Dismal NWEA news, reconsidering the ‘education myth,’ & a prescient SNL skit: Best Education Journalism of the Week (7/14/23)

📌 Note: This week’s newsletter includes some stories and news from the 4th of July week. 📌

In this week’s newsletter: NWEA scores tell a dismal story. The surprising reasons behind New York City’s surging graduation rates from a newly minted education reporter. How journalists perpetuate an unhelpful myth about the power of schools to address social inequality. A new crop of Report for America education reporters begins this week. And a 2010 SNL skit reminds us of the origins of fear-generating journalism. 

 

DISMAL NWEA NEWS

The big story of the week

The big education story of the week is the new NWEA scores that show that most kids are not only not catching up to where they used to be, they’re often making less progress than they would have during pre-pandemic years (Associated Press , USA Today, Chalkbeat, The 74, New York Times, Axios, Oregon Public Broadcasting). 

The abundant media coverage indicates a growing understanding of the significance of these and previous results. And the insights from experts and observers bring home the alarming results. (CRPE’s Robin Lake calls what’s happening now a slow-moving train wreck) 

For a handful of folks, the new scores generated some self-reflection and urgency. “I really seem to have guessed wrong about this,” writes longtime blogger Kevin Drum. However, I haven’t seen much reflection or response from Democratic leaders or education system heads — or much effort from journalists to point out the massive disconnect between the slow-moving train wreck happening in too many schools and the cartoonish school culture wars that elected officials and political candidates (and news outlets) are focusing on. 

Other big education news stories of the week:

📰 SCHOOL CHOICE: As school choice bills sweep much of the nation, parents are increasingly showing interest. In Indiana, the school choice voucher program grew 20% last year (Indiana Capital Chronicle/The 74). In Iowa, more than 29,000 students applied for the controversial education savings account championed by Gov. Kim Reynolds (Des Moines Register). But not everyone is on board: In Pennsylvania, a proposal for a new state-funded voucher program failed to make it into the budget (Chalkbeat Philadelphia). 

📰 NEW MATH IN CA: California’s State Board of Education passed a new math framework calling for big shifts in how the subject is taught — mainly weaving in things like history and social justice and teaching problem-solving and relevance of math in daily life before immediately jumping into memorization and math drills (EdSource, Education Week). Not all are fans of the change. School leaders and parents — especially of academically high-achieving kids — are worried about the new framework discouraging algebra before high school, among other things (LA Times, SF Examiner).

 

AN ‘NX’ FOR NYC

The best education journalism of the week

The best education journalism of the week is Amanda Geduld’s NYC’s rising graduation rates bucked national trends. A little-known grading policy may hold clues. for Chalkbeat NY. The story describes the impact of little-understood state and local policy changes that allowed New York students who didn’t complete classes to receive an “in progress” grade called “NX” — rather than the F they would have in the past — and to graduate from high school whether or not they passed those classes.  

Little known before the pandemic, the DOE’s NX incomplete grades became widely adopted during the pandemic and eventually spread to roughly a third of NYC’s high school students — about 95,000 kids — with higher percentages for students of color, students in temporary housing, and students with disabilities. 

Though I would have loved to have students’ experiences foregrounded, this is an important, thoroughly reported piece based on previously unreported DOE data obtained by Chalkbeat and the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, FOIA requests, and surveys of two dozen teachers across 17 different schools. 

Geduld is a former NYC teacher and pursued the story as a journalism student at Columbia. She has a new story on the rise in homeschooling from her perch at The Maine Monitor, and you should follow her here.

More great education journalism of the week:

🏆 Despite billions of dollars in federal education aid, students are behind in reading and math (Wisconsin Public Radio)

🏆 Sacramento has 7 dual-language grade schools. What happens when students go to junior high? (Sacramento Bee)

🏆 Who’s Afraid of Moms for Liberty? (The Free Press)

🏆‘Racist,’ ‘grooming’: Why parents are trying to ban so many picture books (Washington Post)

🏆With affirmative action gone, California shows what may come next (Christian Science Monitor)

🏆 How Sac State fostered a diverse student body without the help of affirmative action (Sacramento Bee) 

🏆 Wisconsin schools that went remote for longer saw expanded gaps in graduation rates (Wisconsin Public Radio)

🏆 Bus stops and play­grounds are too damn hot (Vox)

🏆 Former NU football player details hazing allegations after coach suspension (Daily Northwestern)

 

THE ‘EDUCATION MYTH’

Our latest columns and commentary

Journalism has often perpetuated the idea of education as the primary way to address social inequality, writes UW’s Jon Shelton in our latest column. But that idea has proven woefully inadequate — and mainstream journalists are finally starting to take notice.

“Most major media outlets have accepted uncritically the claim that education represents the best path to economic opportunity,” writes Shelton, citing ideas such as universal college attendance as an example. 

“How can education be the answer [to growing economic inequality and insecurity] if educational attainment at both the high school and college level has increased at the same time as our income gap continues to get wider and fewer people can make ends meet on a day-to-day basis?”

It’s bracing stuff for education-focused journalists to consider, but important and helpful. 

 

TEACHERS EMBRACING AI

Coverage of promising school innovations & signs of progress

💡 Rather than take the usual alarmist approach, this refreshing review of classroom uses of ChatGPT shows how the technology can improve learning and ease administrative burdens of the teaching profession (Washington Post).

💡 This thoroughly reported story about universal pre-K in Boston is flattering without being gushing, pointing to evidence that suggests the program has been successful while cautioning against applying Boston’s approach wholesale to jurisdictions with different politics and values (HuffPost, 7/8). See also this Globe piece from 2022, which shows that Massachusetts as a whole still has much to improve when it comes to pre-K.

💡 Colorado initially lagged in its efforts to send more people with intellectual disabilities to college, according to this piece, but the state has made progress in the last seven years — to the benefit of both students and their home communities (Colorado Sun).

💡 This story about how urban design can create spontaneous play-based learning opportunities for kids isn’t afraid of diving into the research, but makes the studies accessible with colorful anecdotes — one of which is quite funny (The 74, 7/6).

Read more about the importance of covering promising innovations and preliminary successes.

 

Above, left to right: This year’s new crop of Report for America reporters include the Henrico Citizen’s Liana Hardy, NJ Spotlight News’ Hannah Gross, and the Mississippi Free Press’ Torsheta Jackson. There are 34 corps members listed for the education beat this year, including the newbies and those extending. Congrats and welcome to all!

PEOPLE, JOBS

Who’s going where and doing what

🔥 Career moves: The Wall Street Journal’s national education reporter Ben Chapman is leaving “the best education reporting job of all time” to return to California. Former NPR intern Sierra Lyons is The 74’s newest editorial fellow. EWA’s Emily Richmond is back on the job after her Spencer Fellowship. Five years ago, we interviewed her about being EWA’s nontraditional public editor.

🔥 Job openings & deadlines: Apply for Ben Chapman’s old job as a national K-12 reporter at the Wall Street Journal. EdSource is hiring a senior reporter. Education Week is hiring a new staff writer to cover school leaders. And apply by July 17 to be part of the Solutions Journalism Network’s Journalists of Color Fellowship, which includes a nice stipend, leadership training, and more.

🔥 Counter narrative: The Voice of San Diego’s Jakob McWhinney tells an important story this week about the “incredibly unanimous” SDUSD school board, delivering the story we’ve been waiting for. “Not only is it an interesting counter-narrative to the divisive meetings we often see,” McWhinney tells us, “but I think it’s important to examine how boards operate as a way to ensure they’re diligently performing the oversight and management with which they’re charged.” 

🔥 Kudos: The Providence Journal’s Amy Russo recently praised a free weekly outlet called The Valley Breeze’s for its coverage of a recent superintendent decision, describing the value of its “persistent shoe leather reporting” during the process. It’s rare to see such praise about a rival outlet in print!

 

Above: For some more stark figures of the impact of the pandemic, take a look at this chart published in the Washington Post showing that chronic absenteeism increased in every state after the pandemic.

APPEARANCES, EVENTS, & NEW RESOURCES

What’s happening and new research

⏰ Segments: PBS NewsHour ran a segment on student learning gaps worsened by the pandemic and the struggles to close them despite the influx of federal aid. The Atlantic’s Adam Harris was on MSNBC talking about the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in college admissions. Founding NJ Spotlight editor John Mooney was on WNYC to discuss a new collaboration on the lack of racial and economic diversity in New Jersey’s public schools.

⏰ Books: Chalkbeat editor Cara Fitzpatrick’s forthcoming book “The Death of Public Schools” (coming out Aug. 22) received a rave review in Publishers Weekly, which praised it for its “lucid and thorough study of a hot-button issue.” The Washington Post’s Laura Meckler’s new book about school integration in Shaker Heights, Ohio, is also set to come out at the end of August. And journalist Laura Pappano has a book coming out in January on the far right’s attack on education and parent activism.

⏰ Conferences: NAHJ is happening this week in Miami! We see that ed journalists from Chalkbeat and more will be there, and tomorrow there will be an event on 10 education stories you should cover right now. Are you going? Let us know. Coming in early August is NABJ in Birmingham. EWA is offering two sessions there, featuring AL.com education editor Ruth Serven Smith and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution education editor Eric Stirgus. 

⏰ More events: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Maureen Downey will sit down with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on July 17 to talk about local and national education issues. The next day, the Washington Post’s Hannah Natanson will answer questions about school book challenges, which she’s been closely covering. And in case you missed it, Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea joined a panel yesterday with education leaders to talk about Chicago’s shift to an elected school board. 

⏰ Research: Wisconsin Public Radio wrote up a recent UW-Madison study showing that schools that went remote longer saw expanded gaps in graduation rates. The Hechinger Report’s Jill Barshay looked into the research on Black college students who want to be teachers but end up taking a different path. A new article in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management points out that school resource officers reduce some forms of violence in schools, but “intensify the use of suspension, expulsion, police referral, and arrest of students,” especially for Black students, male students, and students with disabilities. An ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that more people approved rather than disapproved of the Supreme Court’s rulings on affirmative action and student loans. A new study looks at how early aspirations to become a teacher diverge among white students versus students of color. And a FutureEd report shows that 29 states require or provide training for teachers in the science of reading. 

THE KICKER