Education Reporter: A Special "How I Did the Story" Edition
<<On the Blackboard>>
Learn How to Report an Award Winning Story
Summer is in full swing and as an education reporter you may be enjoying some down time since school is out. However, this is a good time to explore some long range reporting projects. In this edition, the Education Reporter has collected a series of narratives from first-prize winners from EWA’s 2007 National Awards for Education Reporting Contest. They describe how they reported on some of the most intriguing school topics and stories in the past year. Learn how reporters got their stories, the challenges they experienced and what they discovered along the way. You can read snippets of what reporters said in our newsletter and you can also go to our website to find full narratives. Also in this edition, Seattle Times news reporter Linda Shaw is filling in as a guest columnist while Public Editor Linda Perlstein is on maternity leave, writing about what makes a “good school.” Shaw took honors in this year’s contest for beat reporting in a large market.
Want a Math Lesson?
Reporters will get the opportunity to watch a video of the University of Michigan School of Education dean Deborah Ball teach math to a group of fourth graders in a couple of weeks. The video will be followed by a debriefing with Ball through a webinar.Ball is one of the most respected experts on teaching math and her presentation at our annual conference in Los Angeles last year was very popular. This will give reporters a chance to see how good math teaching works. You can only get to the videotape, which will be released the week of July 21, through a password protected area, so contact Lori Crouch, lcrouch@ewa.org, for more information.
Countdown to the Challenge Fund Goal…
Eeks, just three weeks left for EWA to meet its match under the Challenge Fund for Journalism! Hey, if you haven’t given yet, can we lean on you to consider a gift to get us over the top? Any amount will help. We’ve raised about $100,000 but still need to get to $112,500. These funds will be used for reporter scholarships to attend EWA trainings, for podcasting, webinar and online training, so it will benefit you. Any size gift is helpful but we don’t want to leave any of the available match on the table. Help now. Click here to find out who’s given and to give.
LOOKING BEYOND AVERAGE TEST SCORES
A Column by Seattle Times reporter Linda Shaw
Even though it’s summer, fall is already around the corner. Especially here in Washington state, where state education officials release test results, plus No Child Left Behind results, in the last weeks of August. Some of you may also be starting to think about back-to-school enterprise stories, and perhaps how to cover your latest round of test scores. A call from a reader recently got me thinking about the latter and the never-ending need to help readers put test scores into context.
The reader called about a problem with the school assignments, and she clearly preferred a nearby school with higher average test scores. In her mind, the nearby school was more “academically rigorous.” That could be true, but she also could be selling the first school short.
People often use test scores to judge the quality of a school. It’s understandable why the scores are one of few measures of student performance that are comparable across schools and districts. All other things being equal, I’d want my children at a school with high test scores rather than very low ones.
That said, I always bristle when someone assumes that higher scores mean one school is better than another.
First, it’s long been clear that there’s a very strong correlation between test scores and family income. Consider the schools in your area. Which schools have the highest test scores? I’ll bet they’re the ones in the highest-income areas. Does that mean those schools are the best? It doesn’t mean they’re bad but there probably are schools that do just as good of a job, but have lower average scores.
I’d argue that a better measure is how much progress students make each year. In other words, how much students learn from the time they arrive in the fall to when school ends in the spring. It’s possible, for example, that a school with high scores has high scores because its classrooms are full of students who arrive performing above grade level, and the staff doesn’t do much more than maintain that. And that doesn’t make it a better school than one where students make a lot more progress in the course of a year.
The problem is that it’s often difficult to get test results in ways that allow us to measure progress, in part because that would require analyzing scores for the same group of students on the same test over a period of years. Here are a few ideas, however, about how to help readers get below the surface on test scores, whenever they are released in your area:
-- Request test scores by students with their names removed, but with as much information about that student as possible. In Washington state, for example, we usually get scores by student, along with whether that student qualified for the federal free-lunch program, and other information, including whether they have at least one parent who’s attended college. We’ve then compared schools or districts based on how different groups of students do. In Seattle, for example, the school district always comes out near the bottom in terms of average test scores when compared with surrounding suburban districts. But when you look only at students who have one or more parents who’ve attended college, it’s clear those students in Seattle are doing as well as their suburban peers.
-- A similar example: There’s one high school in Seattle that’s widely considered as one of the worst high schools in the district, in part because of low average test scores. Its students are almost all low-income, African American students. Last year, a reporter here looked at the performance of African American students at all the city’s high schools. The surprising result? The so-called “bad” school had the highest average test scores for African-American students. That doesn’t necessarily mean the school doesn’t need to improve, but it was clear it was doing better than other, more highly regarded schools with that group of students.
I’ll leave you with this thought: A principal recently told me that she wished parents would ask different questions in touring schools. (In Seattle, parents still have some choice in where students attend school.) She wished they wouldn’t focus so much on test scores, for example. She wished they’d ask what she and the staff care about most. The answer to that question, in her mind, would better help families figure out whether a school would be a good fit for their children. Something to think about.
Linda Shaw is serving as an interim public editor over the summer, as Linda Perlstein enjoys her new baby boy. If you need help on a story contact Shaw, or any of the public editors directly. Or contact Mesha Williams at 202-452-9830 or publications@ewa.org.
“HOW I DID THE STORY”
NARRATIVES FROM EWA’S 2007 FIRST PRIZE WINNERS: Remember go to our website to read full narratives.
Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize Winner
“Teacher Sex Abuse”
"It started with a question: Could we determine how many teachers, nationally, had gotten in trouble for sexual misconduct? Coverage of individual cases is common. But my editors wanted to know just how serious the problem was. The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification kept a list of teachers from its member states who are disciplined for any reason.
But that information was not public and wasn't broken down by type of misconduct. So for the better part of 2007, fellow AP national writer Robert Tanner and I worked with a team of AP reporters in each state and the District of Columbia to collect the most solid, inarguable data available - state disciplinary records in which educators' teaching licenses were suspended, revoked or compromised in some way. We looked at 2001 through 2005, the most recent year available in many of the states at the time. The goal was to focus on sexual misconduct, but we asked for all educators who were disciplined for any reason, for comparison's sake.”
--Martha Irvine, The Associated Press
IA. Newspapers Under 100,000--Breaking or Hard News
“Virginia Tech Shootings”
"It's not difficult to explain how we "got" the story on the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech. But our teamwork in handling the story after it "got" allowed us to give readers a full and timely treatment of a national story unfolding in their backyard.”
-- Greg Esposito, The Roanoke Times
IB. Newspapers Under 100,000—Feature, News Feature or Issue Package
“The Missionary”
--Rob Jordan, Miami New Times
IC. Newspapers Under 100,000--Series or Group of Articles
“Cost-Cutters Target Teacher Benefits”
“My winning entry involved a package of stories on teacher health-insurance, a highly controversial topic in Michigan. Most Michigan teacher contracts require school districts to purchase insurance through an affiliate of the Michigan Education Association. It is very, very good insurance, but it also is very expensive. In fact, I could not find a Michigan employer who pays more for health insurance than school districts. The story is especially timely because Michigan school funding is very, very tight and most districts have been cutting staff and services for the past five years.”
-- Julie Mack, Kalamazoo Gazette
ID. Newspapers Under 100,000--Investigative Reporting
“PHEAA Spending”
"My stories on the spending habits of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency grew out of six years of covering a state agency that had fallen under most media outlets’ radar for years. I began covering PHEAA’s meetings after discovering through a salary survey that nine of the top 10 salaries in state government in 2002 were paid to PHEAA executives. Learning that made me curious what this agency did. So I set out to satisfy my curiosity."
--Jan Murphy, The Patriot News
IIA. Newspapers Over 100,000--Breaking or Hard News
"Blemished Backgrounds: The Past of School Bus Drivers"
"When Columbus police stopped a school bus driver for making an illegal turn in January, they found a syringe of cocaine on board and a driver with a shocking history. The situation raised an alarming question: How could someone with three drunken-driving convictions and four other traffic offenses be fit to drive children? A team of Dispatch reporters set out to make sense of the daily developments and explain the flaws that allowed this man to drive a school bus."
--Jennifer Smith Richards, Columbus Dispatch
IIB. Newspapers Over 100,000--Feature, News Feature or Issue Package
"Reading, ‘Riting and Revenge"
--April Jimenez, Long Island Press
IIC. Newspapers Over 100,000--Series or Group of Articles
“Cross-Currents in Mainstreaming”
"Over the past quarter century, few policy changes have transformed public education more dramatically than the movement to include more children with disabilities in mainstream classrooms. Most of the country’s six million special-education pupils are now taught this way. Yet the rise in mainstreaming and its far-reaching effects on teachers and students have received little scrutiny.”
--Robert Tomsho, John Hechinger and Daniel Golden, The Wall Street Journal
II. E Newspapers Over 100,000—Opinion
“Pop-Up Madness”
--Rick Green, Hartford Courant
IIIB. Beat Reporting--Large Media or Market
“Beat Reporting”
“It would have been easy to let a story about a small, radical private school sit, forgotten, at the bottom of the pile of story ideas and clips and studies that threaten to take over my desk... I usually write about public schools, about issues that affect large numbers of students, about tests and new curriculum and whether students are learning what they need to succeed in the 21st century. But every once in awhile, I try to travel well off the beaten track to explore the education hinterlands, which I think also help illuminate what schooling’s all about.”
--Linda Shaw, The Seattle Times
IIIA. Beat Reporting--Small Media or Market
“School Beat Reporting”
"After I'd worked more than 15 years as a full-time investigative reporter, my editors reassigned me to the K-12 education beat. I feared I'd waste away in school board meetings. But I found three approaches that paid off.”
--Andy Hall, The Wisconsin Journal
IVA. Magazines--National Circulation
“I Can Get Your Kid into an Ivy”
"We started reporting “I Can Get Your Kid into an Ivy,” with one considerable advantage: we had a very eager, extremely candid, and highly excitable subject, college consultant Michele Hernandez. What we didn’t have were any of her clients (kids and their parents) who were willing to talk to us on the record. And until we did, we knew we really didn’t have a story."
--Susan Berfield, BusinessWeek
IVB. Magazines--Regional or Local Circulation
“The Test of Their Lives"
“Every year more than 60 high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District match wits in the ten-event intellectual contest known as academic decathlon. The best teams in the city are often the best in the nation: In nine of the last 26 years, the L.A. Unified champion had gone on to win the United States Academic Decathlon. No other school district in America comes close to that record, much less a district as troubled and complex as the LAUSD.”
--Jesse Katz, Los Angeles Magazine
V. Special Interest, Institutional and Trade Publications
“Schools and Race Series"
My series of articles on racial attitudes and their impact on education policy had its origins in conversations with black school board members who complained that race was the elephant in the boardroom. Everyone knew it was there, but no one wanted to talk about it. So when the Nebraska state legislature voted to break up the Omaha school system—possibly along racial lines—I knew it was time to visit the city and launch a series of stories examining the link between race and education policy.”
--Del Stover, American School Board Journal
VIA. Television--Hard News and Investigative
“Seats for Students”
“In November of 2008, the Clark County School District (Las Vegas, Nevada) will ask voters to support a 10-year bond to build new schools. A year out from the vote, we wanted to explain the issue and find out if a new bond would be a tough sell.”
--Kathy Topp,KVBC-TV Las Vegas, NV
VIB. Television--Documentary and Feature
"Little Rock Central; 50 Years Later"
“Ever since we became documentary filmmakers, we have been trying to make a documentary at Little Rock Central High School. As natives of Little Rock and as a graduate of Central High, we wanted to explore the legacy of a school and moment in history that symbolizes the state of race and education in Little Rock and America not only 50 years ago, but continues to do so today. There have been numerous documentaries and movies done about the events that happened at Central High in 1957 and the Little Rock Nine, but no one has ever examined how those events have shaped Central High School today. So with unprecedented access, we decided to spend the entire year leading up to the 50th Anniversary filming inside the famous high school.”
--Brent Renaud, Downtown Community Television Center
VII. Radio
“Northwestern High Series”
"Every time you go to another school board meeting, a little voice has probably whispered in your ear: 'Get me out of here.' Listen to that voice, and get into a classroom. Sitting in class, or in the main office of most schools, can be a bore. But I've never regretted taking that time out."
--Larry Abramson, National Public Radio
EDUCATION NOTES: NEA conference, school food prices, Algebra for younger students
NEA Seeks Greater Federal Partnership
Convention season is here and the National Education Association is asking federal policy makers to help improve public schools by supporting its "Great Plans for Public Schools 2020" platform. The plan calls for a new balance among federal, state and local leaders to commit to making all public schools great by 2020. NEA asks that socio-economic factors be addressed as one of the strategies to improve learning opportunities for students. NEA says the federal government should build on a framework by addressing the following: supporting teaching as a desired/complex profession; sustained support of Title I and IDEA students; equal access to education services and other supports; support state-led public school transformation through a process that is transparent and makes people accountable; establishing high quality educational research; supporting best practices that result in student achievement. Read what EWA president Richard Whitmire has to say about NEA in his op-ed piece for Politico.com.
Randi Weingarten has been elected as the new president of the American Federation of Teachers. Weingarten spoke at EWA’s annual meeting in Chicago. One of her first acts as AFT president is to pan presidential hopeful John McCain’s education plan. Weingarten says in a release that the senator’s call for more school choice, incentive bonuses for teachers under the No Child Left Behind Act, “old, failed quick fixes.” AFT announced its support of Barack Obama at its annual meeting in Chicago.
Are High Grocery Prices Hurting School Cafeterias?
The education team at U.S. News and World Reportfinds the rising cost of food is hurting school cafeterias across the country. For parents, that means they will shell out more money for school lunches this fall. A recent study conducted by the School Nutrition Association finds that 75 percent of school nutrition directors are planning to raise fees in order to cope with the high food prices. That’s got some federal lawmakers worried because they say too many children depend on cafeteria services each day.
Algebra for Eighth Graders
Some educators are concerned about a new policy change for California schools requiring students to take Algebra I in eighth grade. If you find yourself reporting on the topic and need a source, one person you might contact is Terry Vendlinski, a senior researcher at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at UCLA, and an algebra teacher. He’s done research on student math achievement and has worked with teachers on how to improve student skills. He may be reached via email at vendlins@ucla.edu.
New Pathways for Student Success
The National League of Cities and the Alliance for Excellent Education held a panel discussion in Washington, D.C. on how best to expand educational opportunities for students at risk of dropping out of school. Karl Dean, the mayor of Nashville, TN., spoke about his time as a public defender and his efforts at trying to improve the low graduation rates in his home city. Nashville has a 70 percent graduation rate. Dean says his “city is on the rise” and credits initiatives he’s helped to develop such as giving middle and high school students more access to after-school tutorial opportunities will boost graduation rates. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, and former governor of West Virginia, says more mayoral leadership is needed to reduce drop out rates. In addition, education advocates like Bethany Little from the Alliance discussed the outdated federal funding inequities saying support is greater for elementary and higher ed, in comparison for middle and high school students.
EWA Notes
Joan Richardson is the new editor in chief of Phi Delta Kappan Magazine. Richardson is a former EWA board member and Detroit Free Press reporter. She most recently worked as the publications director for the National Staff Development Council.
Going on Vacation?
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Higher education listserv
Email Michelle Everett, our membership coordinator, meverett@ewa.org, and ask her to take you off the listserv. Email her when you return to get placed back on.
Reporter Positions; Upcoming Event
The Daily Breeze is looking for an education reporter. The newspaper has a circulation of 70,000. If interested, send resume, clips to: Frank Suraci, City Editor, Daily Breeze, 5215 Torrance, Calif., 90503-4077; or e-mail: frank.suraci@dailybreeze.com.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is looking for an experienced reporter to join its education team. The newspaper has a daily circulation of 182,212 and Sunday circulation of 274,494. If interested, please send a cover letter, resume and work samples to: Danny Shameer, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, AR 72203, 501-378-3568, dshameer@arkansasonline.com.
Are Today’s Teens Better Off Than Their Parents? Sign up for the Foundation for Child Development and the New America Foundation’s event July 22. The groups will release the 2008 Child Well-Being Index, a comprehensive report on the overall health, education, well-being and quality of life of America's children.
<<From the Beat>>
Undocumented students have a degree of anxiety
by Gale Holland
Los Angeles Times
He took 15 AP classes in high school, and kicks himself for passing up two others. Now, he is graduating from UCLA, with a double major in English and Chicano Studies and a B-plus grade point average. But for all his success, Miguel does not share the full-bodied exuberance of the graduating seniors who marched last month five abreast into Pauley Pavilion, belting out the '60s hit "Build Me Up, Buttercup." A native of Puebla, Mexico, he is an illegal immigrant.
Legacy of UT's oil wealth: a denuded landscape
by Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
American Statesman
Investors appealed to the patron saint of impossible causes when oil drilling began on University of Texas System land in 1921. Since then, the UT System's 2.1 million acres in West Texas have produced $4.4 billion in royalty payments and other mineral income for the Permanent University Fund, an endowment that supports the UT and Texas A&M University systems. But this long-running bonanza for higher education exacted a price from the remote, semiarid landscape where it all began.
Poor kids' teachers earn less in Metro
by Jaime Sarrio
The Tennessean
Some of Nashville's hardest-to-educate students are taught by the district's least-experienced, lowest-paid teachers, an inequity education leaders have struggled for years to address. A Tennessean analysis of teacher salaries and experience levels shows a clear pattern: The district's top earners with the most experience and education are more likely to work in schools with fewer poor and minority students.
Please send your best stories and member news to Mesha Williams at publications@ewa.org.
**About us**
The Education Writers Association is the national professional organization of education reporters dedicated to improving education reporting to the public. Contact us by email at ewa@ewa.org, by phone at (202) 452-9830, by fax at (202) 452-9837 or by mail at 2122 P Street NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC, 20037
Our officers include: Richard Whitmire of USA Today, president; Kent Fischer, education reporter at the Dallas Morning News, vice president/actives; Marie Groark, senior policy officer and spokeswoman for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, vice president/associates; Kathy Baron, morning host/education reporter at northern California's KQED-FM (on leave), secretary; Linda Lenz, publisher of Catalyst, immediate past president. Our board members include Dale Mezzacappa, former reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and now a Philadelphia-based freelance writer, Tanya Schevitz, higher education reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle; John Merrow of Learning Matters Inc.; Rodney Ferguson, executive vice president of Lipman Hearne Inc. Find contact information at our Web site, http://www.ewa.org.
