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Public Editor

Help Is at Hand, When and How You Need It

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 dropout 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 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. Or 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, the public editor is here to help. Her only job is to help you do yours.

The National Education Writers Association created the public editor position in 2008, as a resource to better inform coverage of education, from preschool through college. Before becoming public editor, Linda Perlstein covered schools for The Washington Post and wrote two books, Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers and Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade. She has also written for The New York Times Book Review, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation, Salon and several other publications, and taught education writing at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Consider Linda your own personal sounding board, editor, coach. More than 200 reporters have called on the public editor for help. You don't have to belong to EWA to do so (though of course we'd love for you to join). The service is free and confidential. All you have to do is e-mail (lperlstein@ewa.org or call 202-265-0280 ). Check out Linda's blog, The Educated Reporter.

Columns

  • An Untraditional Approach, Sept. 29, 2009
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  • The Educated Reporter: Fall Books, Sept. 9, 2009
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  • Don't Take This Resource for Granted, August 19, 2009
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  • Unfulfilled Requirements, July 29, 2009
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  • The High School Obsession, July 1, 2009
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  • Higher ed: For Senior-Year Reality, Try Netflix, June 15, 2009
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  • Accountability: The Power of One Student's Story, May 27, 2009
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  • Higher Ed Accountability: The Associated Press and Historically Black Colleges, April 28, 2009
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  • School Spending: $100 Billion Worth of Stories, April 2, 2009
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  • Testing: Writing About Testing, Beyond the Numbers, March 16, 2009
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  • Journalism Tips: Writing Short, Writing Smart, February 26, 2009
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  • Distance Education: The next big thing: Covering online education, February 13, 2009
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  • School Reform: Small schools, big opportunity, January 29, 2009
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  • Teacher Quality: In Covering Professional Development, It's Not Just the Dollars That Count, January 7, 2009
  • Journalism Tips: Thinking Outside the (Paper) Box Dec. 16, 2008
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  • Higher Ed: Why College? Dec. 1, 2008
  • Higher Ed: BEYOND ACCESS: WHAT ELSE TO WRITE ABOUT COLLEGE, VOLUME 1, October 28, 2008
  • School Politics: THE OTHER ELECTIONS: October 2, 2008
  • Ed Reporter Tips: Stories to do, and story don'ts July 1, 2008
  • Accountability: But Would It Work? June 16, 2008
  • Features:School's Out. You're Not., June 3, 2008
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  • Reading: Clarity First, May 20, 2008
  • Testing: "Gaming the System?" May 12, 2008
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  • Testing: DIGGING FOR DATA, April 14, 2008
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  • Preschool: Little Students, Big Issue, March 24, 2008
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  • Accountability: Principal flight on the rise in the age of accountability, Feb. 11, 2008
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  • Help Is at Hand, When and How You Need It, Jan. 29, 2008
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