HANNAH-JONES INSPIRES
Wednesday’s big event was the lively conversation between the Wall Street Journal’s Chastity Pratt (center) and the New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones (right), with a special introduction from the Times’ Erica Green (left).
First, Green introduced Pratt and Hannah-Jones, pointing to Pratt’s first-person piece about finishing her work during a pandemic. Then Pratt took over. You can skim #EWA20 @nhannahjones for a slew of quotes and insights from Hannah-Jones. If you are a registered participant, you can watch a replay of the event and read the comments here.
For me, the central thrust of Hannah-Jones’ remarks were (a) the crucial importance of the upcoming potentially-catastrophic school year for vulnerable students’ lives and (b) the inequalities and racial structures that are everywhere in the education system once you start looking for them.
“We are in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime story,” Hannah-Jones reminded us. “Students are depending on you to ensure they are not being robbed” of an education. “If you ever doubted if your work was important, this is just an amazing time to be an education reporter.”
On the topic of white reporters covering Black communities and schools, Hannah-Jones said said that reporters need to study the structures and history of racism in schools “in the same way you gain expertise how testing works or learn how to read a budget.” Understanding the racial architecture of education isn’t something reporters “know or don’t know based on osmosis.” But studying up is especially important if the reporter’s own personal experience of school is completely different than the schools she’s covering.
As for this week’s top story, parents podding together to supplement or replace school system offerings, “you don’t write it as a damn feature story” or write about pods from a middle class perspective. The pods story should be an equity story, addressing the impacts on the kids who are left behind, and — there’s lots of disagreement about this on Twitter — parents’ individual decisions should not be considered sacrosanct, according to Hannah-Jones.
TODAY’S EVENTS
*There are some great panels coming up today, including this one at noon Eastern on inequality and COVID-19, moderated by the Dallas Morning News’ Eva Maria Ayala and a 1:00 PM Eastern panel on reopening scenarios moderated by The Texas Tribune’s Aliyya Swaby.
*There are several good options at 2:30, including panels moderated by KQED’s Ki Sung (on hybrid programs), NPR’s Anya Kamenetz, NPR (on SEL), and Chalkbeat’s Jason Gonzales (on higher ed).
*At 3:30, there’s another great “How I Did the Story (P-12)” session, featuring insights from Sonali Kohli, Los Angeles Times; Corey Mitchell, Education Week; Lindsey Seavert, KARE 11 News (Minneapolis), and Aallyah Wright, Mississippi Today (moderator).
CONFERENCE TIDBITS
*The replay of the members’ meeting from Tuesday is frustratingly still not available, though recordings from other sessions are. For example, you can watch the replay of Erica Green and Wes Moore and Kristen Graham (moderator) from Wednesday afternoon here, or the “how I did this story” session featuring Mila Koumpilova, Sarah Carr, Dahlia Bazzaz, and Stephanie Daniel (moderator) here.
*There were some more awards handed out, of course. The collaboration between the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica was named the best overall education story for 2019, and Sonali Kohli of the Los Angeles Times was named as the best education beat reporter in the country. In addition, EWA announced that the Boston Globe won the “Eddie” prize for its examination of how race and class affected the career paths of The Valedictorians. You can see the announcements and read the full text here.
*Watching the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools panel on inequality and COVID-19, I was reminded just how little substantive coverage of charter schools we’ve seen in recent months. No, PPP funding, rebranding, or internal disputes over Black Lives Matter don’t count. Yes, they’re a funder of The Grade. A substantial portion of kids in many big cities attend charters rather than traditional public schools, and it’s possible that charters have provided remote learning in ways that would be useful for readers (and traditional districts) to know about.
*EWA’s Emily Richmond noted that there was a virtual celebration of @EdWriters’ New to the Beat class of ‘20 who have now *officially*left the rookie nest. “I wish it could have been in person but this happy memory pic is a good stand-in.)”
*Yes, it’s true. #EWACatCaucus is a thing, as you can see from all the cat pictures featured on the #EWA20 timeline:
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/
