Linda Perlstein, EWA public editor talks politics
THE OTHER ELECTIONS

I once covered a school board race in which each of the eight candidates—I kid you not—campaigned on a slogan that was some version of "All children can learn." Yes, we know. Now tell us something we don’t.

Like, what do you think about putting every student in algebra by eighth grade, or in Advanced Placement classes in high school? Should 16-year-olds at risk of failing the graduation exam get double periods of reading and math every day? What’s your philosophy on approving school charters? On dual-language programs? What initiatives, in your mind, should be held sacred from budget cuts?
School board voting guides or campaign stories can be very helpful for readers, if they’re crafted carefully. Questions like "Why should voters elect you?" and "What is your favorite school memory?" may occasionally elicit amusing answers or a tiny bit of insight into a person’s character, but more often they result in clichés you are then bound to print. The ink is valuable; save it for responses that will truly show what kind of choices a candidate would make if in office.

And don’t just ask about views on the issues that are already the most talked-about in the district. Don’t be afraid to ask about the topics you think are important, based on your knowledge of national trends and ground-level observations, whether or not the issues have cropped up yet in the board room. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current teacher and principal evaluation system, and what do you think of factoring student test scores into staff pay? Should students be rewarded for performing well? Do you think preschool should be available to more students, or the pre-K curriculum be changed?

Take a similar approach in writing about, or contributing to political reporters’ stories about, other candidates. If candidates for Congress support using federal money for merit pay for teachers, what do they think such efforts should look like? Challenge them on catch phrases. If they say No Child Left Behind should be amended so that teachers "don’t teach to a test," or students don’t "waste time filling in bubbles," ask what they would prefer an accountability system to look like. Do the mayoral candidates have ideas on how to get experienced teachers into the neediest schools? What do the gubernatorial candidates think about the way their states set, and change, proficiency targets under NCLB?Only 1 percent of voters queried in a USA Today/Gallup poll this month said that education would be the most important issue in their vote for president in November. But while education is not at the top of their lists, it’s still on it: In June, 81 percent of respondents said education is extremely or very important to them. So as elections approach at all levels of government, make sure you give readers plenty of meaningful material to work with.

THE EDUCATED REPORTER
This fall, each newsletter column will introduce you to books I consider invaluable for education reporters, each lesser-known (no Kozol here) but in my eyes indispensible. Perhaps they help you understand the history of the U.S. education system, or the sociology of children and families, or the evolution of a hot-button issue. Maybe they’re just great writing about schools. Or maybe their author is a great source—it’s always a good idea to have read what your sources have written.

One excellent addition to your Rolodex, and therefore your library, is the Temple University ethnographer Annette Lareau. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (University of California Press, 2003) and Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000) are considered seminal books on the sociology of education and the idea of cultural capital. They are without peer in explaining the differences in parenting styles across social classes, and how those differences affect what children accomplish at school.

According to Lareau, middle-class parents see their children as improvement projects, while to poor parents, education is the purview of the school. Middle-class parents are far more facile at the school-home interactions that contribute to a child’s academic success, yet there are advantages to the parenting style of the poor as well. Perhaps none of this is news to you. There’s a lot of value, however, in watching Lareau show why, through compelling, human anecdotes supported by thousands of hours of observation in homes and in schools. More important, she shows why it matters.
Lareau’s observations underlie the efforts of Geoffrey Canada’s massive social services project for children in Harlem, which Barack Obama has promised to expand to 20 cities if elected, so make sure to read them if you are interested in urban reform. Her writings are also valuable for reporters covering parental involvement, the achievement gap, student motivation, literacy and language acquisition, poverty, "affluenza," and play.

Linda Perlstein can be reached at lperlstein@ewa.org.