An interview with veteran AL.com reporter Rebecca Griesbach about getting inside a state-funded private school and surprises she experienced during her visit.
By Alexander Russo
Once fairly standard, in-school reporting has become something unusual on the education beat — victim of the ever-increasing obstacles set up by schools, leftover pandemic-era restrictions, and changed expectations among editors and reporters.
That’s why it’s so great to talk to reporters like Rebecca Griesbach, who recently got herself inside a new, controversial kind of school and wrote a great story about it for AL.com:
Above: Inside one new school cashing in on Alabama’s CHOOSE Act.
There’s no shortage of stories about private school choice these days. But Griesbach’s story about Peach City Academy features lots of additional details thanks to her firsthand reporting: a school leader who claims she’s not at all against public schools, a mix of students from a mix of local public schools as well as other private institutions, and an unexpected classroom discussion.
“They were talking about feminism, suicide, and all of these things that I don’t see when I’m in a public school classroom,” says Griesbach. “So that kind of shocked me.”
Griesbach admits she’s got it easier than someone covering just one or two districts. But that doesn’t mean that firsthand observation inside schools doesn’t have to happen. It’s essential to informing the public, whether the schools are traditional or otherwise. And it’s vivid content that readers want. If traditional reporters can’t or won’t provide it, someone else will.
Check out the interview above or read the automated transcript.
Previously from The Grade
Inside the Harper’s magazine story about teaching at an ESA-funded micro-school
How to report from inside a school when they won’t let you have access
Rethinking integration & reflecting on childhood experiences
