Immigrant students, getting kids’ views on school violence, & remembering Fazil Khan: Best Education Journalism of the Week (3/1/24)

In this week’s newsletter: Immigrant students are giving some districts a much-needed enrollment boost at the same time that some schools are struggling to meet their needs. The Boston Globe gives us the student-centered story we needed about violence at Brockton High School. Four veteran reporters give great tips on how to find parent voices on deadline. And Fazil Khan, a promising young journalist at the Hechinger Report, is remembered after dying in a tragic fire.

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS

The big story of the week

The big education story of the week is the unexpected mix of challenges and benefits created by large numbers of immigrant students arriving in American schools.

From Denver to Charlotte and many places in between, the arrival of newcomer students challenges schools to enroll and serve English learners (Sentinel Colorado, Chalkbeat Detroit, WFAE Charlotte, Denver 7).

But the places where immigrants are arriving are not well understood or evenly distributed nationwide (Bloomberg). And the arrival of immigrant students is taking place in the middle of a heated political battle over immigration reform, misleading claims about immigrant crime, and an economy fueled by recent immigrants (Washington Post, NBC News).

For tips on covering immigrant students, we gathered advice from nine reporters and experts. See also this recent decision from local news stations in Colorado to change the language they use when describing recent arrivals. For a great story about immigrant students, check out this one from Chalkbeat Colorado charting a day in the life of two recently arrived immigrant students and look at the best stories of the week (further down).

Other big stories of the week:

📰 MOURNING NEX BENEDICT: Vigils were held across the country after nonbinary Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict died after being involved in a school fight, though it’s not clear yet whether the fight directly caused their death (NPR, Rolling Stone, 19th News, Boston Globe, NBC News). Stirring controversy, Oklahoma schools chief Ryan Walters defended policies that would prevent discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools (New York Times). Advocates have accused Walters — who recently appointed Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik to the state’s library media advisory committee — of fostering a hateful environment (Washington Post). For more on covering LGBTQ youth, read Noah Berlatsky’s 2022 piece for The Grade on misleading coverage of trans youth.

📰 BUDGET WOES: Between enrollment dips that have yet to bounce back — if they ever will — and the fast-approaching end of ESSER funds, district budgets are facing tough decisions (The 74, Signal Cleveland, Ideastream Public Media). In some districts, that means potential teacher layoffs (Lookout Santa Cruz, Voice of San Diego, inewsource). In others, there are whisperings of future school closings and mergers (Miami Herald, Dallas Morning News, KERA). For more on how to cover school closings, read our column from January from Tim Daly. We’ll have more upcoming pieces on covering the funding cliff.

KIDS’ VIEWS ON SCHOOL VIOLENCE

The best education journalism of the week

The best education story of the week is ‘There’s just not enough resources’: In wake of violence, Brockton High students say school needs more teachers, from Deanna Pan and Christopher Huffaker of the Boston Globe.

The story centers on the largest high school in Massachusetts, which has recently been the subject of reports about school violence — usually told from the perspective of teachers, school committee members, and state officials.

Pan and Huffaker don’t dispute those reports, but they do complicate them by talking to students. Several corroborate the idea that Brockton can feel lawless and unsafe. But they also describe how recent headlines downplay or ignore the school as a place where kids strive academically, athletically, and in their extracurriculars. And they question the school’s investment in disciplinary systems over additional staff, arguing that more adults would make for a safer learning environment.

“We need to be more resourceful with the money that we are getting and put it into actually getting teachers,” one sophomore told the reporters.

The story serves as a strong argument for including student voices in education stories — and avoiding the tendency to over-focus on adult reactions to student misbehavior. See also this 2021 piece from The Grade by a New York City high school administrator about narrowly reported stories on “student misbehavior.”

Other great education stories this week — and why we like them:

🏆 Lucas Brady Woods places one Venezuelan family — two little girls and their parents — at the center of this thoughtful radio feature about the central importance of finding housing for new immigrants entering Denver’s school system (KUNC). The story is the last installment in the station’s series about housing insecurity among Colorado schoolchildren. 

🏆 A text message chain and internal complaints form the backbone of this detailed Jakob McWhinney investigation about a predatory male teacher at a San Diego middle school and the district’s repeated failures to get him out of the classroom (Voice of San Diego). 

🏆 For his story about cuts to NYC’s preschool budget, Troy Closson talked to multiple families across the city who planned their lives around the now-retracted promise of free childcare. As the application period for next year’s spots closes, we hear from parents who are paying more for childcare than rent and others considering leaving the city (New York Times). 

🏆 With a fresh angle on the declining enrollment story, Melanie Asmar reports on two Denver elementary schools whose consolidation defied expectations and improved the daily experience of students and staff (Chalkbeat Colorado). 

🏆 With humor and detail, Kristen Graham profiles a cadre of dads at a K-8 school in Philly who self-organized to serve as crossing guards, playground monitors, and snow shovelers in the wake of remote schooling (Philadelphia Inquirer). 

REAL PARENTS, REAL FAST

Our latest columns and commentary

It’s one thing to want to include parent voices in your coverage. It’s another thing to know where to find them — especially on deadline.

That’s why we asked freelance writer Andrew Bauld to gather practical tips on finding parent voices from education journalists including Laura Testino, Sarah Carr, Patrick Wall, and Jill Tucker (above, clockwise from top left).

It’s not easy compared to finding educators or advocates, but these journalists describe how they found parents for their stories — and how you can, too. Doing so will change your coverage for the better.

Note: This is the fourth in our new series on parent-centered education coverage. (See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). We previously interviewed Testino about her efforts to ground her coverage in parent perspectives a few years ago.

PEOPLE, JOBS

Who’s going where and doing what

🔥 In memoriam: Hechinger Report data reporter Fazil Khan tragically died in a fire in New York City. “Fazil was a treasure. Funny, kind, and not at all impatient with our off-beat requests and ideas (and we had plenty of those…) We will all miss him so much,” wrote his colleague Christina Samuels. “I don’t know that anyone has ever made that positive a first impression on me anywhere,” wrote his supervisor Sarah Butrymowicz. His death was covered by other outlets, including Gothamist and Documented NY. He’s the second talented young education reporter to pass away in recent years, after Virginian-Pilot reporter Sierra Jenkins died in 2022.

🔥 Kudos: Congrats to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Daarel Burnette II and everyone else named as Maynard 200 Fellows of 2024. “As usual, Asher Lehrer-Small is showing everyone else how it’s done,” wrote his Houston Landing colleague Clare Amari about Asher’s story showing that only 50 HISD students — out of a promised 1,000 — are getting internet hotspots from the district. “Great accountability follow up from the TPIA king.”

🔥 Career moves: The 74 named Christian Skotte, who previously led Grist’s audience and product teams, as its new director of audience and growth. Skotte’s hiring comes after the outlet promoted Emmeline Zhao to chief creative officer. “So much of how we now tell stories as journalists and consume news as civilians is rooted in visual and interactive elements, as well as engagement with the audience and community — which is where this new team and roles come to play,” Zhao tells us. “We want to make sure that we’re doing work that is not only relevant and impactful, but that truly resonates with our audience.”

Sound-off: 

🔥 “It’s actually insane that my entire timeline is just journalists announcing their layoffs and freelance journalists lamenting that none of their pitches are being commissioned,” The 74’s Sierra Lyons posted on X. “This isn’t the industry I envisioned when I was graduating college less than 3 years ago.”

🔥 “I held a fake press conference with 4th and 5th graders, and they couldn’t stop asking questions,” wrote Megan Menchaca about a recent career day school visit. “Strongly recommend this if you need some hope about journalism’s future.”

🔥 Job openings: WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is still looking for an education reporter. The South Bend Tribune in Indiana is hiring an education reporter. See previous editions of this newsletter for more jobs that may still be open.

Above: Check out this interactive dataset from The 74 showing the growth of achievement gaps in every state.

APPEARANCES, EVENTS, & NEW RESOURCES

What’s happening and new research

⏰ Segments & appearances: NPR’s “All Things Considered” featured a remote learning program aimed at helping young refugee kids in the Middle East. NPR’s “Planet Money” dug into the secret world behind school fundraisers that turn kids into salespeople. Brian Lehrer’s show on WNYC looked at anti-trans laws enacted across the country. Boston Globe Great Divide reporter Christopher Huffaker was on WBUR’s “The Common” to talk about what’s been going on at Brockton High School, where school committee members wanted to bring in National Guard troops. And Boston freelance education reporter Linda Wertheimer was on WXXI News’ podcast “Connections” to discuss prayer and religious instruction in schools.

⏰ Podcasts: Jane Tunks Demel and Christie Robertson are the two parents behind the new (to us) Seattle Hall Pass, a podcast about Seattle Public Schools featured recently in a Seattle Times editorial. They’re doing great work, including original interviews with district newsmakers. You can follow them @seattlehallpass.

⏰ Events: Be sure to catch NBC News’ Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton talking about their podcast “Grapevine” at SXSW EDU next week. The equity and justice panels also look interesting for education journalists. Any others that people shouldn’t miss? And in case you missed it, the Washington Post’s Laura Meckler made an appearance at the recent National Press Club event on the rise of homeschooling, and the replay is up this week. 

⏰ Collaboration: Chalkbeat is collaborating with the New York Times’ Headway initiative — launched in 2021 to “explore the world’s challenges through the lens of progress” — to talk to high schoolers and teachers ahead of the 2024 election. I’m curious to see what kinds of stories will come out of it.

⏰ Research: The Hechinger Report’s Jill Barshay digs into what researchers are criticizing about the science of reading. The New York Times and Chalkbeat looked at a collection of new surveys that found that teachers and teens largely feel that LGBTQ issues should not be taught at schools and that opinions are split among both Republicans and Democrats. And, according to a USC national survey, Americans would rather spend money to fix public schools than give that money to low-income families as vouchers to attend private schools.

THE KICKER

“omg YAYYYY! We made it, y’all!! 📻✊,” tweeted WLRN South Florida education reporter Kate Payne on her #NPRmageddon debut — a rite of passage for audio reporters.