Readers respond:Pro tips from scholars for journalists (and vice versa)

Carmen Nobel, program director: 

Last month, in hopes of providing an opportunity for our readers to learn from each other, I posed two questions in this newsletter. My question to the scholars: Have you noticed any common mistakes in news stories about academic research? And to the journalists: What’s one thing you’d like academic researchers to understand about journalism? The answers were thoughtful, insightful and (mostly) respectful. I look forward to posing more questions next year.

https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/reporting-tips-journalists-deadlines-statistics/

 

A project of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and the Carnegie-Knight Initiative, Journalist’s Resource is an open-access site that curates scholarly studies and reports.

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Formaldehyde and leukemia: What research reveals about the risks

Formaldehyde and leukemia: What research reveals about the risks

Chloe Reichel, research reporter: My pick is a deep dive into the research linking formaldehyde exposure with leukemia, a topic that got some attention last summer when news came out that the Environmental Protection Agency was suppressing a report purportedly making this connection. I thought, if the EPA won’t release the report, why not ask the experts myself? It’s a long read but I think it’s worth taking the time, especially considering the ubiquity of the chemical (do you even vape, bro?). It’s also a story about politics, research methods and the intersection of industry and academia, so really there’s something for everyone.

https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/public-health/formaldehyde-leukemia-cancer-epa/

A project of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and the Carnegie-Knight Initiative, Journalist’s Resource is an open-access site that curates scholarly studies and reports.

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11 questions journalists should ask about public opinion polls

11 questions journalists should ask about public opinion polls

Denise-Marie Ordway, managing editor: This tip sheet isn’t sexy, but it’s really important. On practically every beat, reporters write about opinion polls and surveys. But they don’t always do it correctly. I created this tip sheet to help my fellow journalists spot problems, ask better questions and understand what a poll’s results are really telling them.

https://journalistsresource.org/tip-sheets/reporting/public-opinion-polls-tips-journalists/

A project of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and the Carnegie-Knight Initiative, Journalist’s Resource is an open-access site that curates scholarly studies and reports.

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DeVos Department of Ed Cancels Obama-Era Guidance Aimed at Reducing Racial Disparities in School Discipline

janresseger

Here is some news you may have missed. On Friday, December 21, as everybody took off for the holidays, the Education and Justice Departments rescinded Obama-era school discipline guidance designed to address vast racial disparities in school discipline practices.  Particularly important was the purpose of the guidance: reducing overuse of suspension and expulsion, encouraging schools to handle discipline policies in ways that keep students in school, and developing restorative discipline programs to create a safe school climate. Officials in the Trump administration, including Betsy DeVos and her Federal Commission on School Safety, continue to endorse punitive discipline.

The Washington Post‘s Laura Meckler describes the Obama-era guidance and the recent decision to cancel it: “The guidance, which was not binding, put school systems on notice that they could be violating federal civil rights law if students of color were disciplined at higher rates than white students.  It laid out scenarios…

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GRCC part of ‘Great Start for Higher Education’ early childhood initiative Updated Jan 2

GRCC part of ‘Great Start for Higher Education‘ early childhood initiative MLive.com GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Grand Rapids Community College is among four Michigan community colleges involved in a federally funded initiative to …  https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/01/grcc-part-of-federal-great-start-for-higher-education-early-childhood-teacher-initiative.html

Snyder signs school letter grades, school safety bills into law

From HollandSentinel.com
Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw, requires the Michigan Department of Education to give every school an A-F letter grade in five categories: students’ overall …

https://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/20190102/snyder-signs-school-letter-grades-school-safety-bills-into-law

Join the Teachers of the Year: Speak Out Against the Detention of Immigrant Children

Last year, the administration began enforcing a “zero tolerance” immigration policy. This policy resulted in about 3,000 children being separated from their parents or guardians and being detained in federal detention facilities. Currently 2,800 minors remain at the centers and the number continues to grow.

Next month, teachers, led by many of our states’ Teacher of the Year, will lead a “teach-in” outside the massive detention camp in Tornillo, Texas. The teach-in, with lessons delivered by educators, will tell the nation what is happening with the children and who they are.

The coalition sponsoring the teach-in is Teachers Against Child Detention. The Network for Public Education strongly supports their efforts and asks you to go here and sign up to do a simple action in support! Here is the link to share.

https://www.teachersagainstchilddetention.org

 

Happy New Year and thank you for all that you do!

Please share this email on social media.

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/join-the-teachers-of-the-year-in-speaking-out-against-the-detention-of-children/

 

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Charter School Sector Cannot Be Reformed or Effectively Regulated

janresseger

As we begin a new year, consider that charter schools were first authorized thirty years ago.  As this sector of publicly funded but privately operated schools has matured, it has become clearer that a serious set of problems are part of charter schools’ very design. Charter schools were envisioned as free to innovate and less bound by regulation and bureaucracy.  In a fine analysis just before the holidays, the Executive Director of the Network for Public Education, Carol Burris summarizes some of the most pervasive problems she has noticed as she has traveled through a number of states examining their charter school sectors. The Network for Public Education has published two in-depth, multi-state reports on the impact of charters and school privatization—the recent Grading the States, and the 2017, Charters and Consequences. While charters are established in state laws which may differ from state to state, Burris has…

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