By Alexander Russo
What a hectic month January was. Between the inauguration, the confirmation hearing process and all the rest, there was so much going on it seemed like there was breaking news every day. That made it hard for many education reporters to keep up with events, much less give context and tell us about longstanding issues. But there was some really good work – as well as some notably flawed outings – published in January:
📰 BEST
The biggest and arguably the best education journalism produced in January was the hour-long WBEZ Chicago Public Radio documentary, The View from Room 205, in which reporter Linda Lutton took us into a 4th grade classroom in an impoverished neighborhood to reflect on whether school reformers’ expectations of schools are realistic given the scale and depth of poverty kids like these are experiencing. Agree or disagree with her premise and conclusions, listeners will find it hard to argue with her reporting and storytelling abilities. Read Tara Garcia Mathewson’s fascinating review of the piece here.
Other highlights:
The Washington Post gave readers important context that other outlets seemed to leave out. For example, a story about the union organizing behind the anti-DeVos campaign, the Democrats picking DeVos and seven other nominees to try and block, and the reality check that Democrats were unlikely to be able to stop DeVos on their own (or at least it seemed so at the time). For context and insight, we thank you.
The Houston Chronicle’s Shelby Webb jumped on the newsy story of a Jordanian teen who was detained and transported to Chicago in the wake of the Trump Administration effort to keep out dangerous refugees. The Chronicle also kept chugging along with special education follow-ups to its massive 2016 expose like this one focusing on denial of services to ELL students.
There were also at least two important stories about the pushback against student discipline reform popping up around the country, including one from the Hechinger Report and another from EdWeek. Revamping school discipline has been all the rage for the past few years, but it’s not as easy as it might seem, and education reporters are telling the important, nuanced story.
📰 WORST
Alas, there was no shortage of problematic education coverage during January.
The worst coverage of the month has been the New York Times’ coverage of the DeVos nomination, which has been criticized by me and others for its homebrew way of evaluating Detroit charters and other problems. You don’t have to be a DeVos devotee to be uncomfortable with the oppositional tone and narrow focus. Though, to be fair, the NYT was not alone.
In addition, stories like this one in The Atlantic did a poor job explaining that charter schools’ role in school segregation is relatively new and minor compared to the long-standing and widespread segregation that’s been taking place in district schools’ neighborhood-based systems for decades now. A little more care and context, please.
Finally, it would have been so helpful and interesting if more reporters covering the DeVos confirmation process (outcome still unknown) had told readers ahead of time that Democratic senators were likely to try and block the vote through parliamentary maneuvers, or compared the HELP Committee Democrats’ failure to block the DeVos vote to their colleagues’ success on other committees. Overall, the DeVos confirmation coverage has been one step behind of events rather than a step ahead, and has often lacked insight into how Congress works.
It’s fine but not really distinctive in the age of Twitter for news outlets to tell us what’s already happened. What journalism can provide that nobody else can is some depth about recent events – for example the Democrats’ efforts to stall the vote via procedural moves (but not by boycotting the meeting), or the Collins/Murkowski decisions to go against their GOP colleagues. Or, journalists can peek ahead at how things are shaping up: how the GOP is using Senate procedures to push DeVos through, how Dems/opponents are strategizing to persuade a third Republican senator to oppose her, and how DeVos is faring compared with other nominees.
📰 ON THE MOVE
Maria Danilova is now covering national education issues for AP. Longtime education reporter Dana Goldstein has joined the NYT’s national desk. Longtime EWA staffer Mikhail Zinshteyn has joined EdSource, a California-focused education news outlet. Kathy Barron joined the Carnegie Founndation for the Advancement of Teaching. Campbell Brown left The 74 to join Facebook.
The Seattle Times’ Feb 8 “evening of education storytelling” is shaping up – its second such event. Chalkbeat announced its formal/permanent expansion to Detroit, and also began providing content to Five Thirty Eight.
📰 SITE NEWS
I’ve now connected THE GRADE’s Twitter feed [@thegrade] to Facebook. That means you can get everything by “liking” the FB page. Please do 🙂
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/
