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Covering School Board Meetings? Tips to Tackle the COVID-19, Critical Race Theory Culture Wars
Attending hyper politicized school board meetings in this day and age requires much preparation.
Division over COVID-19 and racial justice is playing out in school board meetings across the country, turning typically sleepy gatherings into politicized and, at times, volatile events.
When meetings turn contentious, reporters need to take care to avoid amplifying misinformation, and provide context on key issues and the board’s authority.
Covering Critical Race Theory: Resources and Tips to Debunk Misinformation
How reporters can arm themselves with knowledge to prevent the spread of intentional and unintentional incorrect information.
After a more than 40-year-old graduate-level, academic research framework became the center of a national culture war that began last year, misinformation and disinformation infiltrated the public sphere, and internet searches increased.
In 2019, Nexis listed a total of 635 news articles mentioning “critical race theory.” Today, the phrase is cited in more than 5,000 pieces a month. And the vast majority of those stories focus on how history and race are taught in schools.
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.
EWA Reporting Fellowships: Up to $10,000 for Ambitious News Projects on Education
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce a call for proposals for its next class of EWA Reporting Fellows, in support of enterprising news coverage of education. The fellowships provide financial awards to journalists to undertake ambitious reporting and writing projects. This will be the 13th class of EWA Reporting Fellows.
To date, EWA has supported more than 100 projects, resulting in a rich array of high-quality education stories in various media in communities across the country.
All Eyes on Enrollment as K-12 Students Return to School
Pandemic-driven shifts may have lasting repercussions.
Enrollment in K-12 schools, which plunged by 1.5 million students during the first wave of COVID-19, appeared poised to bounce back this fall. But then, the delta variant of COVID-19 raced across the nation, and school districts confronted the possibility of further shutdowns and lost students.
Higher Education Seminar Fall 2021
"This Critical Moment" to be explored online Oct. 18-22.
The Education Writers Association is delighted to announce that we will hold our 2021 Higher Education Seminar during the week of Oct. 18-22 as a series of interactive online gatherings on how journalists can cover today’s most pressing issues in education beyond high school.
Centered on the theme of “This Critical Moment,” the event will offer journalists high-quality, convenient training on issues, including the health challenges confronting campuses, the growing debate over how to teach about racism, and the causes and impact of declining enrollment.
A Report Card on Teacher Retirement Systems
What education journalists need to know about an important but undercovered issue
State retirement plans for teachers are wildly uneven in quality, according to a new analysis. Some teachers can’t collect Social Security under their state plans, yet their retirement benefits don’t make up the difference. And, some are building up huge bills that taxpayers will have to pay.
Home Ec’s ‘Secret History’
New book explores how home economics influenced American life and public education beyond 'stitching and stirring' (EWA Radio Episode 276)
Often overlooked and misunderstood, home economics is about far more than learning to bake cakes or sew lopsided oven mitts, argues education journalist Danielle Dreilinger. She discusses her new book, “The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live.”
How to Fund Your Dream Reporting Project
13 organizations will provide financial and editorial support to education journalists.
Editor’s note: This story was updated August 23, 2021.
Here’s some rare good financial news for education journalists: If you have an idea for an ambitious education-related story – and a realistic plan for executing it – a growing number of organizations will provide grants or other resources to support your reporting.
Representatives from several organizations, and some fellowship winners, shared tips and strategies for getting help to make reporting dreams a reality.
Online Learning Will Continue This Fall. What Do Reporters Need to Know?
Although school districts nationwide are expected to offer full-time, in-person instruction during the 2021-22 academic year, millions of students are poised to stick with online learning, with the number of virtual options growing. This raises a host of important questions for families, communities, and educators.
Watch the Education Writers Association’s timely webinar on remote learning. Experts identified critical questions education reporters should be asking in their local communities and provided some early answers.
JOIN OUR TEAM
Want to help improve journalism and the coverage of education? The Education Writers Association is hiring! EWA is the national membership nonprofit that supports journalists who cover education and learning from birth through adulthood.
Our mission is to strengthen the community of education writers and improve the quality of education coverage to better inform the public. We’re a small organization, so our staff members get lots of learning and leadership opportunities.
8 Questions to Ask About College Enrollment Numbers
COVID-19 sparked enrollment declines at universities, especially among low-income students.
As students and higher learning institutions prepare for the fall semester, lagging vaccination rates and the rise of the delta variant present unanticipated challenges.
For reporters looking to tell stories about how the ongoing public health crisis is affecting higher education access, enrollment numbers are a good place to start.
How to Cover COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates and Bans at Colleges
Learn about the key players, find data, get story ideas and more.
The fast-spreading COVID-19 Delta variant is forcing rapid changes in colleges’ vaccination plans and requirements. And these changes are encountering backlash from state legislatures and students as they roll out.
Reporters covering the vaccine and its usage among students, faculty and staff at colleges need to provide context on how policies comport with state laws or preemptions, how students and local communities are affected by these decisions, and how to track vaccine mandates’ rollout and potential outbreaks.
Share Your Best Ideas for EWA’s 2022 National Seminar
The Education Writers Association is planning to celebrate its 75th anniversary at the 2022 National Seminar in Orlando, Florida, from July 24 to 26. But first, we need your help.
Suggest speakers you’d like to hear, topics to address, and training to help education journalists from around the nation.
Babies and Toddlers
If learning begins at birth, then so does the education beat. Research shows the first three years are the most important period of development in what experts call “brain architecture.” This architecture “provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health,” according to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
Lack of Sleep Affecting Adolescent Learning? Coverage Tips for Early School Start Times
Get background, story ideas and advice.
“What’s keeping you up at night?”
Science journalist and author Lydia Denworth posed that question to a pair of experts on adolescent development during the Education Writers Association’s 2021 National Seminar.
“Sleep!,” speakers Adriana Galván of UCLA and Denise Pope of Stanford University both said at a panel. Adolescents, they agreed, don’t get enough of it.
Brain Waves: Covering How the Science of Learning Translates to the Classroom
Cognitive science has vastly expanded the body of knowledge on how people learn in the last 25 years. Yet, little of that knowledge has trickled down to the classroom.
A small, but growing, number of schools and districts are working to change that. More educators are looking at the science of learning after concerns expressed about learning disruptions and recovering from the pandemic. To learn more, watch the webinar recording below.
Pulitzer Prize Winner: How to Cover Stonewalling or Antagonistic School Boards and Leaders
South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Scott Travis provides tips on ways to get beyond “No Comment.”
When a school district wants to hide corruption, mismanagement and misspending, it will do what it can to make a reporter’s job difficult.
As the education reporter covering Broward County Public Schools in Florida – a district plagued by a school massacre, an $800 million construction bond boondoggle and the arrest and resignation of its superintendent – my beat has been difficult.