Reopening California, grading the EWA awards, an education angle for police shootings: Best education journalism of the week (4/16)

Related coverage: Kids are returning to classrooms. But what will happen to those who stay at home? (Washington Post)

🏆 RUNNER-UP: This week’s runner-up is This Northern California school district reopened classrooms five months ago. The results may surprise you by Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle. Tucker has challenged the Bay Area’s school closures in her reporting throughout the pandemic, and this story is no exception. She looks at a Bay Area district that isn’t the wealthiest or most privileged but nonetheless managed to open months before other nearby districts, including Oakland and San Francisco. How did they manage it? Tucker puts it bluntly: “Reopening has been less about money and more about listening to experts and overcoming obstacles based on a belief that reopening was an essential part of public education.”

Related coverage: How Two Cleveland Schools Stayed Open Through the Pandemic (The 74)

To get daily education headlines and education news events, follow @thegrade_.

🔊 A Small Wyoming Town Has Attracted Families Looking For In-Person Special Education (NPR)

🔊 Online Schools Are Here to Stay, Even After the Pandemic (New York Times)

🔊 Richard Carranza’s Last Stand (New York Magazine)

🔊 Why Public Schools Shouldn’t Offer a Remote Option This Fall (New York Magazine)

🔊 A Teacher Marched to the Capitol. When She Got Home, the Fight Began (New York Times)

For other big stories this week, see Media Tidbits two sections below.

Sadly missing are some of last year’s biggest stories, including Chana Joffe Walt’s breakout hit podcast “Nice White Parents” and Alec MacGillis’ masterful “Children Left Behind By Remote Learning” for ProPublica.

But the 15 winners include some breakout stars like the Boston Globe’s Bianca Vázquez Toness, some surprise winners like the Washington Post’s Hannah Natanson, and much-deserved recognition for Marianne McCune’s amazing “Two Schools in Marin County” podcast.

Congrats to all. You can read my take here.

“The best stories I’ve seen are the ones that illuminate a small aspect of a technology-aided instructional effort rather than attempt to cover the entire endeavor superficially,” D’Orio writes, citing stories in the Seattle Times, The 74, and USA Today.

Read remote learning coverage insights from D’Orio and other reporters here.

📰 DEFINING TERMS IN EDUCATION JOURNALISM: In response to the Marshall Project’s new Language Project examining the words used to describe people behind bars, the Boston Globe’s Sarah Carr tweeted, “This kind of deconstruction of language would be very useful on the education beat as well. Consider the commonly used: ‘emotional impairment,’ ‘at risk,’ ‘drop out,’ and so many more.” Carr’s right. One big issue has been the use of the word dropout to describe kids who aren’t attending or participating in school. Another has been the phrase learning loss, which some feel stigmatizes kids and overemphasizes standardized testing. Most of all, we need more careful use of the phrase “school reopening,” perhaps by specifying whether it’s full time, in-person, live instruction, five days a week. Often it’s not.

📰 WHEN THE LA TIMES FOLLOWS THE 74: This week the LA Times’ Howard Blume wrote about LAUSD’s slow, cautious reopening shows the influence of the teachers union. The story follows The 74’s coverage of the inside negotiations between LAUSD and the teachers union, Court Documents Reveal How L.A. Teachers Union Gained Upper Hand. Both versions highlight parent opinions, but the LAT leans more on the opinions of parents who are hesitant to send their kids back. The 74 focuses on parents who filed a lawsuit for the slow reopening.

📰 “SOME PERSONAL NEWS”: It’s hard to get a handle on how many journalists are leaving the education beat, voluntarily or otherwise. The circumstances aren’t always clear, along with whether the position is going to be filled by someone else or closed permanently. But Poynter has just launched a new series called Some Personal News, which tells the stories of the people who left a newsroom job during the pandemic. And one of the first stories is about a journalist who worked at Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Even closer to home, just this past week Virginia-based education reporter Claire Mitzel announced that she was laid off from the Roanoke Times. “It was such an honor to work for my hometown newspaper for a year, tweeted Mitzel. “I’m mad and sad — not for myself, but because the community deserves better than this.” Higher ed reporter Henri Gendreau also announced his departure from the paper along with several other colleagues. He tweeted, “I’m devastated for them and the community, and grateful to @TimeslandGuild for delaying the inevitable + for securing notice + more generous severance.”

🔥 Also: Juliana Kim says she’s moving from the New York Times metro desk, where she reported education stories (including a memorable piece about remote schooling for English learners), and moving to Nashville to be an education reporter for public radio station WPLN. Newsday alum and NJ native Catherine Carrera is heading to Newark to be Chalkbeat’s first bureau chief. Lee Gaines is leaving Illinois Public Media to join WFYI’s new education team. She’ll be joined by Dylan Peers McCoy, who is leaving Chalkbeat Indiana.

🔥 But that’s not all! Texas Public Radio alum María Méndez will be the new K-12 reporter at the Austin American-Statesman. Méndez tweeted that “education has been vital to my success as a first gen. immigrant and college grad, but I know that’s not always the case for others. I hope to look at access, equity and help others navigate the often complex education system.”

🔥 Looking for more education writers to follow? Try Christina Veiga at Chalkbeat NY, Linh Tat at LA Daily News, and Asher Lehrer-Small at The 74. Veiga had a surge of strong stories on early childhood education this week, including examinations of a de Blasio childcare program that is under enrolled and over budget and the racial and economic gaps in NYC’s free pre-K programs. Tat came on last August, replacing Ariella Plachta, and the Daily News’ coverage is a helpful complement to the LA Times and KPCC. Lehrer-Small wrote a great story (with a personal connection!) about an educator fellowship in Rhode Island that’s elevating paraprofessionals and diversifying the teacher workforce. He’s got Emily Richmond’s vote for #tellEWA: “Asher may be a New to the Beat rookie, but he knows how to craft a snappy read.”

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⏰ Upcoming: The Globe has an event on April 19 called How Can Schools Better Reach Their Most Vulnerable Students This Spring?, featuring some of the student and teacher sources in Bianca Vázquez Toness and Jenna Russell’s stellar yearlong project on a class of immigrant students trying to stay caught up during the pandemic.

⏰ The deadline to apply for an EWA reporting fellowship — you could get up to $8,000! — is today. You can apply here.