BOTW 0728
This big Vox school segregation piece http://ow.ly/xTeT30dXCyZ is a strong followup to January piece on white self-segregation (and by the same journalist, Alvin Chung). The most important graphic shows the dramatic increase in high- poverty schools over the past 17 years – roughly 70 percent. But there are also some great quotes, including Erika Wilson: “People who are fortunate enough to form utopias do so on the backs of other folks who have been excluded.”
Some might object to the focus on district secessions, which are a tiny part of school segregation over all. But Rebecca Sibilia points out that successful secession attempts “affect 350,000 students, and create a poverty divide as big as 26% in places like Shelby County and Germantown.” PDK’s Josh Starr tells us that new poll results coming out soon will have data on public attitudes towards integration.
Speaking of race and schools, US News and The 74 were among those who covered the pushback against union head Randi Weingarten’s claims that vouchers were close cousins to segregation. EWA board member Dakarai Aarons shut down all debate with his tweet noting that “Our public and private school systems were both born in segregation and racism. This debate is silly. Let’s focus on making schools better.”
Tech magazine Recode notes that Priscilla Chan’s CZI is likely to become one of the largest and most ambitious philanthropies in the world. However, Mike Rosenberg notes that some kids at Zuckerberg’s school for low-income Silicon Valley families are leaving because their parents are priced out of the housing market. Not much CAI can do about that – or is there?
HONORABLE MENTIONS [help!]
When the worst elementary school in Dallas closes, what happens to the kids? https://t.co/b12kLvdGVi DMN
KUOW: Law intended to help homeless students used instead to stack high school sports https://t.co/axjo3NrvoR
Chalkbeat: New federal rules are pushing Indiana to explore giving state tests in Spanish https://t.co/oyizcCrQ0B
Delaware Design-Lab High School [XQ Super School Project winner] charter modified; founder leaves leadership post https://t.co/5WDuBVxxnj
NYT: Foster Care as Punishment: The New ‘Jane Crow’” https://t.co/36FKQJdocZ
Two Hundred Teachers Brave the Heat to Protest Trump’s Education Agenda
https://t.co/mAUnhRHP4U EdWeek
Undocumented suspensions persisted in D.C. schools despite repeated alerts
He Called the School Board Racist. Now, He’s Joined It. – The New York Times
Hech: There are 2.4 million fewer college students than there were five years ago
Absent Teacher Reserve cost NYC $151.6 million this past school year, far more than previously estimated https://t.co/fVt3lGLWBR chalkb
Are systemic biases impacting literacy education? http://www.educationdive.com/news/are-systemic-biases-impacting-literacy-education/447675/ … via @EducationDive
.@fvaraorta reports where K-12 enrollment booms & busts expected in next decade. D.C. schools forecast to grow 42% http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2017/07/US_student_enrollment_to_decrease_in_Northeast_but_boom_in_South_and_West.html …
One Dallas ISD school drew kids from 5 public housing projects. Yes, Dallas is still that segregated https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2017/07/27/worst-elementary-school-dallas-closes-happens-kids …
Boston Globe: 50 years later, Metco’s dream is still unanswered https://t.co/CvbEED0KZz
Outside the mayor’s gym, protesters face off with member of New York City’s Absent Teacher Reserve https://t.co/jG7dTQKmVX
Only a quarter of Washington school-board races are contested
Seattle Times https://t.co/c6nc0mwp6w
Seattle Times Homeless students drawn to Seattle schools by sports are often cast aside when the season’s over https://t.co/TvFyoEn1jJ
NYT: How Home Visits by Nurses Help Mothers and Children, Especially Boys – The New York Times https://t.co/JxllbozqaS
FROM THE GRADE
This week’s column was the much-anticipated Worst Education Journalism of the Year roundup, featuring categories like Worst Story, Worst Coverage, and Worst Journalist. It is the annual counterpart to December’s Best Education Journalism of the Year roundup.
Reactions varied widely. Jenn Borgioli Binis called it “unsurprisingly thoughtful” and “not what I thought it was going to be.” Folks who don’t like Valerie Strauss’s blog spent a lot of time complaining about Valerie Strauss’s blog. (She’s nominated for Worst Journalist, along with Kate Zernike, Campbell Brown, and me.) Akil Bello called the “#hateread awards!” NY Daily News reporter Ben Chapman noted that he was “grateful to not be nominated.” Politico NY’s Eliza Shapiro said “What is the point of this?” Hechinger Report honcho Liz Willen lamented having “wasted my time” reading it, and called instead for more education coverage.
Last week’s column, focused on coverage of the LA school board race this spring, got some positive attention on Twitter. LA Observed mentioned it its media roundup. Parent activist Karen Wolfe called it a “super insightful take” on what was left out of the coverage. Reporter Dan McGowan said that the call for political reporters to be more involved was fine but that it was “really important to understand BOTH politics and education.”
The Guardian’s profile of Betsy DeVos got a lot of criticism from education journalists for its focus on DeVos’s appearance. Politico’s Caitlin Zimma noted that The opening of the piece was “devoted to comparing the looks of Betsy DeVos and Ivanka Trump.” Colleague Michael Stratford quipped “I missed all the coverage of what Arne Duncan & John King wore when they read to kids.” The HuffPost’s Rebecca Klein Tweeted “If you’re going to criticize DeVos, just do it. Don’t critique her for not *looking* the part.” The LA Times’ Joy Resmovits noted that “there are plenty of things you can say about Betsy DeVos without dinging her appearance.”
No response yet from the Guardian’s DC bureau chief, David Smith, who penned the piece.
Another profile of DeVos, published in New York Magazine, didn’t generate the same kind of pushback. Penned by Lisa Miller, the piece was in some ways more vicious. But it didn’t focus on DeVos’s appearance. There were a couple of questions though, including mine about the dearth of named USDE sources in the piece (there’s just one) and Anya Kamenetz’s question about whether the 80 percent of students attending public schools cited in the piece was accurate (it apparently excludes charter schools). Kamenetz also chimed in on the criticism of the Guardian story, noting “I remember asking whether sexism was a factor in her unpopularity and everybody got SO MAD.” There’s also a fascinating and totally unnecessary correction appended to the piece.
PPT
*Frontline’s September 2016 segment “The Education of Omarina” has been nominated for an Emmy. Congrats to all, including Mary Robertson.
*Congrats to BuzzFeed’s Molly Hensley-Clancy and CQ’s Emily Wilkins on being named National Press Foundation fellows.
*Congrats also to the NYT’s Erica Green on being recognized for her work on juvenile justice journalism by Baltimore magazine.
*Did a Middle School Student Break Both Arms Jumping Off a Water Tower for a Science Project? [No.] via Snopes https://t.co/FSQPaZVaPS
*Congrats to Chicago Public Schools teacher and education blogger Ray Salazar, who’s slated to publish a novel.
*Nearly 500 education stories are included in the beta Solutions Journalism Story Tracker http://ow.ly/sxov30dUhx9 Is yours in there?
*Next week: Follow the Money: Digging Into School District Finances – Education Writers Association https://t.co/u37zYfpSip
*The Student Press Law Center has rolled out a new online reference resource to help enforce open-records laws.
*Former Spencer Fellow Claudia Wallis is joining the Hechinger Report as a columnist. Her first piece is here: http://bit.ly/2tJfK2i
KICKERS
Oklahoma teacher panhandles to raise money for school supplies
CBS News: Jennifer Lopez used a gender-neutral pronoun for her sister’s child and her fans are going wild https://t.co/hqwcBq1eUC
Pew: California, Texas and New York were the top states by number of refugees resettled in fiscal 2016. But Nebraska, North Dakota, Idaho took in most refugees per capita.
LA Daily News: Fired LAUSD teacher [Rafe Esquith] can sue district for alleged discrimination, court says
TRIMS
Here’s the Emma Brown version of the NAACP story, not to be confused with the Valerie Strauss version from earlier today.
Teachers With Student Debt: These Are Their Stories https://t.co/QYYkGazFsy
NAACP: School choice not the answer to improving education for black students
Full NAACP report on charter schools http://www.naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Task_ForceReport_final2.pdf …
A fantasy @EdWriters talk/panel, webinar for anyone who’s read Swamp Nurse or Expectations.
Boo warns writers to not to fall in love w/ the narrative craft too much, but rather to “view it with a gimlet eye.”
https://t.co/522Tvoaa9W
Merrow
Reporters know that unnamed sources talking about the future is “just speculation. I’m not sure readers do.” https://t.co/5iaDgjU9ih 538 “Trust a source who says something happened; distrust a source who says something *might* happen.”
Media outlets tend to report scary things that end up not being as big or important as they might seem http://ow.ly/lTyq30dY3Ne Missing any?
