#CoveringCOVID19, a daily update from The Grade to help education journalists cover the COVID-19 crisis.
THE TOP FIVE
Five great education stories about how schools are responding to the COVID-19 crisis:
Richer schools not necessarily faster to set up distance learning – CALmatters (above)
Live vs. tape-delayed: How two approaches to online learning change life for teachers and students – Washington Post
NYC Still Racing To Get Thousands Of Devices To Students, Five Weeks Into Online Learning – Gothamist
600 Meals, 4 Hours: Inside One School Kitchen Keeping D.C. Families Fed – WAMU
One New York Special-Needs School Is Ahead of the Curve With Remote Learning – Wall Street Journal
ICYMI: Friday’s newsletter features tons of great stories, media commentary, and newsroom comings & goings. Check it out here and sign up today!
WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING FURLOUGHED (OR WORSE)
Scads of education reporters are experiencing furloughs, with more likely to come.
In a new first-person post published earlier today, an anonymous education reporter reflects on what it’s like being taken away from work during a massive news event: “I pray that the ‘new normal’ doesn’t become permanent.”
In addition to furloughs, a few reporters have been moved to other beats (like health) or asked to do double duty covering education and other stories.
For example, the Washington Post’s Moriah Balingit is somehow managing to produce education bylines while assigned to cover the pandemic from Michigan. “Tell me what I should see, who I should meet (from a social distance, of course!) and the stories I should tell,” tweeted Balingit.
Meanwhile, at least two education reporters have been laid off, the most recent being the Austin Statesman’s Aaricka Washington, who tweeted about what happened on Friday.
Sad to say, more furloughs and layoffs seem likely. The Philadelphia Inquirer announced buyout offers a few days ago.
The day’s best new education news stories are shared out every morning via @thegrade_. Then between 4 and 5 PM Eastern, the daily #coveringCOVID19 roundup comes out. You can find it here.
Above: HBO’s new show, Bad Education, premiered last night. It focuses on corruption discovered at a highly regarded Long Island school district and is based on a true story.
TIDBITS
Yes, it’s true. The Washington Post’s education team has been putting out a steady stream of strong stories like How online learning works in Arlington vs. Alexandria, High schools are ditching letter grades over coronavirus, Top technology official out at Fairfax Schools, as fallout continues from online learning disaster, and Under pressure to reopen this fall, school leaders plot unprecedented changes. I haven’t seen as much coverage of DCPS as I might have expected, but perhaps something big is in the works.
The HuffPost’s Rebecca Klein has been all over the remote learning SPED story, including a pair of recent pieces: Parents Worry New School Waivers Could Unravel Special Ed Protections. Districts Say They’re Necessary and To Access Online Services, New Jersey Students With Disabilities Must Promise Not To Sue.
Congrats to the Hechinger Report, whose reporters had a bunch of bylines in the big NYT Learning section. For example, this helpful overview by Chris Berdik: Coronavirus Forces School Districts to Adapt.
Free story idea from former education reporter Kent Fischer: American kids are apparently bombarding GoogleClassroom with 1-star ratings “hoping to drive down its ranking and get it removed from the App Store so their teachers won’t be unable to host online learning.” It’s not an original idea, though. The Verge reported that Wuhan students tried the same.
That’s it! See you back here tomorrow. Sign up for the weekly email, Best of the Week, which comes out Fridays around noon Eastern.
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/
