An interview with the AP team responsible for Pulitzer-recognized education coverage

Members of the Associated Press education team describe how they conquered doubts, difficulties, and seeming disinterest to produce their Pulitzer-recognized series. 

By Alexander Russo

On Monday afternoon, the Pulitzer Committee recognized some of the best journalism of the past year. 

Among the list of those recognized as finalists for national coverage were AP education reporters Bianca Vazquez Toness and Sharon Lurye, who had produced “a deeply reported series on the corrosive effect of the pandemic on public education, highlighting the staggering number of students missing from classrooms across America.”

Running from February through December 2023, the series — a mix of in-depth reporting and data journalism including Thousands of kids are missing from school. Where did they go?, At 15, he is defending his home – and struggling to stay in school, and These kids want to go to school. The main obstacle? Paperwork — refocused public conversation and many other newsrooms’ attention on the most pervasive after-effects of prolonged pandemic-era school shutdowns.

For those of us with a special appreciation for parent- and child-centered journalism focused on widespread challenges (rather than school culture wars), the recognition felt deeply affirming. 

On Tuesday, reporters Lurye and Vázquez Toness and education editor Chrissie Thompson described where they were when they found out, explained what makes AP education coverage different, and discussed the uncertainties around producing an in-depth series on such an exceedingly hard-to-report topic as missing kids. 

“When I joined the AP, I didn’t trust that we would actually stick with it,” said Vázquez Toness. “But we did. We just went after it — all year.”

“Our team is focused on centering underrepresented kids and families in every story,” said Thompson. “We’re focused on equity, and we want to tell stories that other outlets aren’t telling.” 

The following interview has been edited and condensed. 

Above, clockwise from top left: Lead reporter Bianca Vázquez Toness, data reporter Sharon Lurye, and section editor Chrissie Thompson.

So where were you when you found out that you were Pulitzer finalists?

Sharon Lurye: I was sitting on the couch with my husband. I knew my family was watching it, too. And I also watched it with members of the AP data team in a little Zoom call, which was sweet.

Bianca Vázquez Toness: I was in my kitchen.

Chrissie Thompson: I just watched it from my home office, but I did know my parents were watching, which was really fun. After the announcements, AP had a massive Zoom call to celebrate, in English and Spanish because so many of our Photography winners are from Latin America, and people got to unmute themselves and cheer.

Do you have a favorite moment, quote, or character from the submitted stories? Or a favorite story?

Sharon: I wrote about the unapproved schools in Louisiana, which had very colorful characters in it — especially the principal of the main school that we were looking at who said a lot of very incredible lines. I could not include half of them in the story. [For more on “off-the-grid schools,” read here.]

Bianca: It’s really hard for me to choose between Deneffy and Tameka. On one hand, Deneffy — the Los Angeles teenager whose family is dealing with housing uncertainty — seems like such an extreme example of why chronic absenteeism is so hard to solve. It’s entangled with all these other social problems we have. That story shows why housing is so critical to getting kids back to normal. And then with Tameka — the Atlanta mom struggling to get her kids back in school — I’m still in shock that she talked to us. It took so much patience and empathy and putting aside any urgent energy you have as a reporter to just be with her and let her reveal her situation to us on her own terms.

Chrissie: I have two favorites. The first is when Bianca initially spoke with Tameka. She had heard about her during another reporting trip. She was in Atlanta for the Learning to Read series and was visiting this housing complex, and she heard about a family of four kids that hadn’t been back to school since the pandemic. To meet them, Bianca took a chance and flew back down to Atlanta for a school supply giveaway because she thought the family might come. They were the last family through the line.

The other moment I will never forget is when Sharon was on a reporting trip with our friends from The Advocate. The goal was to show what kinds of families are in unapproved schools. So it was completely unexpected for her to Slack me on a Friday afternoon and say, ‘I need to talk,’ and then spend an hour telling me and (news editor) Mike Melia that she had just witnessed someone buying a backdated diploma. I was like, ‘Wait, did you take a picture of it?’ Yeah, she had the picture. ‘Did they acknowledge that they did this? And did you record it?’ They had. She had. I just couldn’t believe what was happening.

It took so much patience and empathy and putting aside any urgent energy you have as a reporter to… let her reveal her situation to us on her own terms.

– Bianca Vázquez Toness  

Were there moments that it seemed like the stories weren’t going to happen? Are there moments where the story could have gone left or could have gone right or could have not happened?

Bianca: We weren’t sure what was going to happen with Deneffy. We didn’t really know entirely what his story was until we’d done a few months of reporting And then with the Tameka story, we weren’t entirely sure that she would talk to us on the record. It surprised me how long it took for the district to get those kids back in school. But I’ve continued to report that story, and Tameka’s last child was enrolled in school just last week. 

What attributes of your fellow team members do you think made this such a successful project?

Sharon: Well, I think for Bianca, it’s the fact that she has an amazing ability to write with great empathy and to build trust and rapport with sources. I think it’s especially important because in a lot of data-heavy journalism, often it can kind of just turn into, ‘Here’s five cool charts!’ But our journalism, no matter what, it’s always extremely person-centered – it’s always, always about the students, the families.

Chrissie is always so encouraging. She says ‘yes’ to things. She really believes in us. She let me go to this very small town in Louisiana to check out what was going on there and also bring a photographer, a videographer, and another reporter from The Advocate.

Bianca: I would say the same thing about Chrissie. The story that she told about me going down to that backpack giveaway was surprising to me because Chrissie never questioned it. It would have been reasonable to ask me to try calling her on the phone more, but Chrissie understood that I needed to seize any chance to meet her in person because the phone appeared to be unreliable for this mother.

Chrissie: Sharon and Bianca are two of the most persistent and determined people I’ve ever met. When Bianca joined AP she sent me these text messages saying, ‘I want to find missing kids.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, great, let’s do it. But we have to actually find them. We can’t just say, ‘Oh, kids are missing and we have no idea where they are.’’ And she found them. Over and over. Bianca showed that if you build personal relationships with these families, they can be known. They don’t have to be missing.

Sharon is the best multitasker I’ve ever met. She helped us give the scale of the problem. We had some great collaborators, but for the last story, when we updated the tally of missing students with another year of data, Sharon had to request or look up data on public, private and homeschooling from all 50 states individually . To be able to be such a force to do that, and also do in-person reporting, and write stories – she’s so versatile. A lot of newsrooms ran our stories or wrote their own stories because she supported them in understanding the work and the data. I don’t think people would have taken it seriously if she hadn’t done that.

Our journalism, no matter what, it’s always extremely person-centered – it’s always, always about the students.

– Sharon Lurye

On this project and others, how does the work of the AP ed team distinguish itself?

Sharon: I think what makes us different is that the whole mission is based around collaboration and sharing and trying to multiply our impact by having other outlets also write about the same topic. That way, when the story actually comes out, it’s not just one story but rather dozens of stories. And that in turn really drives the conversation. All of a sudden, everyone is talking about chronic absenteeism at the same time.

Chrissie: The other thing I would say is that our team is focused on centering underrepresented kids and families in every story. We’re focused on equity, and we want to tell stories that other outlets aren’t telling. 

Bianca: The sharing part is obviously remarkable. I mean, it’s probably not the answer that you were thinking of when you asked that question, but it is. It is remarkable. And it’s a completely different dynamic to see other journalists and outlets as partners rather than as competitors.

It’s also amazing to me that we stuck with the story. I mean, this is a story that hasn’t gone away, obviously. It’s still a problem. But I think many journalists, policymakers, educators moved on a long time ago from the pandemic’s impact as a major focus. And when I joined the AP I didn’t trust that we would actually stick with it. But we did. We just went after it — all year.

Previously From The Grade

The 7 most memorable education stories of 2023

At the New York Times and the Washington Post, tabloid-style education news is all the rage

The culture war is the easy, less important story

Complacency and inertia

Putting a headline on national education news

Globe reporters describe how they cover immigrant English learners