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A Reporter’s Guide to Covering Hybrid Teaching & Learning
As the pandemic-driven disruption to education persists, many schools across the country are or soon will be providing hybrid instruction — a combination of in-person and remote classes. Sometimes, the same teacher even delivers both modes simultaneously.
Hybrid learning can be the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds, said Bree Dusseault, the practitioner-in-residence at the Center on Reinventing Public Education.
New to the Beat: Announcing the 2021 Rookies
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce the class of 2021 for New to the Beat, a mentoring and training program for journalists with less than two years experience covering education.
The 28 rookies were selected through a competitive application process. Each will be matched with an experienced education reporter who will serve as a mentor and coach for the duration of the six-month program. The rookies also take part in specialized training opportunities.
A Busing Program’s Troubled Legacy
Louisville Courier-Journal investigation: Controversial plan to combat segregation favored white students, hurt Black students and communities
(EWA Radio Episode 263)
Can busing Black students to schools outside of their immediate neighborhoods make public education more equitable? How can reporters better cover the history of such desegregation efforts, and the impact on young people, families, and communities?
Covering the Pandemic Child Care Crisis
Experts discuss how existing inequities have been exacerbated in the strained sector
America’s system of child care was already seriously strained by surging expenses, high staff turnover and dwindling capacity before the pandemic upended everything.
“COVID really just highlighted the pre-existing situations and challenges of the early childhood system across the nation,” said Dionne Dobbins, the senior director of research at Child Care Aware of America, a research and advocacy group. “When COVID hit, it was layering it on top of a very fragile child care system — and, you know, some would say it even shattered.”
Oregon’s ‘Class of 2025:’ Meet the Middle Schoolers
Oregon Public Broadcasting’s multi-year series follows students, families from first grade through high school. (EWA Radio Episode 262)
Imagine keeping tabs on the same group of students and families for nearly a decade — Oregon Public Broadcasting has done it, and plans to keep going through the next four years. OPB editor Rob Manning and education reporter Elizabeth Miller share stories from the cast in this project, which is supported in part by an EWA Reporting Fellowship.
What’s on the Horizon for Early Childhood Education in 2021?
Local and national preschool efforts provide clues
Eight months into the pandemic, voters in Multnomah County, Oregon, approved a new tax on high earners to fund a program called Preschool For All.
The action represents a major early childhood investment during a recession that threatens to drive many child care providers out of business. It also puts forth a compelling model for solving some of the problems that publicly funded preschool and child care programs in other states and cities haven’t fully addressed.
Suggestion Box for EWA’s 2021 National Seminar
Submit your ideas for speakers, topics and training
The Education Writers Association invites members and the public to suggest sessions for our 2021 National Seminar, which will be held online May 2-5, 2021.
Our 74th National Seminar will focus on the theme of “Now What? Reporting on Education Amid Uncertainty.”
Why More Men Are Missing Out on College
The decline in student enrollment during the coronavirus pandemic is seven times as steep for men as women, raising questions about the long-term impact on individuals and communities (EWA Radio Episode 261)
COVID-19 is remaking the college landscape, especially when it comes to who’s pursuing – and who’s pausing – on higher education. New data shows the decline in enrollment is seven times as large for men as for women.
EWA Opens Registration for 2021 National Seminar
Now What? Reporting on Education Amid Uncertainty
COVID-19, viral examples of racism, financial distress and political discord: Reporters covering education amid these crises have never faced more challenges, or been more important to the nation. And despite the recent spread of vaccines, hope for economic recovery, and changes to federal policies, the education and journalism worlds still both face extraordinary difficulties in 2021.
Experts Offer a Quick Roundup on Student Loan Forgiveness
Webinar will provide journalists with resources, context and answers about education debt forgiveness plans.
Proposals to forgive some or all of the nation’s $1.5 trillion in student loans are making headlines as the Biden administration considers how to restart the economy and make the U.S. education system more equitable.
Tracking State Policies Around Children’s Well-Being
The ongoing pandemic has heightened concerns about children’s mental and physical health, food insecurity and trauma. One factor that can have a big impact on children’s health that is too often overlooked by the media: a state’s policies governing schools’ responses to student health and safety issues.
Member Spotlight: ‘Breaking News Monkey’ Rises to Editor and Restaurateur
EWA Member Emmeline Zhao turned a side hustle into a second career.
After a full day of overseeing The 74 Million’s reporting projects and multimedia offerings on COVID-19’s impact on educational inequities, Emmeline Zhao quickly shifts to her second career: Managing a new Greenwich Village restaurant that the New York Times has praised as a delicious “synthesis of Chinese ideas and the Hudson Valley farm-to-table movement.”
Get Firsthand Insights Into the Congressional Education Agenda From U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott
What’s the outlook for federal education legislation now that Democrats control (though, admittedly, just barely) Congress?
EWA Caucus on Teaching & Learning: An Online Reporting Community
COVID-19 has fundamentally disrupted the core enterprise of schools — teaching and learning. With education reporters on the front lines to help the public make sense of the pandemic’s impact on schools and students, EWA is offering a unique opportunity for journalists to step up their game.
Survey of Education Journalists Sheds Light on Impact, Obstacles
With education at the center of the news, journalists who cover the topic face a host of challenges, including harassment, threats, and obstacles to gaining access to education institutions, officials and public information. Plus, a racial mismatch between the largely white education journalism workforce and the students they cover is a critical concern of reporters and editors on the beat.
Who’s Tracking Student Learning Loss?
In Washington, a lack of data could hurt schools looking to help student catch up (EWA Radio Episode 260)
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, states are largely leaving it up to individual districts to decide how to track how much — or little — of the standard school curriculum are K-12 students learning during the pandemic. One reporter surveyed her state and discovered that many communities aren’t even trying to find out. Joy Resmovits of The Seattle Times offers insights, tips, and questions to ask of state and local education officials when looking at student learning loss amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Release Event for The State of the Education Beat Report
Survey of journalists reveals impact, obstacles, and what needs to change in profession
Education is at the center of the news like never before. But what obstacles do education journalists face as they seek to inform the public? What do they see as the most important issues in education today? And what do they believe needs to change about their own profession?
For answers to these and other questions, watch this State of the Education Beat report webinar, based on a national survey of education journalists. The report was produced for EWA by the EdWeek Research Center.
Four Strategies for Covering Student Activism
Reporters should broaden source networks and avoid assumptions about "success."
Student activists are increasingly making news, tackling issues such as campus racism, rising tuition and college administrators’ often arbitrary pandemic responses. But they often complain that coverage of their activism can be shallow, cliched or even biased.