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.

Blog: The Educated Reporter

Lack of Sleep Affecting Adolescent Learning? Coverage Tips for Early School Start Times
Get background, story ideas and advice.

July 30, 2021 BY LYNNE LAMBERG FOR EWA

“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.

Blog: The Educated Reporter

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.”

July 13, 2021 BY SCOTT TRAVIS OF THE SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL FOR EWA

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.

Blog: The Educated Reporter

With Schools Reopening Full-Time, What Pandemic-Driven Changes Will Last?
Get 7 story ideas to help you cover K-12 and higher education shifts that may have staying power.

July 12, 2021 BY KRISTA JOHNSON OF THE MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER FOR EWA

Despite the many hardships the pandemic caused, the COVID-19 disruption also sparked – or in some cases accelerated – changes to K-12 and higher education that leaders say should stick.

The speakers pointed to the power of flexibility, the need to focus energy and resources that will serve the “whole student,” and how increased outreach and new communication strategies with students and families could be transformative during a plenary at the Education Writers Association’s 2021 National Seminar.

Blog: The Educated Reporter

Free College Tuition Isn’t Enough: Fresh Story Ideas on the Dropout Crisis
What education reporters need to know about social service programs that can help close the completion gap

July 9, 2021 BY JAMAAL ABDUL-ALIM OF THE CONVERSATION FOR EWA

When it comes to writing news stories about efforts to help low-income students earn a college degree, journalists may be tempted to focus on “promise” programs that provide free tuition and, occasionally, intense academic counseling.

State of the Education Beat 2021
A Critical Profession at a Time of Crisis

Past Awards

2019 EWA National Awards for Education Reporting

2018 EWA National Awards for Education Reporting

2017 EWA National Awards for Education Reporting

2016 EWA National Awards for Education Reporting

2015 EWA National Awards for Education Reporting

2014 Recipients of the National Awards for Education Reporting

2013 Recipients of the National Awards for Education Reporting

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