As veteran education writers and editors leave news organizations, they take with them their knowledge of education policy and their many years of experience. Reporters who are left to write education stories may not have the necessary background needed to comprehensively cover issues such as school budgets and teacher contracts. As a result, investigative, in-depth stories are quickly fading from news pages leaving behind a less engaged press corps and less informed public.

Unfortunately, diminished news coverage has a negative impact on local policymakers who rely on actively engaged reporters to cover education issues and help to inform the public.

To counteract these challenges, the Hechinger Institute on Education and Media, an independent, nonprofit organization at Teachers College of Columbia University, is working to ensure fair, accurate, and insightful reporting about education. Their own writers often help cover education issues for local and national publications such as Time Magazine and USA TODAY; they also provide journalists with information about schools and education policy and provide thoughtful guidance on how to cover those issues at the local level.

With a grant from Joyce, Hechinger will work to bolster prominent coverage in the Midwest of school turnaround challenges, teacher improvement efforts, and state and local uses of federal ‘Race to the Top’ funds, which are earmarked for innovative education reform. Hechinger’s editorial and writing teams will collaborate with print, broadcast, and online news outlets in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee to produce nine ambitious and comprehensive reporting projects in the months ahead.

"It is important to tell the stories of the challenges schools and school systems face as well as their successes as they carry out serious reforms," said Richard Lee Colvin, director of the Hechinger Institute.  "We want to tell those stories in a way that helps policymakers, educators, and the general public to gain a deeper understanding of both the problems of American education and the solutions that are producing real progress and improvement."

Find out more about the Joyce Foundation's Education program by clicking here.