This week has provided a nice natural experiment about which kinds of studies the media finds newsworthy. Four major reports, each of which might normally lead the news in a typical week, battled it out for attention. And there were clear winners and losers.
First out of the gate was the CREDO charter school report, which garnered coverage on the U.S. News blog and in many local papers, including the Los Angeles Times. That's pretty solid, though it was hardly the Diana Jean Schemo/NAEP fracas all over again.
Speaking of NAEP, results from the new arts assessment came out next. And this hit the big time: at least 200 articles, including in the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today.
Then a very interesting new study by Gary Phillips of AIR, which "internationally benchmarked" state NAEP results against other countries' TIMSS results, limped out of the gate and picked up just Education Week coverage.
Finally, Jack Jennings's Center on Education Policy released its annual look at state test score results under No Child Left Behind, and got a spattering of stories in local papers, mostly in Florida it appears.
I see three lessons. First, never go up against NAEP, even if it's just the arts assessment. Second, bad news (arts, charter schools) sells better than good news (NCLB hasn't hurt scores at the advanced level, CEP claims) and non-news (our states' student achievement doesn't look so great compared to other countries'). Eduwonk makes this point too. And third, don't be in such a rush to get news out before the end of school/beginning of the 4th of July vacation. A slow newsweek in the dead of summer beats a crammed news week in June, at least if you want a lot of coverage.
And yes, if you want analysis of the merits of these studies, and not just this thumb-sucking exercise, watch for that here on Flypaper and later today in Gadfly.
