Journalist’s Trade

Which Way They Go Could Depend on What Journalists Know and How They React

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Reporting the Story and Pitching in to Fix the Problem

Photo by Michelle Patterson, The Lexington Herald-Leader.Education writers often try to measure the success of their local schools by analyzing such things as test scores, class sizes and poverty rates.…

Pages from Gene Graham’s Nieman year sketchbook.Confession: I actually went to journalism school. And now I teach in one. But I’ve also spent plenty of time in newsrooms, a dual…