State mask mandates no more, non-COVID stories to cover, & beware outrage journalism: Best Education Journalism of the Week (2/11/2022)

As Democratic-run governors break with the Biden administration and move to end school mask mandates, school districts are being forced to make tough decisions about when and whether to change their own local masking policies. In some places, there’s excitement. But the CDC and the Biden administration haven’t endorsed mask-optional schools, and it wasn’t so long ago that the main Democratic message was to upgrade masks. So the de-masking announcements are also creating confusion and concern:

 D.C.-area schools’ mask policies examined as more states rescind them (Washington Post)
Local districts now weigh their own requirements (Boston Globe)
Schools Lift Mask Requirements, Change Covid-19 Rules (Wall Street Journal)
Liberal Suburbs Face a New Round of School Mask Battles (New York Times)
The U.S. States That Are Ending Mask Mandates (New York Times)
As state mask rules end, school leaders are in the middle (AP)
School Mask Mandates Fall as Coronavirus Cases Decline (US News)
States roll back mask mandates in schools despite opposition (PBS NewsHour)
Is it time to phase out mask requirements in schools? (USA Today)
States are ending mask mandates. Is that a good idea? (NPR)
N.J. parents have mixed feelings as state plans to lift mandate (WHYY)
New York could lift school mask mandate by March, Hochul says (Chalkbeat NY)
Fate of school mask mandate dominates legislative public hearing (CT Public Radio)
CMS board says it will consider lifting the school mask mandate (WFAE Charlotte)
Illinois school mask mandate ruling throws districts into chaos (Chicago Tribune)

For more on mask mandate news and coverage, see MEDIA TIDBITS.

Above: Covers of books that have been banned over time.

Book bans are popping up all over the country, attracting enormous attention and concern. Some are especially troubling, but others are unlikely to have as much impact as readers might imagine, writes the New York City educator who goes by the pen name Cafeteria Duty. In How to improve book ban coverage, they describe how readers and reporters may overestimate the likely effects of the bans and play into the hands of those who are proposing them. Education reporters should add nuance rather than fanning the flames of outrage.

Also: For nearly two years now, education reporters have produced an enormous amount of COVID safety coverage. But there are many other important stories that warrant attention. In How to escape the school safety vortex longtime education writer Maureen Kelleher shares five story ideas that beat writing more about school COVID safety. “We can’t ignore COVID safety, but we can right-size our coverage and thinking about it to make room for equally important stories,” Kelleher writes.

RUNNER-UP: The runner-up of the week is A Wealthy Enclave Seeks Split from Atlanta, and Parents Take Sides Over their Schools’ Future by Linda Jacobson in The 74. The piece focuses on Buckhead, a wealthy and white neighborhood of Atlanta that wants to secede from the surrounding school district. Like many other similar proposals, the move would have the potential to further segregate schools and reduce funding for students in Atlanta’s majority Black district. It’s a great story highlighting inequality and showing the impact of district and policy changes on the people most affected — students and families.

BONUS STORIES:

 Who are the young children being arrested at schools? (USA Today)
Portland could look to McMinnville for ways to help students of color (The Oregonian)
One New Orleans Teacher Created a Special School to Help Unaccompanied Migrant Teens (The 74)
A Push to Remove LGBTQ Books in One County (ProPublica/Texas Tribune)
More states want to restrict how LGBTQ+ people, issues are discussed in schools (The 19th)
At 8, He Was a Migrant Worker. Now, He’s a School Board Member. (Voice of San Diego)
A top researcher says it’s time to rethink our entire approach to preschool (NPR)
LAUSD is prepping for thousands of unvaccinated students by ramping up online school (LA Times)

MASK MANDATE ROLLBACK HULLABALOO: The week was consumed with news about Democratic governors of Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Oregon announcing plans to review or roll back their school mask mandates, along with Massachusetts. But the impact of these announcements remains unclear, given that the rollback leaves the decision to local authorities and that many school districts will — for now — keep their own mask mandates in place even if not required by the state. Some districts like Clark County (Las Vegas) were quick to make changes. Denver’s mask mandate is soon to end. But so far as I know, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, Boston, Montgomery County (Maryland), and many other big districts are keeping their mandates for now. (The AP reports that Philadelphia, Wichita, and Albuquerque are also keeping their mandates for now.) Add in suburbs and you start to wonder what immediate effect the rollbacks have had, other than revealing Democratic governors’ impatience with the Biden administration’s cautiousness?

BEWARE “OUTRAGE” JOURNALISM ON BOOK BANS: The best media commentary piece I read all week was from the Daily Yonder, urging everyone to avoid producing outrage-inducing coverage or social media commentary about proposed book bans. “We live here. These are our people, our schools, our kids,” writes Whitney Kimball Coe. “If you must write about us, at least give a damn about us,” she writes. ”Write or tweet as a repairer of the breach.”

COVERING CYBER SECURITY THROUGH FOIAS: Attacks on school districts have continued during the pandemic, prompting education journalists to get creative about how to cover them. “One interesting trend is edu reporters employing FOI requests to get details from schools,” notes school security expert Doug Levin. This helps get coverage that goes deeper than the usual focus on the initial disclosure of an incident. How did the attack happen? How was it resolved? It’s not always easy to find out, Levin notes. “Some school districts will go to great lengths to avoid conversations about their cybersecurity risk management experiences.” Stories that Levin thinks have done well include from Dallas Fort Worth’s CBS Local News, CBS Chicago, and CalMatters’ “Schools Held Hostage” series.

Looking for media commentary and analysis all day, every day? Follow me at @alexanderrusso. 

PEOPLE, JOBS, APPEARANCES

Above, from left to right: The Wall Street Journal’s Sara Randazzo, longtime Education Week reporter Andrew Ujifusa, and The Times-Picayune’s Marie Fazio.

 Job moves: Sara Randazzo, the Wall Street Journal’s new national K-12 reporter, had her first byline on the ed beat this week: ​​School Districts Battle in Court for Changes in Education Funding. A seasoned legal reporter, she’s an education newbie (though she’s a product of public education near Sacramento, she tells us). EdWeek’s Andrew Ujifusa is moving over to Chalkbeat to be a story editor. And Marie Fazio, a former Report for America fellow in New Orleans, is now the education reporter for The Times-Picayune. Congrats to all!

Media appearances: The Dallas Morning News’ Emily Donaldson was on NBC DFW talking about her story with Talia Richman on educators pulling double duty to deal with staff shortages. New York Times national political reporter Lisa Lerer was on The Daily talking about conflicts between Democratic governors and the Biden administration over school mask mandates.

Shoutout: Bay Area education reporters did a great job covering the Oakland teachers’ hunger strike and the vote to close down several schools. Kudos to the Mercury News’ Kayla Jimenez (“We are at war” over Oakland school closures), Oaklandside’s Ashley McBride (Oakland school board votes to close seven schools over the next two years), EdSource’s Ali Tadayon (Oakland teachers’ hunger strike continues into eighth day), the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jill Tucker (Oakland faces huge blowback over school closures) and Annie Vainshtein (‘This is until death’: Oakland teachers’ hunger strike tests district resolve on school closings).

Spotlight on education: On the Media host Brooke Gladstone took on book challenges this week — pointing out that the process is more nuanced that many journalists are reporting. Vox’s Today Explained podcast makes the case against masks in schools (for the half of schools that still require them). And in case you missed it on Sunday, 60 Minutes had a feature on the dark legacy of Canada’s residential schools.

Job openings: The Boston Globe is hiring a higher education reporter, as well as a data journalist and a digital producer for their Great Divide team. EdWeek is hiring a staff writer to cover technology, learning environments, and student well-being, as well as an assistant managing editor. Inside Higher Ed is hiring a higher education reporter. Idaho Education News is hiring a journalist. The Baltimore Sun has an opening for an education reporter. The Seattle Times is looking for an Ed Lab reporter. Politico California is hiring an education reporter. Go get those jobs!

Newsletter: Do you care about education in Tennessee? Tennessean education reporter Meghan Mangrum is trying to get to 1,000 subscribers for School Zone. Help her out and hit subscribe! It’s free.

“Name something that isn’t an Olympic sport, but feels like an Olympic sport,” asked ESPN last summer. “Covering school board meetings,” responded EWA’s Emily Richmond earlier this week.

That’s all, folks. Thanks for reading!

Reply to this email to send us questions, comments or tips. Know someone else who should be reading Best of the Week? Send them this link to sign up.

Using Feedly or FlipBoard or any other kind of news reader? You can subscribe to The Grade’s “feed” by plugging in this web address: http://www.kappanonline.org/category/the-grade/feed/.

Read more about The Grade here. You can read all the back issues of The Grade’s newsletter, Best of the Week, here.

By Alexander Russo with additional writing from Colleen Connolly.