About the Entry

The Hechinger Report’s Tara  García Mathewson has focused on documenting new efforts to make public schools more effective by, for example, replacing traditional grades with demonstrations of mastery, or having students perform simple but meaningful science experiments.

• District says 24 credits and a D-minus average aren’t good enough
• Sending parents useful information about attendance, course progress has big effects, social scientists find
• With no silver bullet, innovation abounds at this bilingual high school
• The next generation of science education means more doing
• Making ‘Big Data’ useful rather than scary for teachers
• States will soon be free to transform standardized testing, but most won’t
• Fitbit for education: Turning school into a data-tracking game

Entry Credit

• Tara García Mathewson, Staff Writer , The Hechinger Report

Comments from the Judges

“A fascinating, creative, informative beat, extremely well executed.”

“Promises bold story ideas and understanding of innovations and trends, fulfilled by strong enterprise reporting.”

SEE THE FULL LIST OF 2017 FINALISTS