Help Is at Hand, When and How You Need It

Linda Perlstein, EWA’s public editor

You’re on deadline, your editor wants one more quote about state test results, and you can’t bear the thought of falling back on Ed Trust or FairTest yet again. You want to know if the new preschool report that plopped on your desk comes from an organization with an agenda. You have a simple query you don’t want to post on the listserv, where your competitors might see, or you have a complex project you want to talk through. You’re new to the beat and having trouble getting bureaucrats—or middle schoolers—to talk to you. You’ve been on the beat forever and dying for a new take on the snow day story, the budget rollout story, the college admissions envelope-anticipation story.

 Whatever your needs, I’m here to help. As the new public editor for the National Education Writers Association, my only job is to help you do yours.
 It’s a resource that, as far as we at EWA can tell, doesn’t exist for any other beat. You don’t have to belong to EWA to use it—though of course we’d love for you to join—and you don’t have to pay. The work we do together will stay confidential. All you have to do is e-mail (lperlstein@ewa.org) or call 202-506-6899.

As well, I’ll be posting regular bulletins to the newsletter and website. In a regular feature called Stories That Work, I’ll explain what steps a reporter took to elevate what could have been a typical beat piece into something much stronger. For topics education writers have to tackle every year—the kind of stories that can feel deadening after a while—I will suggest fresh ideas. The column will highlight frequently used terms that are unclear or even misleading. (Did you know “universal” pre-K is not really universal?) And as a former graphics editor, I’m eager to promote ideas that will help you tell your story visually and get it better display. 

Of course, the greatest value of this job will be responding to your needs. So please let me know the kinds of advice you’d love to see, examples of Stories That Work, and any other suggestions you might have that would make make the Public Editor resource as helpful as possible.

 And don’t be afraid to call me on deadline!