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What Reporters Should Do Before and After a Layoff
Kavitha Cardoza speaks to several experts about how reporters can best prepare before and after layoffs occur. Get tips and resources! (EWA Radio Episode 300)
If you’re a journalist who was laid off (or is concerned about your job after recent cuts at Gannett and Bustle Digital Group), what should you do? Get advice from our EWA Radio episode, and review the resources below.
Investigating How Politics Is Affecting Education? Here’s What to Know
Amid an ‘all-time high’ in partisan polarization in the U.S., get background and tips to better cover the politicization of education and how it affects students.
Political influence over what students are learning in the classroom has been at the forefront in recent years, but its impact goes back decades.
Panelists discussed how public school districts and higher education institutions are handling the current political climate during the 2022 National Seminar in Orlando last July.
Educators are dealing with fatigue related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and political stress, including accusations of teaching critical race theory to school children, researchers said.
Reporters: You’ve Been Laid Off. Now What?
The statistics about layoffs in journalism are becoming depressingly common.
Reporting on the Student Loan Debt Crisis? Here Are Insights From Experts
Experts tackle questions of fairness and the future of student loans and forgiveness.
A few weeks before President Joe Biden announced that borrowers who earn less than $125,000 could get up to $20,000 of student loans forgiven, experts at the Education Writers Association’s 2022 National Seminar discussed the fairness of forgiveness and the complexity of the student debt crisis in America.
How Are States Using COVID-Relief Funding to Close the Child Care Chasm?
Early childhood educators and advocates lament a missed – and much needed – opportunity.
The Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan originally proposed a historic $380 billion in funding for child care and universal pre-Kindergarten. In the latest iteration of the bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, these plans were scrapped last August.
Covering Student Loan Forgiveness: 5 Tips From Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
A Washington Post higher education reporter shares insights to help journalists cover the new federal student loan forgiveness program and higher education debt more broadly.
This blog was republished with permission from The Journalist’s Resource, which published it Aug. 25, 2022. (Disclaimer: The author serves on the board of directors for the Education Writers Association.)
Covering After-School Learning Amid the ‘Engage Every Student Initiative’? Here’s What Reporters Should Know
Leaders involved in summer learning and after-school programs share background and give advice to reporters.
Pandemic-relief funding helped develop a new initiative to boost quality summer and after-school learning programs.
Four leaders involved in out-of-school organizations told journalists what a quality program looks like and what to watch for after the Engage Every Student Initiative began rolling out in July. The federal government partnered with five private organizations to give students access to “high-quality, out-of-school time programs” as part of the initiative.
Are ‘Merit’-based Education Admissions Practices Racist?
Experts outline problems with - and efforts to improve - use of SAT scores, affirmative action, school lotteries.
It is one of the thorniest topics in education: What criteria should be used to fairly determine which students are admitted to America’s “elite” public schools, colleges and universities?
Many top schools have faced criticism in recent decades for not reflecting the nation’s racial and socioeconomic diversity.
EWA Reporting Micro-Fellowships: Up to $5,000 for Ambitious News Projects on Education
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce a call for proposals for its 15th class of EWA Reporting Fellows. These micro-fellowships provide financial awards to journalists to undertake ambitious, enterprise reporting projects.
How Teaching 9/11 Is Changing
For many of us who remember Sept. 11, it’s difficult to process that two full decades have passed since the terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Some of those moments remain so clear – and so painful – that the wounds feel fresh.
Covering Conflicts Over Academic Freedom, Tenure and Campus Speech Amid Growing Legislative Restrictions
Reporters navigating these ongoing issues can look beyond the legislation and examine the root causes and more.
Legislators across the country have ramped up efforts to influence what students learn in classrooms. While much of the attention focuses on K-12, there are high stakes in higher education that ripple on campuses and beyond.
Since January 2021, legislators have introduced 191 bills in 41 states to limit discussion of certain topics at both the K-12 and postsecondary level, according to PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression.
When Schools Get Hacked
In the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable K-12 and college systems are increasingly paying millions to unlock hijacked computer networks from hackers.
(EWA Radio: Episode 255)
Across the country, increasingly aggressive hackers are breaking into school computer systems and holding sensitive student information for ransom. Education leaders often quietly pay big bucks to regain control of their networks.
Covering Native American Students
Stories about Native American students are rarely told in education. And when they are, coverage is often a one-off piece, usually around Thanksgiving, which focuses on their challenges. Sasha Aslanian sought to change this. (EWA Radio Episode 299)
Covering a community different from your own can be tricky – especially when that community has a fraught relationship with the U.S. education system created by years of racism and cultural erasure.
Building Math Momentum By High School: Tips for Reporting on Math
Debates about reading instruction tend to make headlines, but here’s why journalists shouldn’t overlook math.
Math can often be an overlooked subject in education journalism, compared with its oft-debated counterpart, reading.
But the stakes have never been higher in math class in the shadow of the pandemic, with widening achievement gaps along racial and socioeconomic lines.
Back to School: Story Ideas for K-12 and Higher Education Reporters
Two of the best beat reporters in the country share story ideas for the new academic year, including enrollment changes, staff shortages and dates you should mark on your calendar. (EWA Radio Episode 298)
A pair of veteran education journalists share insights for what’s ahead this fall and beyond. Mila Koumpilova of Chalkbeat Chicago shares issues she is keeping an eye on, including enrollment changes, staff shortages and following up on summer school.
Why Education Reporters Should Approach Rising Anti-LGBTQ Sentiments As a Public Health Issue
What do journalists need to know to effectively cover LGBTQ students? Those knowledgeable on the issues provide insight.
Classrooms are bearing the brunt of anti-LGBTQ sentiments surging in the U.S. How are educators and school districts responding? How do journalists go about unpacking the issues, especially when vulnerable groups – children and teenagers – are personally affected? What are the risks to sources in doing this reporting?
Student Loans
About 44 million people in the U.S. owe on student loans. At more than $1.5 trillion, education debt now exceeds our credit card balances and auto loans.
EWA Tip Sheet: How to Cover Students’ Academic Recovery
Get background, tips and story ideas for covering academic recovery, and any resulting achievement gaps, at K-12 and higher education institutions.
More than two years into the pandemic, colleges and schools are trying to help students make up for lost instructional time.
What’s ahead on the path to academic recovery? Experts offered their perspectives on what reporters should look for and be mindful of during a session at the Education Writers Association’s 2022 National Seminar.
The panel agreed that students have a lot of ground to make up because of the disruption, though all students don’t have the same distance to go.