, JOBS, & AWARDS
Who’s doing what, going where

Above, clockwise from top left: The Washington Post’s Lauren Lumpkin, former EWA honcho Kim Clark, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Liz Navratil, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Maddie Hanna and Oona Goodin-Smith, and The 74’s Asher Lehrer-Small.

🔥 Job moves & anniversaries: The Washington Post’s Lauren Lumpkin is moving over from her higher ed beat to cover DC Public Schools. Former EWA deputy director and ed finance guru Kim Clark announced she’s joining the staff of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance as an associate editor. The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Liz Navratil is moving from the City Hall beat to the higher ed beat. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Maddie Hanna isn’t leaving the paper, but she is going on maternity leave and tells us to follow Oona Goodin-Smith for ed coverage in the meantime! And Asher Lehrer-Small is celebrating his two-year anniversary at The 74. “The college kid who wouldn’t let himself dream of pursuing writing for a career, thinking it was too outlandish, would be very proud right now,” he tweeted.

🔥 Awards: The PBS NewsHour student reporting lab won a national Edward R. Murrow award for their podcast on teen mental health. The good folks at WLRN and Florida Public Media won for their Class of COVID project. And KVPR’s Soreath Hok won for her investigation into districts juking student participation statistics during remote learning (a story that I wish more reporters had covered). Congrats to all!

🔥 Job openings: The Austin American-Statesman is hiring a K-12 reporter. EdSource is hiring an editor. WISH-TV in Indianapolis is hiring an education reporter. Check previous newsletters for more jobs that may still be open.

PODCASTS, STUDIES, & EVENTS

Above: For APM Reports, former charter school teacher DJ Cashmere went back to his old “no excuses” school in Chicago.

⏰ Podcasts: Check out APM Reports’ new audio documentary from DJ Cashmere about his time teaching at a Chicago charter school serving mostly Black and brown students and the reckoning both he and the school has since gone through (above). EdSurge is out with a three-episode podcast series on why students quit college. EWA public editor Emily Richmond says goodbye — for now — to EWA Radio, handing over the mic to Kavitha Cardoza while she’s doing a Spencer education journalism fellowship.

⏰ ICYMI: Chalkbeat New York and The City teamed up for a discussion on literacy, reading instruction, and more on Wednesday. Chalkbeat’s Alex Zimmerman moderated.

⏰ Reports & studies: A new report from Education Next shows that there have been significant gains in student achievement over the last half century, especially for students of colors — until recently. Startling new CDC data says, “one in 15 male and one in 50 female high school students reported carrying a gun for nonrecreational purposes at least once during the preceding 12 months.” The annual Kids Count data book was released, noting a rise in anxiety and depression among young people in the pandemic — and a few bright spots (see reporting from WBUR Boston, CT Mirror, Mercury News, Oregonian). And a new study out of Massachusetts, where Boston held onto its mask mandate far longer than most districts, showed that removing mandates last year resulted in COVID case rates significantly higher for students and staff. However, most teachers are against mandatory masking.

⏰ Upcoming: EdSource is hosting a roundtable on Aug. 18 about what teachers and administrators can do about bad student behavior. And thinking about attending ONA22 in person (or virtually) next month? I see some great panels already that might be of interest to education journalists: Covering Latino/a/x Audiences: Best Practices for Journalists, The New News: How Solutions Reporting Can Build Audience and Generate Revenue, and Listening to People Who Don’t Trust You To Reach New Audiences. You can view the full schedule here.

THE KICKER

“This goes out to the beat reporter who was treated like the stepchild of the newsroom,” said the New York Times’ Erica Green in her moving EWA award acceptance speech.

“This goes out to all the beat reporters who were told it was a stepping stone to something bigger, but knew there was no greater calling than writing a story that will shape the next generation of citizens in this country. This goes out to the beat reporter who was told their stories were not as important as the news of the day and wrote them anyway.

“This goes out especially to the beat reporters of color who are underrepresented in newsrooms, who sometimes their lived experiences are not as valued as the degrees of their colleagues.

“This goes out to every beat reporter who knows that we don’t just cover a beat, but what we do is a calling. After 12 years that call is just as strong in me as it was my first day.”

That’s all, folks. Thanks for reading!

Reply to this email to send us questions, comments or tips. Know someone else who should be reading Best of the Week? Send them this link to sign up.

Using Feedly or FlipBoard or any other kind of news reader? You can subscribe to The Grade’s “feed” by plugging in this web address: http://www.kappanonline.org/category/the-grade/feed/.

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 Colleen Connolly.