Among education news outlets and teams that share information, racial diversity ranges from 29 percent to 70 percent of full-time editorial staff.
By Alexander Russo
For the past five years in particular, the journalism industry has been trying to diversify newsrooms. Education journalism is no different.
As we begin the 2021-22 school year, where do things stand?
Twenty percent of education journalists who participated in the 2021 survey from the Education Writers Association (EWA) identify as Hispanic/Latina(o), Black/African-American, or Asian.
That’s about the same as the 22 percent of those who responded to the 2019 industrywide Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey who identified as people of color.
As for the largest and most influential education news teams and trade outlets, The Grade requested racial diversity information as we’ve done every year since 2016. You can see last year’s update here.
For 2021, we found a wide range of racial diversity among those who responded, and an ongoing reluctance to share information from larger outlets.
Here is the latest information, from the most racially diverse to the least:
Note that the information below was provided by each outlet and uses the language (“non-white,” “of color”) that was provided.
LA Times: Five of seven (71 percent) identify as person of color.
KPCC Los Angeles: Five of eight (63 percent) identify as Black, Latinx, Asian American, Native American or something other than white.
Seattle Times: Sixty percent identify as journalists of color.*
Dallas Morning News: Three of six (50 percent) identify as journalists of color.
Chalkbeat: Nineteen of 44 (43 percent) identify as journalists of color.
WSJ: Two of five (40 percent) identify as Black.
USA Today: Two of five (40 percent) identify as people of color.
WBEZ Chicago Public Radio: Two of five (40 percent) identify as non-white.
Education Writers Association (EWA): Five of 14 (36 percent) identify as people of color.
Hechinger Report: Six of 19 (32 percent) identify as Black/African American or Asian/Pacific Islander or Hispanic/Latino.
Education Week: of 11 of 36 (31 percent) identify as people of color.*
Boston Globe: Two of seven (29 percent) identify as a minority.
NYT: Does not participate.
Washington Post: Does not participate.
NPR public radio: Does not participate.
WNYC public radio: Does not participate.
Philadelphia Inquirer: Does not participate.
The 74: Does not participate.
EdSource: Does not participate.
AL.com Education Lab: Does not participate.
If you have any questions about this information, let us know and we will put you in touch with the news outlet in question.
*In some cases, it was not possible to obtain the total number of staff.
Previously from The Grade:
Diversity in education journalism 2020; not nearly good enough
Education journalism has yet to make good on changes identified during the George Floyd protests
Education and race: 9 journalists reflect
Covering communities that are not your own; a reporter reflects
Just how white is education journalism? (2016)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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/
