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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.
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 Deborah Veney of NewSchools Venture Fund. They are replacing outgoing board members Dakarai Aarons, Scott Elliott, and Cornelia Grumman.
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.
EWA Invites Education Journalists to Apply for Fellowships With Career Pathways Lens
Awards of up to $8,000 will support ambitious reporting and writing
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce a call for proposals for its next class of EWA Reporting Fellows, this time with a focus on pathways to and through higher education for all types of students. The fellowships provide financial awards to journalists to undertake ambitious reporting and writing projects. This will be the fifth class of EWA Reporting Fellows.
“We are delighted to be able to offer more opportunities for our journalist members to bring innovative reporting projects to fruition,” said EWA Executive Director Caroline Hendrie.
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.
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.
Covering Teens: Lessons from the “Raising Kings” Journalists
Getting heartfelt, personally revealing comments from teenage boys is difficult enough for parents. So reporters Kavitha Cardoza and Cory Turner had to take a few creative risks to get good audio for their National Public Radio series on an all-boys public high school in Washington D.C. last year.
How Careful Data Analysis, Shoe-Leather Reporting Exposed Inflated Graduation Rates
It began with a feel-good story: A struggling high school in Washington, D.C., had turned itself around and was sending all its seniors to college. When a reporter dug deeper, however, she discovered that many students should not have qualified to graduate—one in five had even missed more than half the school year.
Students at Center Stage of ‘March for Our Lives’
D.C. rally draws hundreds of thousands; Youth nationwide call for stricter gun control laws
Common, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, and Lin-Manuel Miranda were upstaged at Saturday’s March for Our Lives by teens and tweens who had survived school shootings and those who face the threat of gun violence in their daily lives.
Word on the Beat: School Resource Officer
After Maryland campus shooting, armed staff in spotlight
What it means: The definition and assigned duties of a school resource officer (SRO) can vary widely, although many schools — particularly at the secondary level — have some version of the staff position. In certain districts, schools call anyone on campus with security responsibilities the SRO, and many are unarmed. At the other end of the spectrum, some states require SROs to undergo the same police academy training as sworn peace officers.
Three Countries in 14 Minutes: School Choice Lessons From Abroad
Vouchers, private schools, and open enrollment in France, Sweden, and New Zealand (EWA Radio: Episode 162)
School choice is one of the most contentious issues in K-12 education today. But it’s hardly an American invention. Sarah Butrymowicz of The Hechinger Report recently traveled to New Zealand, Sweden, and France to look at how school choice plays out, and whether there are lessons for the U.S. system. Why is New Zealand considered a “school choice utopia,” and how is its open enrollment policy driving programming and competition among local campuses?
‘Reading, Writing, Evicted’: How Housing Woes Hurt Students and Schools
New series looks at academic and health effects of student mobility (EWA Radio: Episode 161)
In Portland, Oregon, so-called “no cause” evictions are forcing hundreds of students to switch schools — sometimes more than once — during the course of the academic year. That leaves individual kids struggling to stay on track academically, and schools scrambling to high rates of student turnover.
Educators ‘Cultivate’ Connections to Build Character
Building character is an everyday event, woven into the fabric of how school is done on every level, educators and students told journalists during a conference in New Orleans on educating for character and citizenship.
A key goal is creating a community of trust among students and faculty, said educators at several schools that put character development at the center. During the panel discussion, they used words like “love” and “team” to describe their schools, emphasizing the mutual respect that they work to cultivate between students and teachers.