Uproar over Black history, covering student stories, & the most enjoyable interview ever: Best Education Journalism of the Week (7/28/23)

In this week’s newsletter: Florida’s new Black history standards generate outrage — and confusion. State reading reform laws represent the “most ambitious reform effort in [the] nation’s history.” UNESCO calls for new restrictions on cell phone use in schools. An editor learns to look for student voices and story ideas. Two new books by education journalists are about to arrive. And a school visit with Tony Bennett.

 

BLACK HISTORY CONTROVERSY

The big story of the week

Florida’s new Black history standards caused an uproar — particularly over a part of the curriculum alleging slaves learned some skills they could use to their personal benefit (New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today).

At least one of the people responsible for the new standards — William B. Allen — stands by the revisions (Florida Times-Union, NPR). It’s worth noting that only about a dozen states mandate instruction in African American history and that the College Board AP Black history course features a similar-seeming item (EdWeek, USA Today, CNN). At least one outlet has posted the standards and a right-leaning outlet has published an analysis (USA Today, National Review).

But if a mainstream news outlet has independently vetted the competing claims or compared the various standards, I have yet to see it. Come back, Dana Goldstein, come back!

 

Other big education stories of the week:

📰 READING REFORM: A new report describes states’ efforts to reform reading instruction as the “most ambitious reform effort in [the] nation’s history.” Published last week by the Shanker Institute, Reading Reform Across America describes how more than 200 reading laws have been passed in 45 states and DC between 2019 and 2022 (report, press release). The effort has also generally been bipartisan and balanced in terms of its approach to effective reading instruction, in comparison to previous efforts like Reading First. More than 50 reading bills have been enacted just this year, according to the report (EdWeek). 

📰 SMARTPHONE RESTRICTION: UNESCO released a report on smartphones in schools, recommending they only be allowed when they clearly support learning (Forbes, The Guardian, The Independent, WION). According to The Guardian, one in four countries already bans smartphones in classrooms, including France and the Netherlands. You can read the report here. At least one journalist has taken issue with the word “ban” being used in headlines, and indeed the organization report allows room for smartphones to be used as learning tools. 

📰 LEARNING LOSS HEARING: House Republicans and Democrats argued over the pros and cons of school closures in the pandemic during a committee hearing on Wednesday, with most Democrats continuing to defend prolonged closures as necessary to protect teacher and student lives (USA Today, Yahoo News, Deseret News). In case you missed it, you can watch the two-hour televised hearing here. 

 

PATHWAY TO COLLEGE

The best education journalism of the week

The best education journalism of the week is She was the ideal college applicant. But this first-generation student needed more help, written by Open Campus reporter Nick Fouriezos and published in USA Today.

Based in Garden City, Kan., the piece focuses on the relationship between high school student Ashlee Villareal and recent college graduate Evelyn Irigoyen-Aguirre. It’s full of details about the two main characters’ backgrounds and families — not just the usual cursory sketch — so that you’re already invested in their success by the time they meet during Ashlee’s junior year. There’s a section about the program that allows Evelyn to be so helpful, called the Kansas State Advising Corps, a newly expanded state effort that places recent college graduates in two-year jobs helping high school students.

The result? A feel-good story that doesn’t feel like one.

 

Other great education journalism we saw this week:

🏆 Schools lost track of homeless kids during the pandemic. Many face a steep path to recovery (AP)

🏆 School board in Missouri revokes anti-racism resolution (AP) 

🏆 “We’re Huge in Learning Loss!” Cashing in on the Post-Pandemic Education Crisis (ProPublica)

🏆 What would make South Dakota safer for the LGBTQ+ community? Not just policies alone. (Argus Leader series)

🏆 Slavery, reparations, racism. No topics are off limits in this Black history AP class (LA Times)

🏆 Plagued by teacher shortages, some states turn to fast-track credentialing (Stateline)

🏆 California’s largest school district is spending millions to protect kids from climate change (The 19th)

🏆 ‘Mama bears’ may be the 2024 race’s soccer moms. But where the GOP seeks votes, some see extremism (AP)

 

Above: Las Vegas Review-Journal editor Lorraine Longhi, right, with a student.

BEYOND ‘STUDENT VOICES’

Our latest columns and commentary

This week’s new piece by Las Vegas Review-Journal education editor Lorraine Longhi is one of my favorite journalist-written pieces in a long while.

In it, Longhi describes how in returning to cover her hometown school district, she began to notice discrepancies between student experiences and concerns and what she and other education reporters were covering.

“Over and over, talking with students generated eye-opening insights and anecdotes that I might easily have missed in the past,” writes Longhi. “Surprises, disconnects between coverage and reality, and gaps between board priorities and student concerns.”

Faced with this gap, Longhi decided not only to feature more student voices but to write and assign stories based on student priorities.

 

ARIZONA’S VOUCHER EXPERIMENT

Coverage of promising school innovations & signs of progress

💡 This story about the rollout of Arizona’s voucher program accommodates nuanced opinions on both sides of the debate and makes the case that the consequential policy should be carefully tracked in other states where it’s getting implemented (New York Times).

💡 The greatest virtue of this piece on increasingly popular dual-enrollment programs may be its framing: urging readers (including other journalists) to revise the image they have in their head of the typical college student (Hechinger Report).

💡 This student-centered piece about an NYC high school’s summer programming is a practical guide for other districts looking to breathe new life into the concept of summer school, an especially important job given the need to address learning loss and chronic absenteeism (Chalkbeat New York).

💡 At just over 600 words, this quick-hit news piece packs in a lot of information about the work-in-progress of San Diego County’s fight against chronic absenteeism, which involves better communication with students’ homes (San Diego Union-Tribune).

Read more about the importance of covering promising innovations and preliminary successes.

 

Above: “The Death of Public School” by Cara Fitzpatrick (top left) and “Dream Town” by Laura Meckler (bottom left) are both dropping on Aug. 22.

PEOPLE, JOBS

Who’s going where and doing what

🔥 Books: You can preorder “The Death of Public School” by Chalkbeat story editor Cara Fitzpatrick and “Dream Town” by Washington Post national education reporter Laura Meckler now! Both books will be available on Aug. 22, and Fitzpatrick will begin a book tour around the same time. We’re hoping to interview both of them about what they learned and how the process changed their views on education journalism.

🔥 More books: Another book of interest to education journalists came out earlier this month: Richard D. Kahlenberg’s “Excluded: How Snob Zoning, Nimbyism, and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See.” See his essay in The Atlantic for a shorter read.

🔥 Career moves: Tara García Mathewson is leaving the Hechinger Report to report on tech and higher ed for The Markup. Chalkbeat story editor Sharon Noguchi is retiring from journalism to focus on growing the Mosaic Journalism Program for high school students.

🔥 Job openings: The Associated Press is hiring an early education reporter — an addition to the education team and not a replacement, we hear. Apply for Ben Chapman’s old job at the Wall Street Journal covering K-12 education nationally. Check previous editions of the newsletter for any jobs that might still be open.

 

Above: A look at data on disability from Pew shows that more students are receiving special education services than a decade ago, but states are defining differently what qualifies a student for these services.

APPEARANCES, EVENTS, & NEW RESOURCES

What’s happening and new research

⏰ Segments & podcasts: Catherine Carrera, bureau chief at Chalkbeat Newark and Talia Wiener, education reporter at Montclair Local Nonprofit News, were on WNYC public radio talking about the experience in the classroom of students of color in some Essex County communities. WBUR’s On Point ran a segment on the critical shortage of foster care homes. In an interview with Vulture, Ira Glass praised APM Reports’ “Sold a Story,” saying, “The fact that it’s had real political impact in a way no podcast ever has is very exciting to see happen.” And, in case you missed it, KQED’s MindShift is back with a new season on how to create pathways for students to flourish.

⏰ New Research: A new report from the anti-hunger advocacy organization Food Research and Action Center shows a sharp drop in students accessing free lunches during the school year — and an even sharper drop during the summer (NBC News, The 74). According to a report by Chad Aldeman in The 74, public school enrollment is projected to fall in 42 states. A new EdWorkingPaper shows that “nudge” interventions to help low-income or first-gen students get to college make little to no difference. FutureEd is tracking state-by-state progress in federal ESSER spending. And Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum finds that while the general public may have soured on public schools to some extent, parents have not.

⏰ New ventures & resources: Former education reporter Karin Chenoweth has launched a new organization called Democracy and Education to support school board candidates facing extremism. For more on school board elections, subscribe to Ballotpedia’s weekly newsletter Hall Pass. The latest edition covers elections in Washington and Kansas. And in a new partnership, Chalkbeat Indiana is joining education powerhouse WFYI to cover township school districts in Marion County.

⏰ ICYMI: EWA’s new executive director Kathy Chow held two of three town halls this week (the third is scheduled for Aug. 2). Member journalists who were on the first call offered a handful of interesting suggestions, including more robust networking opportunities for freelancers, more support for student journalism programs, more hands-on trainings like they have at IRE, and a training for editors in how to counsel their reporters through assignments that might bring threats and harassment.

 

THE KICKER

“In nearly 30 years as a journalist, I’ve interviewed a lot of interesting people,” writes The 74’s Greg Toppo. “For utter enjoyment, it’s got to be the time I wandered through the halls of a brand-new high school in Queens, New York, with Tony Bennett.”