The Grade

Here’s Media Matters’ liberal-leaning list of the Worst Media Failures On Public Education In 2015, which includes criticism of The Seventy Four (for publishing Eric Owens), the WSJ AND Washington Post editorial pages, Fox News, Presidential debate moderators, and editorial pages at The Buffalo News, Scranton Times-Tribune, The Albuquerque Journal, the Los Angeles Times, & Seattle Times (for “baselessly attacking teachers unions”).

Let’s start the new year off gently with some education journalism job news: Over the weekend, you may have heard the voice of Lee Hale on NPR, reporting about the challenges of being a special education teacher (It’s Not Easy Teaching Special Ed). Hale, one of three Kroc fellows, is apparently the newest member of the NPR ed […]

NYC took steps to boost academic diversity in 2015, new report shows ChalkbeatNY:  The department stopped most middle schools in three districts from screening applicants based on their academic records, and allowed 51 low-performing middle schools to recruit students from beyond their normal catchment areas, the report said. The department also added 20 new “educational option” […]

Welcome back! I’m doing some longform writing this week, but you can find what few things strike my interest (and what folks are Tweeting at me to get my attention) here or via Twitter or Facebook. I’ll be back full-speed here on Monday January 4th: Tweets about “@alexanderrusso”

Thanks to all of you who read and comment on this site, and send me ideas and correct my wrong-headedness on all sorts of issues. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned and how much I appreciate engaging with you. I’m off to Boston this morning to spend the holidays with my mom and […]

At number 10 of The Atlantic’s 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015, This American Life’s pair of segments on school segregation gets a nice writeup:  “The Problem We All Live With” was an ambitious undertaking even for TAL, chronicling segregation and integration in public schools… Of special note is an outlandish PTA meeting with parents spewing a […]

After a long period in which its national education coverage seemed like it was in disarray, AP announced new plans today for A New Multi-Format Team for Education News Coverage. Will be it any different than the recent past, or previous attempts at revamping the AP education coverage? It’s not entirely clear. It may be hard […]

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Watch the NBC News story above, or read the Washington Post version: School canceled for 11,500 New Hampshire students after weekend threat of attack.  Feds: Most NYC elementary schools violate disabilities act AP: In a letter addressed to the city Department of Education’s top lawyer, […]

Education reporters — journalists in general — rarely have time to stop and think about the impact of their work on the people they write about. Teachers, parents, and students don’t always realize the impact participating in a new story can have on their lives, either.   So it’s particularly interesting to listen to this episode […]

Threats cause N.H. schools to close Monday USA Today: A police investigation was ongoing late Sunday, but the district, one of New Hampshire’s largest with about 11,500 students, didn’t plan to reopen schools until Tuesday, Superintendent Mark Conrad said. Classes cancelled in Virginia over Islamic calligraphy lesson AP: Tens of thousands of emails and Facebook posts have been received, […]