Current and former education journalists look back and share lessons on the 5th anniversary of the start of the pandemic.
By Alexander Russo
Hard to believe it, but the pandemic came to America five years ago.
To mark the moment, The Grade is publishing a series of pieces about COVID coverage.
In this week’s installment, we asked education journalists to reflect on their experiences and share their insights.
As you will see, the respondents’ insights and reflections range widely.
However, their willingness to share what they learned could help improve coverage of future school crises.
Pictured, clockwise from top left: K-12 Dive’s Kara Arundel, The 74’s Jo Napolitano, former NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz, The 74’s Greg Toppo, ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis, former WSJ education reporter Ben Chapman, and the News Observer’s Keung Hui. These responses have been edited and condensed.
WHEN DID SCHOOLS GET BACK TO NORMAL?
“Spring 2022, when the masks started coming off.” – Anya Kamenetz
“When the schools finished their second full year of pandemic-era instruction, around June 2022.” – Ben Chapman
“It didn’t really feel like it was over until the start of the 2022-23 school year when all the face masks were gone and social distancing became non-existent.” – Keung Hui
“Honestly, there’s so much lingering fallout that I wouldn’t say that they’ve reached that point.” – Alec MacGillis
Honestly, there’s so much lingering fallout that I wouldn’t say that they’ve reached that point. – Alec MacGillis
CHANGED VIEWS OF THE CRISIS?
“I thought it would be a temporary disruption, perhaps for a month or until the end of the 2019-20 school year.” – Kara Arundel
“Initially, I (like many others) was under the impression that the virus was especially harmful for people of color… Over time, though, as the virus spread through more of the country, and as other factors came into play (such as vaccine avoidance) the pandemic’s demographic impact evened out more.” – Alec MacGillis
“Over time it became more clear that no one really knew how to effectively provide education during the pandemic.” – Keung Hui
“My biggest revelation was that journalists were somehow both over- and under-covering the pandemic, focusing stubbornly on just a few topics that seemed to stop making a difference after a while.” – Greg Toppo
“I kept expecting the cavalry to come. I expected some blue state or some blue city to take over vacant commercial spaces, pour money into outdoor learning, close bars and reopen schools — something innovative to give kids the essentials they need from in-person learning.” – Anya Kamenetz
“The release of NAEP scores in around 2022 stands out for me as a moment for when some things came into focus, in terms of what we lost in COVID.” – Ben Chapman
I kept expecting the cavalry to come. – Anya Kamenetz
WISHES AND REGRETS?
“I wish I had written far more about how unprepared schools were to make the transition to remote learning.” – Keung Hui
“I would’ve liked to have captured a portrait of the emotional aspects of COVID.” – Ben Chapman
“I wish I’d reported on long COVID in kids, because it remains a concern for many people.” – Anya Kamenetz
“There should have been more coverage of the schools that were managing to stay mostly open for in-person instruction starting in the fall of 2020.” – Alec MacGillis
I wish I had written far more about how unprepared schools were to make the transition to remote learning. – Keung Hui
SELF-ASSESSMENT?
“I think we did pretty well. We covered the issue based on race, class, socio-economic level. We wrote about kids with profound special needs, kids stuck at home with abusive parents, kids in urban centers and far off locations – and those who do not yet speak English.” – Jo Napolitano
“I’d give a C at best. We provided families with the information they needed about the logistics of the transition in and out of remote learning, hybrid learning and masking. But we fell short on anticipating the legacy of the learning disruptions that won’t go away for some students.” – Keung Hui
“I felt like I did some of my best work during that period. I think my colleagues did great work too. A lot of us experienced loss or trauma. It was something to be able to write about it, while it was happening.” – Ben Chapman
“I think too many education journalists default[ed] to the teacher or administrator perspective, rather than the true stakeholders — the students, parents, and society at large.” – Anya Kamenetz
“A for effort, B- for actual news that affected families.” – Greg Toppo
A for effort, B- for actual news that affected families. – Greg Toppo
LESSONS / RECOMMENDATIONS?
“My focus would likely remain on the ESL community as multilingual learners are often an afterthought despite their incredible size.” – Jo Napolitano
“I would be even more aggressive about getting out around the country to do reporting (within reasonable bounds) and even more aggressive about challenging received wisdom and official diktats by hearing out dissenting views and relying on common sense.” – Alec MacGillis
“I’d ask a lot more about how schools will handle the learning disruptions that will be caused by the pandemic. We were so caught up in the moment that we didn’t think as much about the long-term consequences of the changes that would be made to education.” – Keung Hui
“I would follow one school as they navigated instruction, student and staff needs, and policies from the start of another pandemic to the end (if there was one). I think it would be super interesting to document changes to approaches, what was influencing those changes, and the positive and negative impacts to staff, students and families in that school.” – Kara Arundel
“In the next pandemic, news orgs should refocus to cover communities more closely and concentrate on the things that are consequential for families, including solutions-oriented stories.” – Greg Toppo
“I did my best this time around. I don’t feel like I left much on the table.” – Ben Chapman
I would follow one school as they navigated instruction, student and staff needs, and policies from the start of another pandemic to the end. – Kara Arundel
Thanks again to the journalists who shared what they learned.
If you want to read some of the stories they thought exemplified their best work, check out Jo Napolitano’s piece about how to relate basic information to ESL students, Keung Hui’s learning loss story, Greg Toppo’s piece on families of color insisting on staying remote, Kara Arundel’s feature on a night kindergarten program that started during the pandemic to support working families, Ben Chapman’s piece about schools limping through that first year after COVID hit, Alec MacGillis’s feature on vulnerable kids left behind by remote learning, and Anya Kamenetz’s story about how emergency childcare centers stayed as safe as possible during lockdown.
Previously from The Grade
How the pandemic response destroyed the learning culture in one Baltimore school (Jennifer Gaither)
Complacency and inertia (MacGillis interview)
‘We could have been a lot louder,’ says NPR’s Anya Kamenetz
‘We wasted a lot of time:’ A veteran reporter reflects
A year’s worth of memorable K-12 COVID schools coverage
How media coverage turned vulnerable kids into an invisible threat
Even more: https://kappanonline.org/russo-roundup-covering-the-covid-19-crisis/
