Invisible kids, nice white journalists; favorite pieces from The Grade in 2020

Eight favorite pieces from The Grade during 2020

By Alexander Russo

Out of an enormous number of columns, reported pieces, and first person reflections published during 2020, here are the pieces that I remember best and feel have had the greatest importance:

INVISIBLE KIDS

I’m proud of all the work we did commenting on pandemic coverage in 2020, but the piece I wrote about the media’s role in making vulnerable kids invisible — a reflection on Alec MacGillis’ New Yorker feature story — has to be the most important of them all:

“Sometimes, it feels as if MacGillis is writing not only as an individual but also on behalf of all of us who might have turned inward during the shutdown.”

NICE WHITE JOURNALIST

Chana Joffe-Walt’s Nice White Parents landed with a bang and has been on pretty much every best podcasts of 2020 list that I’ve seen, so it is great to remember that Tracy Tullis and I were able to interview her just after the series first appeared:

“I was aware that focusing on the pathologies of white parents risked centering white parents,” Joffe-Walt told us. “I tried to be precise in my arguments. I believe it’s important to name and document white parents’ inequitable and antidemocratic practices in schools. They are often unnamed and obscured.”

UNNECESSARILY ALARMIST COVERAGE

While many flaws could be forgiven during such an enormously difficult time for reporters, the biggest concern about education coverage I had during the pandemic has been needlessly alarmist depictions of school safety risks. 

“How to convey serious risks and strong emotions that surround the heated reopening debate and inevitable reports of school-based infections without unnecessarily (or misleadingly) fanning readers’ fears?”

THRIVING THROUGH A PANDEMIC

Some of my 2020 favorites are pieces that also attracted lots of readers, such as Aaricka Washington’s amazing first-person essay, How to survive being laid off from your first newspaper job:

“I don’t know what my future will look like. But if there is one thing I know from working at the Statesman, it’s that I have the ability to write stories and work on projects that impact communities. I have the talent to do amazing things. I know that I will not only survive this pandemic, but I can also thrive through it.”

REPORTERS ON RACE

Race has been an ongoing topic of The Grade’s work well before this past summer’s Black Lives Matters protests, but the reflections from 9 education journalists about their newsroom experiences and reflections on their coverage was among the most powerful for me:

“Some declined, and others wrote long, impassioned responses. I learned a lot from their insights, and I appreciated their candor.”

A NEWSLETTER TO THE RESCUE

In a year full of heavy topics and polarized debate, it was great to be able to write about bright spots and silver linings such as the unexpected and extremely welcome appearance of the New York Times education newsletter:

“It does an impressive job helping readers make sense of what’s going on in a complicated, fast-moving environment. It provides a calm, steady look at an extremely intense issue and a particularly challenging story to cover.”

IMPROVEMENTS AT THE WASHINGTON POST

In 2020 as in previous years, I’ve spent a lot of time fielding complaints about the Washington Post’s education coverage and giving unsolicited suggestions for improvement, so it was great to realize just recently that, while challenges remain, the local and national coverage both seem stronger of late: 

“In recent months, the paper’s K-12 coverage has been noticeably stronger, aided perhaps by the guidance of interim education editor Kathryn Tolbert and the pairing of two veteran journalists on national coverage.”

NEW ADMINISTRATION, NEW CHALLENGES

Covering a new administration is exciting and challenging for reporters, but, given previous experience, I was glad to be able to highlight the importance of coverage that finds a middle ground:

“There’s a long, somewhat lamentable history of flawed education coverage during transitions and the early months of a new administration. But neither the hostile coverage of Trump and DeVos nor the soft coverage of Obama and Duncan served readers well or the public very well.”

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