Our annual roundup of the most important stories of the year.

There’s no doubt that schools are a fascinating and important topic for journalism in 2019: Chartbeat named Jessica Contrera’s Washington Post story about a senior prank that turned into a hate crime among its most engaging stories of 2019. Longform’s most-clicked story of 2019 was Ezra Marcus and James D. Walsh’s The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence, about a group of students who “fell under the sway of a classmate’s father.” And Jasminne Mendez’s Lesson Plan, which features instructions for an active shooter drill in the form of a teacher’s lesson plan, was named one of Longreads’ best essays of the year.

But many of these standout stories aren’t written by education reporters or focused directly on education. Schools are the setting, but not the focal point. However, The Grade has been publishing its annual list of top-notch education journalism for a while now, and 2019 is no different. Here are the most memorable stories focused on schools and written by education journalists, in seven handy-dandy categories:

MOST MEMORABLE SCHOOL DISTRICT STORY OF THE YEAR

The Valedictorians: What became of Boston’s brightest?

For years, the Boston Globe published the names and faces of the city’s high school valedictorians each spring. And for years, Globe readers had been assuming that things went pretty well for those kids. But in 2019 two Globe reporters went back and checked whether that was the case. Their stories, collected together as the Valedictorians Project, formed a deeply moving and disturbing illustration of the challenges of the BPS education system.

Honorable mention: Only 7 Black Students Got Into N.Y.’s Most Selective High School. (New York Times).

MOST MEMORABLE INEQUALITY STORY OF THE YEAR

The changing face of school integration

In 2019, the Washington Post’s Laura Meckler stepped out into the center of the spotlight in a big, big way, writing four extensive pieces about school integration. The most memorable in some ways was her deep dive into the controversy over academic integration in Shaker Heights, Ohio, but for me the most outstanding was her counternarrative showing that, outside of the nation’s big-city systems, many districts are actually more integrated than they were previously.

Honorable mentions: Fewer AP classes, suspended more often: Black students still face racism in suburbs (USA Today), How to fix education’s racial inequities, one tweak at a time (Politico).

MOST MEMORABLE INNOVATION STORY OF THE YEAR

Silicon Valley Came to Kansas Schools. That Started a Rebellion.

With the New York Times’ A1 story about parent pushback against an online education program being used in Kansas, the expectation may have been that it would result in reader outrage and an immediate course correction. But Nellie Bowles’ story ran into immediate problems, starting with the revelation that one of the central students in the piece did not participate in the program. Concerns about the piece quickly broadened to uncertainty about the size and scope of the parent rebellion against it. The Times issued a correction.

Honorable mention: Somerville won $10 million to open a new high school and it went downhill from there (Hechinger Report/Boston Globe Magazine).

MOST MEMORABLE POLITICS STORY OF THE YEAR

Why the Chicago teachers strike lasted so long — and became so bitter

Coverage of the Chicago teachers strike was abundant but not particularly insightful. It wasn’t clear that the reporters tasked with the job were well-sourced; the stories tended to focus on the spectacle and the ritual conflict, rather than telling readers what was going on behind the scenes. So Chicago Sun-Times education reporter Nader Issa’s postmortem was a welcome breath of fresh air, explaining the personal dynamics, political imperatives, and logistics that we’d wanted to know for so many days.

MOST MEMORABLE ACCOUNTABILITY STORY OF THE YEAR

How a couple worked charter school regulations to make millions

There is no shortage of lazy charter school hit pieces out there, but this LA Times investigation into lax oversight and cash-hungry authorizers provides both drama and evidence of a broader problem. Reporter Anna Phillips shows us where the system falls apart and how kids and public taxpayers pay the price.

Honorable mentions: How online charter schools have resisted regulation (The 74), Children Are Routinely Isolated In Some Fairfax County Schools. The District Didn’t Report It. (WAMU).

MOST MEMORABLE PARENT-FOCUSED STORY OF THE YEAR

Minority Voters Chafe as Democratic Candidates Abandon Charter Schools

Some education journalists struggled to depict the pro-choice parent activists who interrupted an Elizabeth Warren campaign event in Atlanta in November, resorting to problematic tropes about outside agitators and suggesting that the activists were pawns acting at the behest of others. The New York Times’ Erica Green and Eliza Shapiro had no such difficulty, presenting the experiences and concerns of these parents and grandparents in all their humanity — and rebuffing the ferocious pushback from charter school critics with aplomb.

Honorable mention: Battle over phonics, dyslexia rattles top-rated Pa. school district (WHYY Philadelphia).

MOST MEMORABLE WHITE PRIVILEGE STORY OF THE YEAR

When the Culture War Comes for the Kids

For better or worse, George Packer’s much-discussed first-person essay about the author’s disagreeable experience with “woke” progressive education in Brooklyn will be among the most memorable stories of the year. The response to the Atlantic-published essay was overwhelmingly negative, especially among progressive Brooklynite parents. And there were several problems with the piece. But controversy illustrated a rift among left-leaning communities that is important to understand.

Honorable mention: In Howard County, a ‘courageous’ plan to redraw school boundaries tests community’s commitment to diversity (Baltimore Sun).

It’s worth noting that education-related stories have also been included in some journalism-wide roundups.

For example, ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune’s seclusion and restraint investigation is included in Longreads’ best investigative reporting of 2019. And a trio of stories from Searchlight New Mexico, Chalkbeat Indiana, and Oklahoma Watch is included in a roundup of great local nonprofit stories that was published in Buzzfeed.

But these are the stories that I see as most memorable of the year, for better or worse.

What do you think? Let me know here or on social.

PREVIOUS RELATED COLUMNS

11 amazing education stories from 2018

Best education journalism of 2017

Best education journalism of 2016

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexander Russo

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/