Nov. 19 Education Reporter: Get up to date on education, reports, trends and issues
Education Reporter
Nov. 19, 2007
Your official newsletter of the Education Writers Association
Read the newsletter on our Web site at http://www.ewa.org/
IN THIS EDITION: Foreign language reports, seminars, and new professional opportunities
<<ON THE BLACKBOARD >>
EWA BOOTCAMP: The fourth annual Education Research and Statistics Bootcamp for Journalists will take place March 13-16 at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles. The bootcamp offers reporters training on how to recognize good research and also gives them time to learn skills in either Excel, Access or SPSS while developing a data-based story with the assistance of a mentor with skills in data-based journalism. Travel costs up to $250 and three nights of hotel, as well as three lunches, three breakfasts and one dinner are covered. Participants are limited to 18, so you must have a strong, thoughtful application to be accepted. The application deadline is Dec. 17.
Download the entry form to apply. And check out what your colleagues did, based on the 2007 bootcamp.
District Reform Seminar: Mark your calendar for December 7-8 because EWA will hold a conference on district reform, ‘What's Cosmetic and What's Meaningful?’ in Houston. The seminar will look at pay for performance, improving teaching, reforming middle schools and the middle school-to-high school transition. Seminar agenda is on our web site. Scholarships are available.
Save the Date: EWA will hold its 61st annual conference April 24-26 in Chicago. This year’s theme is “Still at Risk?” All sessions will be held at the Wyndham Chicago Hotel, 633 North St. Clair Street. Seminar agenda, registration and brochures are coming to our web site soon.
Get Your Best Stories Ready: It’s contest time! EWA will continue its tradition of honoring the best in education reporting. Awards are given in 18 categories (small and large papers, national and regional magazines, trade publications, television and radio). Online entries are welcomed in any category. The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting is awarded for the ‘best’ of first prizes. Deadline: January 11, 2008. Presentations will be made in Chicago at the EWA national seminar on April 26.
NEW TOOLS AND REPORTS
BOOSTING TEST SCORES: In Arizona, English Language Learners are less likely to pass state high school exit exams on the first try in comparison to their peers. That’s according to "Caught in the Middle: Arizona’s English Language Learners and the High School Exit Exam" report released by the Center on Education Policy. The center finds that ELL students comprise 15 percent of Arizona’s public school enrollment. Despite a number of efforts to help students pass exit exams the report says it is not known how much the intervention is helping. Some barriers include a lack of funding, not enough classroom space, a shortage of teachers of English as a second language and English immersion, inadequate materials, and too little time to work directly with ELL students or collaborate with other teachers. CEP makes a number of recommendations to state policymakers.
Also check out CEP’s "Reading First: Locally Appreciated, Nationally Troubled" report on the federal reading program aimed at improving the reading skills of high poverty, low-performing schools. Despite what the center describes as mismanagement of the program at the national level CEP finds 82 percent of states say Reading First is boosting the skills of students who receive instruction.
URBAN REPORT: Test results from 11 urban school districts show some progress on standardized math tests while reading gains have been less consistent. The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Trial Urban District Assessmentreleased results from the 2007 Nation’s Report Card in math and reading highlighting student performance in the largest U.S. urban school districts. The report includes achievement trends in the districts since 2003 in math and 2002 in reading. A good analysisof TUDA comes from Kevin Carey at Education Sector.
‘ TO SPEAK A FOREIGN LANGUAGE?’: More college students are taking classes in foreign languages, according to a recent survey released by the Modern Language Association. It found students are enrolling in Arabic and Chinese language classes in higher numbers. Spanish language courses are still the most popular among students.
COLLEGE PERSPECTIVE: High school students have another tool to help guide them in their college admissions process. College Portrait is a five-page web template providing information such as school enrollment rates, undergraduate profiles, retention rates, and financial aid packages of participating institutions. The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) created the web site for students.
ACADEMIC GOALS: Three-quarters of African-American and Latino students in California attend segregated schools and are more likely to experience inadequate learning opportunities, according to the "California Educational Opportunity Report 2007" . The report was released by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access University and the University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity.
PRE- K NEWS IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The quality and efficiency of California early childhood programs is the subject of two new reports. This month the RAND Corporation has released “Early Care and Education in the Golden State: Publicly Funded Programs Serving California's Preschool-Age Children” and “Who Is Ahead and Who Is Behind? Gaps in School Readiness and Student Achievement in the Early Grades for California's Children.” Researchers investigated the existing system of publicly supported programs for early childhood education to see how policies can be reformed.
<<MEMBER NEWS AND NOTES>>
Members of EWA will participate in a new yearlong journalism project- BeatBlogging.Org,which willhave some reporters using social networking as a way to improve their beat reporting. The experiment is the brainchild of Jay Rosen, author, blogger and New York University professor. BeatBlogging.Org is designed for reporters to write on issues specific to their beat in hopes of creating an online community Selected reporters forBeatBlogging.Org include Kent Fischer, EWA vice president and Tawnell Hobbs of the Dallas Morning News. Also on board are EducationWeek's Michelle Davis and Brad Wolverton of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Twelve news organizations and News Assignment.Net are collaborating on the project.
Jade Floyd has accepted a senior associate position at Chlopak, Leonard, Schecter and Associates, a public affairs firm in Washington. She is the former communications manager at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Arielle Levin-Becker is the new education reporter for the Hartford Courant. She takes over the education beat from Bob Frahm, who took a buyout after 20 years at the paper and 30 years covering education. A former EWA president and board member, Bob will continue writing about education and is working with his son, jazz saxophonist Joel Frahm.
FROM THE EWA LISTSERV
Reporters never fail to question why embargoes should be honored. A recent EWA Listserv discussion found many reporters believe it is important to respect embargoes (especially if the group releasing a report personally requests it from reporters). Reporters said they follow embargoes because thatit gives them more time for writing, researching, and preparation to interview local officials. In addition, reporters said it helps them keep access to their sources and avoid future hassles.However, if an organization does not contact the reporter to request an embargo, most members on the listserv said they didn't feel obligated to follow a stipulation on a press release.
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, MEETINGS, and JOBS
EWA is seeking a part-time development associate. Please send a letter describing your interest, resume and writing sample to Tracee Eason, Administrator Coordinator, teason@ewa.org, or ewa@ewa.org. You can also fax materials to (202) 452-9830.
New Voices, a project of the J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism is accepting applications for innovative news start-ups. Ten projects will receive funding in 2008. Each project may receive as much as $17,000. New Voices encourages former Knight newspaper communities to submit proposals. Think you are on the cutting edge of news?
The Teaching Tolerance Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center is looking for a curriculum writer to develop classroom materials for its preK-12 teaching kits, web site and magazine. Teaching Tolerance serves 400,000 educators annually. Prospective candidates should have experience in curriculum development across academic subjects and grade levels. If interested send a cover letter, resume, references and a relevant lesson plan sample to: Human Resources, Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104. Or materials can be emailed to humanresources@splcenter.org. No phone calls, please.
The Phillips Foundation is accepting applications for its 2008 Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship Program. Print and online journalists with less than ten years of professional experience are eligible. The foundation awards $75,000 and $50,000 full-time fellowships and $25,000 part-time fellowships to journalists to complete a one-year project of their choosing, but should emphasize the role of journalism supporting American culture and a free society. Applications must by postmarked by March 1, 2008. The winners will be announced next May at an awards dinner at the National Press Club in Washington. The starting date for the fellowships will be September 1, 2008. Applicants must be citizens of the United States.
For more information, visit www.thephillipsfoundation.org, or contact: John Farley of The Phillips Foundation, 1 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 620, Washington, DC 20001, Phone: 202-250-3887, ext. 609. E-mail: jfarley@thephillipsfoundation.org.
<<FROM THE BEAT>>
Pokin around: A real person, a real death
One St. Louis family describes the pain of losing a daughter to suicide after they learn a classmate's motherduped her on MySpace. Read Tina and Ron Meier's account on how their teen-aged daughter's involvement in the popular world of social networking went terribly wrong.
Will Jonathan graduate?
The Washington Post continues its special report "Fixing D.C. Schools" with this two-part series following 18-year-old Jonathan Lewis' quest to graduate from Coolidge Senior High School. Lewis and his classmates struggle to rise above failure but find the cycle is hard to break.
Single-sex schools make comeback
Single-gender public school classes are on the rise nationally and in Michigan, where the Legislature approved a law allowing them in 2006. But experts and educators don't agree on whether separating girls and boys significantly raises their academic achievement without reinforcing gender stereotypes.
Student money vanishes, but few are punished
Management of District of Columbia student funds is chaotic, oversight is ineffective and the people responsible for plundering or squandering the money are rarely held accountable, according to internal audits, court documents, interviews and school records.
UCLA dentist school scandal
The UCLA School of Dentistry was hit by separate scandals involving allegations of favoritism toward relatives of deep-pocket donors and student cheating on licensing examinations.
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