In this week’s newsletter: Banned Book Week put under the microscope. The gay porn school choice story almost nobody is covering. A Palestinian exchange student’s American experience. Is it time for a “new” Chalkbeat? What effective reading instruction looks like in the classroom. In Houston, dating a teacher can get a podcast canceled.
BANNED BOOK BIAS?
The big education story of the week
The big education story of the week is the need to reconsider the national book ban narrative.
In honor of Book Ban Week, PEN America reported an explosion in books being removed from shelves in response to challenges. However, the American Library Association found a big drop in books that remain off-limits after being reviewed. However, only a few outlets highlighted this mixed trend in their coverage (AP, NBC News).
There are other reasons to call the book ban trend into question — especially as a national story. Only two states are responsible for most U.S. school book bans (The 19th). Some book ban proponents have been unsuccessful in elections or local council votes (KERA). A new American Historical Association report led education historian Jonathan Zimmerman to acknowledge that the school culture wars have been “radically exaggerated.”
If you’re looking for tips on how to better cover book bans, check out former ed reporter Ann Doss Helms’ advice for digging into the book challenge process, a Texas librarian’s guide to understanding how book reviews actually work, and Jennifer Berkshire’s observations about media coverage that downplays the unpopularity of right-wing positions.
Other big stories of the week include the sudden retirement of the NYC schools chancellor, a damning assessment of the FAFSA fiasco, porn-related allegations against a right-wing school choice champion, a cell phone bill in California, and disappointing graduation test scores in Massachusetts. Check out @thegrade_ for daily headlines!
A CLASSROOM LOOKAT READING INSTRUCTION
The best education journalism of the week
The best education journalism of the week is How an eastside school turned around its reading scores by Mirror Indy’s Carley Lanich.
Faced with reporting on why an Indianapolis-area school’s reading scores have soared, Lanich and photographer Jenna Watson don’t just talk to district officials about the success. They take readers inside a first-grade classroom where the science of reading is on tap and the school district’s “all-hands-on-deck approach” to literacy is playing out.
The story shows us a teacher sounding out words while other students work with a bilingual instructional assistant on comprehension and still more students tackle vocabulary exercises on digital tablets. Students in this room stay highly engaged and might get more than two hours of reading and writing time daily.
Classroom reporting helps readers begin to understand how Pleasant Run this year could have jumped nearly 22 percentage points in reading — among the biggest improvements statewide. The in-school scenes of tight coordination, with adults making sure that everyone is working productively, help explain the test score gains better than any bureaucrat’s observations on systemic change. That’s the kind of reporting we need more of. Nicely done and economically told.
Want more stories about districts implementing literacy reform? Check out Holly Korbey’s look at Frederick County, Maryland (The 74).
Other education stories of the week we liked include an investigation into Michigan schools that serve students with severe behavioral disabilities (Freep), the downfall of school-choice provocateur/troll Corey DeAngelis (The 74), and how to save outdoor recess on a warming planet (The Atlantic).
A ‘NEW’ CHALKBEAT?
Our latest columns and commentary
Lots has changed in journalism in recent years, including the rise of community-based coverage, employee-owned news outlets, and ethnic media. Efforts are underway to revamp coverage of beats including crime and politics.
However, it’s been quite a while since the launch of a new education-only outlet, and many of the existing outlets — Chalkbeat, the Hechinger Report, and The 74 — are pretty traditional in their approach.
So contributor Andrew Bauld asked a handful of education journalists and media experts whether it was time for a new player on the beat and — more importantly — what a new outlet should do differently. They all agreed that today’s education reporting needs changes.
Thanks for the insights from The Emancipator’s Frankie Huang, The 74’s Beth Hawkins, former NPR reporter Anya Kamenetz, and journalism expert Jesse Holcomb.
Above: Are those the hands of God — or the hands of states meddling to make it look like students are doing better than they actually are? 🤔
PEOPLE, JOBS, & EVENTS
Who’s going where and what’s happening
📰 Career moves: AL.com Ed Lab reporter Trisha Powell Crain is leaving the paper but says she hopes “to be back in the education information arena soon.” The Hechinger Report’s newest investigative reporter, Marina Villeneuve, announced she’s also pursuing an MFA in nonfiction and plans to write a book about international adoption, as an adoptee from Colombia herself. Hechinger Report investigative intern and recent J-school alum Joanna Hou is moving to Portland to report on education for Willamette Week. Congrats to all!
📰 Awards: Congrats to the Idaho Statesman and ProPublica team that won the ONA Knight Award for Public Service for their story on crumbling schools. The New York Times also won an award for excellence in social justice reporting for Hannah Dreier’s investigation into migrant kids and labor. Thread of the week goes to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Nader Issa for a brilliant explanation of the fast-growing shitshow in Chicago.
📰 Podcasts & books: For “This American Life,” Chana Joffe-Walt told the poignant story of a Palestinian teen who came to the U.S. for her senior year of high school. Chalkbeat New York and The Bell’s podcast “PS Weekly” will start up again in 2025 with their second season, The Bell executive director Taylor McGraw tells us. The Bell is also part of a new collaboration to fund 30 high school newspapers in NYC. Former ed tech writer Audrey “Cassandra” Watters says back in business, “toying with” writing a new book and refocusing her fitness and nutrition newsletter on AI. And NBC News’ Mike Hixenbaugh was in Texas this week to talk about book bans and his new book “They Came for the Schools.”
📰 New ventures: Chalkbeat has issued its first public call for student voices about the presidential election — part of a collaboration with the New York Times’ Headway team. Chalkbeat Indiana is hosting a school board candidate forum in partnership with WFYI. The Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ, and Chalkbeat Chicago have also published an extensive voter guide for Chicago’s first-ever school board elections.
📰 Research: The U.S. Government Accountability Office skewered the FAFSA rollout in a new report (Inside Higher Ed). The Fordham Institute has a new report out showing declining enrollment at almost 500 low-performing schools. A new report from Common Sense Media concluded that Black students are more likely to be falsely accused of using AI to cheat compared to their peers (EdWeek, Semafor). CRPE’s latest “State of the American Student” report predicts that pandemic recovery in schools will be a “long slog” (EdSource). New research on Denver’s controversial school reform strategy shows that it has been largely good for students (CPR). And lastly, Brookings looked into what various assessments are showing about academic recovery post-pandemic, finding that there has been slight progress in math and almost no progress in English/language arts.
THE KICKER
Saving the best for last
In what seems like a massive overreaction (compared to, say the above situation), Houston Public Media treated former education reporter Dominic Walsh’s well-established relationship with a teacher like “a five-alarm fire.” (Texas Monthly)
That’s all, folks. Thanks for reading!
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