Education Resources

By Rainey, Kate

Looking for information on education? Whether it’s school spending or standardized tests that interest you, the IRE Resource Center has plenty of stories and tipsheets available to help (www.ire.org/resourcecenter). IRE members can order copies by e- mailing rescntr@ire.org or calling 573-882-3364. Stories

* Story No. 22580: School officials in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district painted a more positive picture of the level of violence in schools than was accurate. Suspensions were given to one in six students, more than twice the national average, with black students four more times likely to be suspended. Peter Smolowitz, Adam Bell, Liz Chandler, Lisa Munn, Ted Mellnik, Melissa Manware, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer (2005)

* Story No. 22332: A 14-month investigation of the Cleveland Municipal School District’s transportation department examined wasted resources, mismanagement and fraudulent use of inflated data. School administrators blamed a mid-level bureaucrat they fired, but internal documents revealed he had been ordered to inflate the numbers. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on luxury coaches for athletes. Tom Merriman, Mark DeMarino, Greg Easterly, Dave Hollis, Matt Rafferty, Chuck Rigdon, WJW-Cleveland (2005)

* Story No. 22466: A little-known piece of Ohio legislation gave millions of dollars to a handful of charter schools for special education programs, but an investigation showed that the money was never used for that purpose. The school that received the most funds was caught undercounting its students to avoid hiring additional employees. Jeff Hirsh, Jeff Barnhill, WKRC-Cincinnati (2005)

* Story No. 22401: School district employees abused a taxpayer- funded pre-kindergarten for poor and limited English proficiency children. The principal of one program enrolled her daughter in the program even though she made too much money to qualify. Thirty-four employees did the same, while needy kids remained on the waiting list. Brian Collister, Steve Kline, Holly Whisenhunt, WOAI-San Antonio (2005)

* Story No. 22135: Seattle Public Schools implemented a new “value-added” data method of measuring test scores meant to show students’ progress in reading and math skills from one year to the next, as opposed to using absolute test scores. This report examined how effective the value-added method was in measuring how much students actually learned. Sanjay Bhatt, The Seattle Times (2005)

* Story No. 22125: The reporter developed a “teacher quality index” for this investigation, based on statistically relevant ways to measure teachers’ qualifications. The index enabled the reporter to show that well-qualified teachers were much more likely to work in wealthy school districts, raising questions about the achievement gap between poor and wealthy school districts. Jeanne Russell, San Antonio (Texas) Express-News (2005)

Tipsheets

* No. 2763: “Grading schools with CAR, On and Off Deadline,” Holly Hacker, 7Ae Dallas Morning News. This tipsheet provides advice for managing and analyzing education data. The author lists specific types of data to watch for and pursue, along with time management tips.

* No. 2731: “Tools for the Investigative Education Reporter,” Tawnell Hobbs, The Dallas Morning News. The author suggests types of information to seek out when investigating school districts, such as state- and district-generated databases and contact information for school employees.

* No. 2693: “First Day on the Beat: Investigating Education,” Melanie Burney, The Philadelphia Inquirer. This tipsheet offers five story ideas to turn education into a watchdog beat, including criminal background checks and the superintendent’s contract. Disponible en espanol.

* No. 2668: “Getting the Most From Your Local School Districts,” Mc Nelly Torres, (Fort Lauderdale) South Florida Sun-Sentinel. This tipsheet details how education reporters can use computerassisted reporting to investigate school districts. The author discusses where to find databases, suggests story ideas and explains how to build your own database.

* No. 2329: “Testing, Testing: CAR and Student Assessment,” Holly Hacker, The Dallas Morning News. Confused by test scores? Check out this tipsheet, which offers plenty of advice on how to understand and use test scores. The author suggests different ways to look at the data, explains how to use data graphically and includes a list of online resources.

* No. 2114: “?-rate Tips,” Ken Foskett, Paul Donsky, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The authors detail how to figure out which schools in your area have received money and how to organize your data, along with explaining what to do once you with it.

Past issues of The IRE Journal and Uplink have also featured articles by journalists explaining their investigations of education. They include:

The IRE Journal

* “High Interest: Schools Borrow More than Approved, Costing Taxpayers Millions of Dollars,” Jeffrey Gaunt, (Arlington Heights, 111.) Daily Herald. The reporter explains an investigation of a local school district’s spending, including how he approached the story and how he structured the writing to keep readers interested in a numbersheavy issue. (July/Aug. 2006)

* “Teacher Failures: All 1,500 FOI Requests Fulfilled in Investigation of Tenure System,” Scott Reeder, Small Newspaper Group. Reeder explains how Freedom of Information laws helped him determine whether an education reform in Illinois meant to increase teacher accountability had been effective. (March/April 2006)

* “Registry Flaws: Police Confusion Leads to Schools Unaware of Juvenile Sex Offenders Attending Class,” Ofelia Casillas, Chicago Tribune. The state of Illinois keeps two lists of registered sex offenders: one for adults and one for juveniles. But because the list of juvenile offenders is mainly kept secret, many school officials are unaware that juvenile sex offenders attend their schools. (Nov./Dec. 2005)

* “Learning Curve: Special Needs Kids Overrepresented in City’s Failing and Most Violent Public High Schools,” John Keefe, WNYC-New York. Keefe describes a public radio investigation into the higher percentage of special needs students at New York City’s worst public schools. He discusses how he used Microsoft Access and Excel to analyze data and shared the results. (Nov./Dec. 2005)

* “Looking Ahead: Plenty of Questions Remain for Journalists Investigating Problems at Local Schools,” Kenneth S. Trump, National School Safety and Security Services. Trump cites critical aspects of school crime and violence that reporters and editors should understand prior to doing these stories. He discusses how statistics usually under-estimate crime, how school safety is a political issue and how the districts themselves doctor numbers they report to police. (Nov./Dec. 2005)

Uplink

* “Tech Tip: Excel and VB help crack school finances,” Duane Schrag, The Salina (Kan.) Journal. Schrag explains how Microsoft Excel, Access and Visual Basic helped him calculate how much it would cost for school districts to implement the findings from a recent study about school spending. (May/June 2006)

* “Trouble in Schools: Assault Data Riddled with Holes,” Jeff Roberts, David Olinger, The Denver Post. The reporters compared schools’ self-generated report cards, also known as School Accountability Reports, to police incident reports. They discovered schools were vastly under-reporting assaults, even when students were injured and pouce were called to the schools. (Nov./Dec. 2005)

* “Charting the Cheaters,” Holly Hacker, The Dallas Morning News. Statistical analysis demonstrated that teachers in Texas were cheating on standardized tests. Hacker explains her investigation and provides advice to reporters undertaking similar projects. (May/ June 2005)

* “First Venture: New-teacher Data Boosts Narrative Project,” Tara McLain, (Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal. McLain explains how analyzing a database of teacher licenses revealed that the state of Oregon was hiring more older people than previously thought. A formula provided by NICAR helped clean the data to eliminate duplicate entries. (July/ Aug. 2004)

* “Education: Scholarship Program Takes from the Poor,” Maurice Tamman, The Atlanta JournalConstitution. Lottery and state education data showed that the state of Georgia’s HOPE college scholarship program, which is funded by the lottery, primarily benefits middle- and upper-class white students. (May/June 2004)

There are also a number of Web sites offering information on education:

* U.S. Department of Education (www.ed.gov): The Department of Education’s Web site has information on federal budget and policies, as well as annual performance reports on department programs. Organizations within the department also have their own data on their own pages, such as the Institute of Education Sciences (www. ed.gov/offices/Ust/ies/index.html) and the Education Resources Information Center (www.eric.ed.gov).

* American Educational Research Association (www.aera.net): AERA is a professional organization dedicated to education research and its use. The group publishes several scholarly journals and some of the articles are available on the Web site as PDFs. * National Education Writers Association (www. ewa.org): EWA is a professional organization for education reporters. The Web site includes links to various education resources, education reporting guides and stories on education, along with information on their seminars.

THE NATIONAL EDUCATION WRITERS ASSOCIATION

The National Education Writers Association helps reporters stay on top of the beat from pre-K to higher ed.

Lookforthe latest stories,blogs,training opportunities and backgrounders on education issues at www.ewa.org.

By Kate Rainey

The IRE Journal

Copyright Investigative Reporters & Editors Sep/Oct 2007

(c) 2007 Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.