Covering technology-based education efforts is one of the biggest and most challenging aspects of being an education reporter. The issues are complex. The realities are not always entirely clear. The promise is great, but the real-world effect can be much less than expected.
Here are some of The Grade’s pieces about this difficult challenge:
REMOTE LEARNING (2020-)
To cover remote learning effectively, go narrow and deep (Wayne D’Orio)
“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.”
No, asking questions about remote learning isn’t ‘teacher bashing’
“Education reporters and outlets have highlighted schools’ struggles to reach vulnerable students and distribute necessary equipment. A series of major newspaper editorials have raised concerns and questions. A New York Times oped published last week claimed that school had effectively ended for most students when school buildings closed down in mid-March.”
Remote learning has been a mess. Writing it off will only make things worse.
“Writing off remote learning fails to credit the schools, systems, and educators who may have — against enormous odds — managed to provide a robust remote learning program and stave off learning losses. It exonerates districts that have failed to create even a minimally viable remote learning program. And it gives journalists and others an out from the important work of gleaning important lessons from remote learning results, successful or otherwise.”
EDTECH IN GENERAL (2015-2020)
Edtech coverage, the hype cycle, and media complicity (featuring Doug Levin)
“My wish is just for a more balanced consideration of pros and cons, costs and benefits, and an attempt to get at basic questions like where does the money come from, what did they spend it on, and what happened?”
Thoughts on education journalism (featuring Audrey Watters)
“What we have often seen throughout the long history education technology is mechanization, standardization, and commercialization, and importantly, the exacerbation of inequalities.”
The New York Times wrote a big story about online learning in Kansas. It didn’t go well.
“As it turned out, a 12-year-old middle school student who reported seizures after her school started using Summit wasn’t actually participating in the program.
Problems with the New York Times’ Google takeover story (Richard Lee Colvin)
“Many factors shaping American schools are more powerful than the brand of computers and type of software students use: demographic change; economic inequality; the increasing demands of the labor market; the recognition that enabling all children to meet those demands requires greater personalization, which technology can facilitate; state standards that call for more emphasis on applying and communicating knowledge, not just memorizing it; and the fact that digitization has made traditional textbooks in print all but obsolete, allowing teachers and students to tap into limitless resources for learning.”
NPR’s Deeply Unbalanced Profile Of Rocketship Charter Schools
“Critics (most of them Rocketship supporters) suggest that the NPR piece may not have painted a fair and complete picture of the network, focusing almost exclusively on the challenges it’s experienced without much context.”
AltSchool, Media Hype, & the Dilemma of Innovation Stories
“There are two problematic approaches to writing about education I see a lot of these days: one I’ll dub ‘hysteria,’ and the other I’ll call ‘hype.’ ”
The business of online learning: a blind spot in mainstream higher education coverage (2019)
“In the following Q and A, Carey tells how he came to tell this story and why the mainstream press hasn’t spent enough time reporting stories about the business of higher education. Mainstream outlets need to acknowledge their biases and up their games, according to Carey.”
Edtech coverage, the hype cycle, and media complicity (2018)
“There’s not much middle ground these days when it comes to discussion about education technology. Folks either like education technology a lot or they think that it’s ruining education (and coming to take teachers’ jobs). This makes it all the more important to have smart coverage of what us wonks like to refer to as ‘edtech.’ Alas, the experts I’ve talked to in recent months are in desperate want of more nuance and pragmatism out of mainstream coverage.”
In praise of the New Yorker’s AltSchool story (2016)
“Mead’s piece displays a healthy mix of curiosity and skepticism about the model, which its founders tout as a possible way to transform public education for all students. The piece gets at the gap between the model’s ambitions and the current reality of what can be done using personalized learning. And it catches us up with some of the pesky logistical obstacles and human foibles that can get in the way of the best-laid vision.”
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/
