This is an email from BRIGHT Magazine.
Education journalists still committed to shining a light on schools and teaching.
Dear Bright community,
Wow.
I just left the Education Writers Association’s national seminar in Washington, D.C., and I can assure you there are a lot of smart, talented reporters out there working hard to cover schools, colleges, teachers, education technology, school financing, education equity and much more.
Some are the only reporters in their state to cover education exclusively. Others are part of a cohesive education team on a newspaper reporting at both the state and local level. All seem to be fully committed to, and passionate about, fairly and accurately reporting what is going on in education, and explaining it in an approachable manner. We at Bright are, too.
Among journalists, the education beat does not often make it to the top of the “most glamorous” list. That’s usually reserved for politics, business or criminal justice. But there sat Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, known to the world as the editor who oversaw the investigative team in the movie Spotlight, hero to many a reporter, guest speaker at the education seminar on Wednesday. And this is what he said:
“I think education coverage is incredibly sexy.”
Hear that, everyone?
Baron also said, “The strength of our state and local papers is vital to the civil society we have in the United States.”
An open and robust press is crucial to a well-functioning democracy. But newspapers, magazines and websites are still closing or shedding jobs at alarming rates, reporters are lashed to click rates as measures of their performance, newsrooms have been starved to 1/20th or 1/50th of their former size and now journalists are being assaulted by the people they cover. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos declined to speak to the education writers gathered in D.C., the first and only secretary of education to do so.
It’s grim out there. But reporters are an idealistic lot, and despite the job loss, the roadblocks and the physical threats, we are as committed as ever to covering the beat, getting the story and demanding transparency and accountability. The health of our country depends on it.
And now, to the stories for this week. The first two are 2016 National Awards for Education Reporting winners, announced at this week at the seminar.
For Native Students, Education’s Promise Has Long Been Broken
By Kelly Field in The Chronicle of Higher Education
The contest judges said of this story: “This is an excellent and multi-layered piece that lets the people tell their story against the backdrop of expectations outside their community.” Field follows four high school students on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana as they consider college. The odds are not in their favor. American Indian and Alaskan Native students “are the least likely to enroll in college, and the second least likely to graduate on time, just behind black students,” Field writes.
The anonymous town that was the model of desegregation in the Civil Rights era
By Lynnell Hanckock in The Hechinger Report
Of this three-part series the judges wrote: “Great use of details, characters, story structure set in historical context. Excellent and revealing read.” In the first story, Hancock writes about the legacy of racial segregation and desegregation in a town she describes as “an oasis of tolerance and pragmatic gentility in the Mississippi Delta, the blackest, poorest, ‘most southern place on earth.’”
How To Create A Kids Supper Club: A Recipe
By Andrea Gurwitt in Bright
Kimberly Janeway saw that kids in her town weren’t going home for dinner. So she created a program to teach them how to cook a simple, nutritious meal, and how to sit down together to eat it. Six years later, the supper club is still going strong. We provide a recipe so you can start a supper club in your community, too.
A High School Gap Year Could Mean the Difference Between A Diploma and Dropping Out
By Duke Bradley III in Bright
A high school principal proposes a gap year after ninth grade for students far behind in math and English.
How Can Schools Help End Hunger? Invite Kids to Dinner
By Jackie Ashton in Bright
For every 10 students who eat a free or reduced-price lunch, only one has a meal or snack after school, according to one study. A growing number of schools across the country are serving dinner after the last bell rings to help kids stay healthy and do better in school.
