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BEST OF THE WEEK


There’s something going on in Minnesota, but teachers there can’t agree on how to solve it.

Erica Green’s NYT piece about disparate school discipline in Minnesota seems like it was written a long time ago, but it was really just a few days. And it could probably be written again several more times in the future. As Green writes, “Last year, districtwide, black students were 41 percent of the overall student population, but made up 76 percent of the suspensions.”

As Green notes, “in Minneapolis, as in districts across the nation, discipline policies are more than a political flashpoint. They are a daily struggle to balance safety and statistics, and the uncomfortable truths about how race may be clouding educators’ perception of both.”

What you might not know is that some teachers from the state have lobbied to have the 2014 Obama administration discipline guidelines reversed. The debate over those guidelines is not nearly as simple as it may seem, especially when it comes to teachers’ views.

For more on teachers and implicit racial bias, check out a handful of 2016 articles: LA Times: Eye-tracking technology shows that preschool teachers have implicit bias against black boys, WashPost: Yale study suggests racial bias among preschool teachers.

For more on journalists and racial bias — yes, we’re part of the problem too — check out 7 resources to help education journalists avoid racial blind spots.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

#MarchForOurLives

🏆 Sun-Sentinel: Voices of Change

🏆 Vanity Fair: Inside the Secret Meme Lab Designed to Propel #NeverAgain Beyond the March

🏆 The 74: Organizers Expect Student-led ‘March for Our Lives’ to Bring a 500K Protestors to DC

🏆 60 Minutes: Students calling for change after the Parkland shooting

🏆 KQED: Gun Violence Isn’t New to These Oakland Students

🏆 Miami Herald: Parkland rally held against chilling backdrop

INEQUALITY

🏆 NYT: Sons of Rich Black Families Fare No Better Than Sons of Working-Class Whites

🏆 NPR: Forget Wealth And Neighborhood. The Racial Income Gap Persists

🏆 PoliticoNY:” De Blasio has means, if not will, to reform specialized school admissions.

🏆 WNYC: The Roots of the Diversity Crisis at NYC’s Elite High Schools

🏆 NYT: Cinderella Story? It’s True for U.M.B.C. in Academics, Too

🏆 PBS NewsHour: To reduce chronic absences, Cleveland focuses on positive family support

🏆 Edsource: CA tops in suspension reform, but still not properly targeting disparities, report says

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

🏆 The 74: FBI Says ‘No Indication’ Obama-Era Rules Factored Into Parkland Shooting

🏆 NYT: School Officials Wanted Florida Gunman Committed Long Before a Massacre

🏆 AP: Some wanted Florida suspect committed in 2016

🏆 WashPost: School resource officer rushed to stop gunman at Maryland high school

STRIKES & TEACHER PAY

🏆 NPR: The Fight Over Teacher Salaries: A Look At The Numbers

🏆 EdWeek: Fed Up With Low Pay, Oklahoma Teachers Prepare to Walk Out

🏆 NYT: Their Pay Has Stood Still. Now Oklahoma Teachers Could Be the Next to Walk.

MISC.

🏆 Longreads: The Billionaire Philanthropist

EBONICS 1996: WHEN CONTROVERSY SWAMPS JOURNALISM


Clinton education secretary Richard Riley was one of many who opposed the Oakland school proposal to teach students using Ebonics

Twenty-two years ago, media outlets tried — and collectively failed — to cover the controversial Oakland public schools proposal to use African-American English to teach standard American English.

As some may recall, there was an enormous uproar over the notion of schools sanctioning the low-status dialect in the classroom. But there was also a deep misunderstanding about the district’s proposal. And news coverage couldn’t keep up with the wave of editorials, oped pieces, and cable news coverage. According to Stanford linguist John Rickford, who supported the proposal, “the media refused to focus on this massive evidence of how schools fail to teach African-American students with existing methods.”

Why revisit the controversy over using Black English to help children learn standard English? Because it’s always worth gleaning lessons from how education journalism stands up at key moments. And because the debate could re-emerge any time. Kids who can’t code-switch still need help, and schools in California, Michigan, and Texas have quietly returned to using a “bi-dialectical” approach for some students.

PEOPLE, JOBS, & AWARDS

🔥 “Public records may sound abstract and boring,” writes Oregonian education reporter Bethany Barnes. “But they are a critical way we as a society learn about institutions that play an intimate role in our lives.” Barnes is the recipient of a national FOIA award for her work at The Oregonian.

🔥 Earlier this week, PoliticoNY’s Eliza Shapiro talked about Stuyvesant High School in NYC and other specialized, test-in schools on WNYC on Tuesday. She’s been all over this story.

🔥  In case you missed it (as I did), relatively new Fresno Bee education reporter Mackenzie Mays was attacked by town officials for her coverage of Fresno Unified schools. I’m curious if/how the situation got resolved.

🔥  “Thanks for reaching out, but unfortunately I rarely if ever do stories on specific edtech products or apps, so I’m afraid this is not a good fit for me to cover.” According to Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum, that’s “literally the most common email I write.”

🔥 On Twitter, Nikole Hannah-Jones rebutted folks who were asserting that poor outcomes for black boys are related to culture. “That people would ascribe these results to “black culture” proves exactly why these gaps maintain.” In person at a Memphis panel, Hannah-Jones talked about school segregation and other issues of the day (like the $15/hour minimum wage).

🔥 This Atlantic senior editor job is probably the biggest education journalism job out there right now — still open, far as I can tell. You should go for it.

🔥 The hire hasn’t been named yet, but I have it on good authority that the Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief has been selected. I think I know who it’s going to be. They’re still looking for two reporters to staff the office and say they’re launching next month. More here. There’s also a posting for a half-time story editor.

🔥 The Ida B. Wells Society is looking to fill a new Program Manager position. The organization is dedicated to increasing reporters of color in investigative reporting.

🔥 Longtime education reporter Diane Rado was one of the folks affected by last week’s Chicago Tribune layoffs. The Denver Post layoffs have yet to be announced, but the paper has already been publishing Chalkbeat stories for a while now. Monte Whaley is the reporter assigned to cover education at The Denver Post.

MEDIA TIDBITS

📰 SCHOOL SHOOTING REMINDERS: How are you reporting on school shootings? Are you using Everytown’s flawed numbers, which counts all gun-related incidents that take place at schools, or are you going with something more accurate? Be sure not to exaggerate the numbers, and explain what your numbers mean, as The Trace has done. And think about why you’re showing — or hiding — graphic images that are being shared on social media.

📰 DANGEROUS STUDENTS FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS: The latest news about the Parkland killer have re-ignited the question of whether his treatment was a single-instance lapse, a flaw in the school’s discipline system, or a byproduct of the 2014 Obama guidance on school discipline. My own view is that the school’s lapses in addressing the situation and protecting students deserves more media attention, with or without any broader narrative. We need to know what happened at the school so that educators and policymakers in other places can react accordingly.

📰 WHITE MALE OVERKILL: USC education policy wonk Kate Kennedy took to Twitter to note the gender imbalance in the education policy world. I barged in about journalists using too many white male quotes in their stories. Kennedy responded, “Quotes also matter—I’ve seen prominent wonks tout their media mentions as currency. I’d sure love a call that wasn’t a robo.”

📰 EDBUILD EVERYWHERE: This NPR story about teacher salaries based in part on research provided by EdBuild prompted me to quip that the nonprofit was shaping up as the EdTrust of the 2010s. During the 1990s and 2000s, EdTrust was renowned for its ability to place stories and quotes. EdBuild has been racking up a similar slew of media mentions.

📰 CHANGING STORIES WITHOUT TELLING READERS: The NYT “routinely changes news stories—in some cases significantly—and then never discloses or explains the change,” writes Matthew Ingram in a new CJR article. More from 2016 on the Times’ problematic habit of post-publication editing of stories can be found here.

📰  J-SCHOOL INTERSECTIONALITY: The debate about the worthiness of J-school has returned to the headlines. In Splinter, Hamilton Nolan writes “J-School Is a SCAM.” In response, Slate’s Rachelle Hampton claims that J-school is a necessary evil for many minorities. “Breaking into these elite spaces is a necessity, and journalism school not only gives you access to professors with connections but also the future journalists who could put you in contact with your next hiring manager,” Hampton writes.

📰 REPORTING WHILE WHITE (& WELL OFF): While we’re on the topic of race and privilege, Katherine Boo shared some ideas last summer about how to write about people in poverty without being an oblivious jerk. Among the 15 (paraphrased) tips are “Memory sucks” and “To calibrate my compass as a writer, I share my work widely and not only with journalists.” Calling Jay Mathews!

EVENTS, DEADLINES, & ANNOUNCEMENTS

⏰ The Power of Narrative conference is happening this weekend in Boston. Follow along here at #PowerOfNarrative hashtag. The conference Twitter handle is @narrativeBU.

⏰  The Society of Professional Journalists Region 5 Conference is being held in Chicago April 6- 8, 2018.

⏰ EWA’s New to the Beat program can help if you’re new to the education beat. The deadline to apply is April 10.

⏰  Reveal is looking for its third cohort of diversity fellows, a 10-month program for up to five working journalists. Deadline is April 12.

⏰ The Education New Zealand Journalism Fellowship has an April 15 deadline.

⏰ Education reporters can get up to $8K to support reporting projects as an EWA Reporting Fellow. Proposals are due April 16.

KICKER

 

How three Chicago high-school teachers encourage minority students to consider a career in journalism.

THANKS!

That’s all, folks. Have a great weekend. Send any comments and suggestions to thegrade2015@gmail.com.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexander Russo

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.

Visit their website at: https://the-grade.org/