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How High Do States Set the Academic Bar for Students?
When measuring what students know and can do on statewide tests, how high (or low) are the expectations for determining academic “proficiency”? A forthcoming report from the National Center for Education Statistics offers insights on this question, including state-by-state analysis.
Why Race and Equity Matter in Education Reporting
Education journalists must think more critically about the ways in which race, ethnicity and gender play into the stories they tell, a panel of experts said at the first keynote session at the Education Writers Association’s national seminar in Los Angeles last week.
2017 Category Winners for the National Awards for Education Reporting
On May 16, EWA announced the category winners for the 2017 EWA National Awards for Education Reporting.
Parkland Survivors and Other Youth Activists: ‘You’re Going to Listen to Us’ on Gun Violence
EWA National Seminar puts spotlight on students
In an emotionally charged session at the Education Writers Association’s national seminar, several student activists urged journalists to keep the national spotlight on gun violence and not let the shootings at a Florida high school and elsewhere be forgotten.
EWA Announces 2017 Winners of Top 3 Education Reporting Prizes
On May 17, EWA EWA Announced the 2017 Winners of Top 3 Education Reporting Prizes.
71st EWA National Seminar
Los Angeles • May 16-18, 2018
EWA’s National Seminar is the largest annual gathering of journalists on the education beat. This multiday conference provides participants with top-notch training delivered through dozens of interactive sessions on covering education from early childhood through graduate school. Featuring prominent speakers, engaging campus visits, and plentiful networking opportunities, this must-attend conference provides participants with deeper understanding of the latest developments in education, a lengthy list of story ideas, and a toolbox of sharpened journalistic skills.
How to Be the Best Moderator at EWA’s National Seminar
Congratulations! You’re an EWA National Seminar moderator. Some of you are old pros at this job, but many are moderating an EWA panel for the very first time.
We’ve put together a webinar to offer guidance and tips on how to be on the top of your game. It will be led by moderator extraordinaire Steve Drummond, the education editor at NPR.
Can Kindness Be Taught? The L.A. School District Is Trying to Find Out.
Social and emotional learning is focus of new curriculum (EWA Radio: Episode 167)
In the nation’s second-largest school district, every preschooler — nearly 30,000 of them — are being taught an experimental curriculum that focuses on so-called “soft skills,” such as empathy and cooperation. Reporter Priska Neely of Southern California Public Radio recently explored the Sanford Harmony model — named for a billionaire banking philanthropist — which is being used with more than 1 million K-5 students nationwide, including in Los Angeles.
EWA Names New Officers and Directors
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members of the EWA Board of Directors, as well as the election of the 2018–2019 officers of the board.
Joining the board for their first two-year terms as directors will be Eva-Marie Ayala of the Dallas Morning News, David Hoff of Hager Sharp, and Debbie Veney of NewSchools Venture Fund. They are replacing outgoing board members Dakarai Aarons, Scott Elliott, and Cornelia Grumman.
Lessons From the Oklahoma Teachers’ Strike
Educators’ walkouts fuel push for better pay, statewide education funding (EWA Radio: Episode 165)
After nine days on the picket lines, Oklahoma teachers are back to work this week. Like their counterparts in West Virginia and Kentucky who also went on strike this spring, teachers in the Sooner State were seeking more than bigger paychecks; they also aimed to draw attention to funding shortfalls for public schools statewide. Ben Felder of The Oklahoman shares his experiences as a local reporter covering what quickly swelled into a national story.
The Ins and Outs of ‘Restorative Justice’ in Schools
What is it? Does it work as an alternative to traditional student discipline?
When students misbehave at school, traditional approaches to discipline say you should punish them to deter future offenses.
But a growing movement toward “restorative” approaches to discipline focuses more on repairing the damage rather than suspending or expelling students.
Though details vary from school to school, so-called “restorative justice” programs instead encourage students to reflect on their transgressions and their root causes, talk about them – usually with the victims of the behavior – and try to make amends.
The Teacher Strikes: What Reporters Need to Know
Teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky are on the picket lines this week, pushing for better compensation for themselves and more money for schools in their respective states.
These strikes come just weeks after West Virginia’s schools were shuttered statewide for almost two weeks in March, eventually sparking the legislature there to award teachers pay raises.
Such work stoppages are historically rare, but the teachers involved say they were necessary to force resolutions to months - or even years - of stalled negotiations.
Word on the Beat: NAEP
What reporters need to know about the 'nation's report card'
What it means: The National Assessment for Educational Progress, sometimes referred to as “the nation’s report card,” is given every two years to a representative sample of the nation’s students in grades 4 and 8 to gauge achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics. Twelfth graders also are tested on roughly the same schedule.
New National Test Data Is Coming: Get Ready!
A fresh round of national test results for reading and math will be released in April, offering a snapshot of U.S. student achievement, plus state-by-state data, and outcomes for 27 large urban districts. The data will shine a light on achievement gaps, as well as trends over time in the performance of fourth and eighth graders. And, invariably, some education advocates and politicians will seize on the data to advance their policy preferences.
There’s a New Federal Budget. What’s In It For Schools?
Education Department sees boost, despite Trump, DeVos' push to downsize (EWA Radio: Episode 164)
After months of wrangling, Congress passed — and President Trump signed — a massive spending bill that ups funding for the U.S. Department of Education. The bipartisan measure is arguably a “wholesale rejection” of Trump’s education agenda, according to Caitlin Emma of Politico’s education team. For starters, rather than meet the call from Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to slash federal aid, lawmakers instead allocated an additional $2.6 billion, bringing the Education Department’s budget to nearly $71 billion. How did this happen?
The New Freshmen: Adult College Students
Higher ed focusing on services, programs to boost enrollment and graduation rates (EWA Radio: Episode 163)
You wouldn’t know it from most media outlets’ coverage of college, but students over the age of 24 account for more than a quarter of the nation’s undergraduates.