#EWANewtotheBeat depends on talented @EdWriters mentors to take time away from their important work. Thank you, @matt_barnum @lizbowie @daarel @KavithaCardoza @EricaLG @fernandesglobe @ehanford @shebel @CsanchezClaudio @LShawTalk @smallwd @DeleceWrites @Lindakwert @aliaemily!
There is just nothing more energizing than spending a couple of days with dedicated @EdWriters reporters who ask smart questions, listen, and share. The future of the education beat is in great hands! #EWANewtotheBeat
The most important tool for incorporating setting, scene, and character into your reporting?
“You have to leave the office.” - @louisekiernan, Editor in Chief of @ProPublicaIL #EWANewtotheBeat
Looking for voices for your narrative story on deadline? “One good person is better than six mediocre people,” says @louisekiernan. #EWANewtotheBeat
One of the challenges for @EdWriters journos who want to do narrative journalism, per @ProPublicaIL’s @louisekiernan: getting access to the schools where so many of those stories unfold. #EWANewtotheBeat
Prediction from @Daarel: School spending under #ESSA will be what test scores were under #NCLB. With new requirements to share school-by-school data, disparities will come into the bright light. #EWANewtotheBeat
How much is being spent annually on K-12 schools? $649 billion per year - twice as much as 30 years ago. But a growing body of research says that money is not distributed fairly -- and it's not enough, @Daarel tells @EdWriters' rookies. #EWANewtotheBeat
K-12 spending is the largest single component of states' budgets. It's about half the tax dollars, and that fuels public's interest -- and criticism -- of how much schools *really* need, says @Daarel. #EWANewtotheBeat
Watch for expenditures on district-issued credit cards of even amounts (like $100): that's often a cue that someone's buying gift cards, @Tawnell tells @EdWriters' rookies.
"How often do you go through the checkout line and it's an even amount?" #EWANewtotheBeat
Investigating spending by Dallas school district, @Tawnell and team found junket to local hotel where one board member lived two blocks away but stayed overnight: “She literally could have walked home.” #EWANewtotheBeat
Superstar @Tawnell is teaching
@EdWriters rookies how to follow the (district) money: start with requesting detailed budgets, purchase orders, check logs, and credit/purchase card expenditures. #EWANewtotheBeat
Smart advice for @EdWriters members from @DeleceWrites: Don't confuse the Big New Thing in #highered with actual innovation. Sometimes it's just repackaging what what's already been done before. #EWANewtotheBeat
On hot topic of #highered #STEM majors, ask what individual institutions are doing to boost black and Latinx students in those fields including PhD.s, says @DeleceWrites #EWANewtotheBeat
Data is a starting point for reporting: "You have to do your own investigating. Numbers don't tell the whole story." - @DeleceWrites #EWANewtotheBeat
There are three main areas of disagreement among Democrats & Republicans on #highered policy, says @rkelchen: accountability of for-profit colleges: how much fed. money should go out in financial aid; and approach to enforcing accountability laws like Title IX. #EWANewtotheBeat
States typically don't have much capacity to regulate #highered institutions -- it's a gap that's been left to the feds to fill, says @Wil_EdTrust. #EWANewtotheBeat
A crash course in the #highered landscape (and how we got here) for our #EWANewtotheBeat rookies, courtesy of @wil_edtrust @rkelchen @DeleceWrites.
Helpful cheat sheet from @matt_barnum on understanding causal vs. descriptive studies. #EWANewtotheBeat
Is a piece of education research trustworthy? Start by asking whether "the methods justify the conclusions," says @matt_barnum. #EWANewtotheBeat
Test scores like #NAEP have limited usefulness because they can't tell you *why* the numbers go up or down, says @matt_barnum -- but that doesn't stop policymakers from using them to bolster their own points of view. #EWANewtotheBeat
Shattering the myth: “You don’t have to be good at math to understand education data and research.” -@matt_barnum #EWANewtotheBeat
One of our #EWANewtotheBeat mentors this year is @CsanchezClaudio, winner of @EdWriters inaugural lifetime achievement prize. Find out why he says we all need to focus more on the overlooked kids in every classroom:...
There are sometimes unreasonable presumptions and expectations that reporters of color should be the go-to person on stories about communities of color, says @CQuintanaDC. That's not how truly diverse newsrooms work best, he says. #EWANewtotheBeat
As a white female reporter who regularly interviews students of color and their families, "I don't try to pretend I understand something when I really don't," says @lizbowie. "I acknowledge we come from different places, and that's a rich and wonderful thing." #EWANewtotheBeat
Let your interview subjects know who you are, says @Public_Ade: that means sharing areas of common experience as well as acknowledging your blind spots. #EWANewtotheBeat
#FOIA can be fun! says @morisy of @MuckRock: Find out which Big Beverage Conglomerate has the contract to pour the soda at your local colleges and universities. #EWANewtotheBeat #cokevspepsi
Filing open records requests isn't about trying to tick off your school system's PIO, says @MuckRock's @morisy -- even though some of them might take it a tad personally: "You're just asking them to follow the law." #EWANewtotheBeat #FOIA
