Articles

In the Midst of Poverty, People’s Stories are Hard to Tell

Small Staffs, Lack of Resources, and Families’ Fear of Reprisals Add to Difficulties in Coverage

An Albanian Newspaper Is Reborn

Kosovo Refugee Journalists Refuse to Let Their Reporting Be Silenced

The Price of Hope: Investigating Disparities Among Rich and Poor Schools

Photo by Diedra Laird, The Charlotte Observer.For years, parents and educators in poverty-ridden pockets of the South sensed the public schools were shortchanging their children. And they were right. Their…

Using Education Data Effectively

After two years of traveling the country working with reporters and editors on computer-assisted reporting techniques, it was clear that no story invokes more fear than the dreaded annual school…

A Newspaper’s Report Cards Offer Revealing Insights into How Well Schools are Doing

Parents stand up to speak at school board meetings, clutching a copy of the newspaper. The dog-eared newsprint is the source of research that buttresses their comments.School officials pore over…

Using Education Data to Build A Story’s Foundation

Parents assist children in a fourth grade math class. Photo by Bill Batson, The Omaha World-Herald.For at least a decade before The Omaha World-Herald published its five-part series “The Learning…

Spring 1999: The Education Beat Introduction

In education, it’s the era of accountability. Teachers are tested to measure their ability to instruct. Students take standardized tests to find out what they have learned and where they…

By Being There, a Reporter Captures a Rare View of Middle School

Ten young teens draped themselves over chairs, forming a sloppy circle in the center of an empty middle-school classroom. I sat on the edge of the circle, an outsider looking…

On-Line Journalism: Frustrations Along the Road to the Future

I knocked on the coach’s office door in the visitor’s clubhouse at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.“Come in,” said Stump Merrill, the gruff manager of the Columbus (Ohio) “While in the…

A Dual-Track Approach to Tackling The Topic of Reading

Reporting the Story and Pitching in to Fix the Problem