Education-related coronavirus coverage was extremely impressive last week, as many districts announced they would close.  But can education outlets and teams keep up with the complexities in this next phase of the crisis?

By Alexander Russo

It was a dramatic week for the world of K-12 education, culminating with the announcement that many of the nation’s biggest school districts would close (or stay closed after spring break).

As of Sunday night, 33 states had decided to close public schools. One of the last big district holdouts, New York City, announced that its schools would close early this week and stay closed until at least April 20. Several elected officials around the country have talked about the possibility that schools would stay closed for the rest of the school year.

Despite the obvious challenges, it was a week of very good work by the journalists tasked with covering the impact of the coronavirus crisis on schools — many of whom are simultaneously juggling their own parenting logistics and migrating from newsrooms to working from home. That’s especially heartening to see after the previous week’s coverage showed some weak spots.

But the pandemic isn’t over — far from it — and the challenges of covering the next steps are going to be even larger now that so many school systems are shut down and so many journalists are working remotely.

What are the stories that loom ahead or remain uncovered, and what are the challenges? How can education journalism continue to demonstrate excellence and value like it did last week — without endangering reporters and their families?

News outlets are going to need to focus on some of the most pressing aspects of this giant school shutdown experiment that is taking place — some of which aren’t strictly educational — and resist the urge to forefront the concerns of college-educated parents like themselves, whose views and experiences are so dominant on social media right now.

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Above: This March 4 New York Times overview of what closed schools mean around the world gives us a preview of what some other countries have been going through over the last couple of weeks — and perhaps some good story ideas.

Early on, coronavirus coverage was neither as abundant nor as insightful as it could have been, overly focused on the need to close schools as quickly as possible, without addressing potential downsides.

The nation’s K-12 schools serve roughly 50 million kids — more than double the number of college students — and employ millions of people, including both teachers and building staff. They also provide millions of meals for low-income students who might otherwise not get the nutrition they need, and care for students whose parents, including health care workers, cannot do their work remotely.

But the early coronavirus coverage seemed to treat the closing decision simplistically, downplaying the trade-offs and uncertainties. In addition, too many news outlets described the numbers of schools that had closed using raw numbers and charged language.

There were some bright spots, however, including a New York Times story that looked at the impacts of school closings around the world and EdWeek’s sober-minded story based on CDC testimony highlighting how schools should minimize disruption if at all possible.  Some of the more nuanced stories about closing decisions came from the Baltimore Sun and the Seattle Times. Perhaps the best example was the New York Times’ story about why NYC was considering closings only as a last resort.

Above: The EdWeek school closing map has proven to be invaluable since it first launched. 

This past week, reporters and editors produced a ton of impressive work covering this fast-moving, politically charged, and complicated story.

Some examples include the Washington Post’s overview of the push and pull between public health officials and school administrators and NPR’s story on the school closings quandary. The Seattle Times published a fascinating explainer on how the closing decision was made there.  The New York Times detailed the slow, confusing rollout of federal guidance and waivers, which forced superintendents into making a difficult decision on extremely limited information. EdWeek developed a continuously updated map of school and district closings and reopenings, which many have found invaluable. Chalkbeat hammered away at the challenges of closing schools as a response to the pandemic.

But the coverage wasn’t all about policy talk and bureaucratic wrangling. The Wall Street Journal featured a Rhode Island vice principal who found himself in intensive care after chaperoning a school trip to Italy. Chalkbeat profiled the Brooklyn art teacher who came back from Italy and worked with kids for days before anything happened. USA Today published a fascinating piece about what it’s like for parents of kids with students with disabilities when schools close.

If I had to single out one or two reporters, it would have to be the Seattle Times’ Dahlia Bazzaz and New York Times’ metro education reporter Eliza Shapiro. But there was no shortage of standout work being done in newsrooms large and small across the nation.

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Above: Just one of Dahlia Bazzaz’s strong Seattle Times stories from last week.

There were some missteps,  which signal challenges that could be problematic in the days ahead.

Over the weekend, there was a New York Times story about privileged parents — some of them journalists — pulling their kids from school in advance of school or district decisions to close schools. It’s a good topic for coverage and I’m glad it was assigned. But the piece lacked the voices of parents who couldn’t afford to pull their kids ahead of time. Nor were there the possible financial and political ramifications of more affluent parents hitting the “eject” button when things don’t go their way.

And a first-person ProPublica story posted Sunday morning focused on an editor’s child’s school remaining open despite possible exposure to the virus. The concern is totally understandable, but I’d argue that — especially in times like these — journalists are going to have to work extra hard to resist the instinct to emphasize their own experiences and focus on the voices of the majority and the most endangered.

But neither of these pieces came from education journalists, and thus far at least these kinds of snafus have been few and far between.

Above: This USA Today story focuses on the recent experiences of parents of students with disabilities who attend schools that have shut down.

Alas, there’s no time for anyone to rest on their laurels.  Covering the decision to close the schools may turn out to have been the easy part.

Starting today, many reporters are going to be working from home rather than in their usual newsrooms. They’re going to have to figure out how to keep themselves and their communities safe while doing field reporting. And many of them are going to be dealing with their own childcare struggles and concerns.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus story is going to shift focus from the relatively simple topic of “who’s going to shut down?” to the much more complex question of “how are schools going to serve kids who aren’t in school buildings?”

What does remote learning look like, from the district, classroom, and home perspectives — especially for those who lack computers and internet connections?

Will the promised meal options be up and running in time to help those who need it most — and will kids and parents make use of them?

How effectively are schools going to be able to provide childcare to frontline health care workers who need it — a critical issue in the decision to shut down schools in places like New York City and Connecticut?

Which if any states and districts have yet to shut their school systems down, and why?

What lessons, if any, can we learn from other places that have experienced systemwide school shutdowns in the past?

Covering this next stage of the crisis is not going to be easy. But if last week was any indication, education journalism is up to the task.

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/