At first I thought it was my imagination. Could the New York Times be covering education again?? I mean, really covering.
Not just David Herszenhorn putting out regular education stories about Congress; or Sam Dillon and Tamar Lewin following Arne Duncan and Barack Obama to their million-and-one-speeches.
What I thought I noticed was an uptick on education feature stories. So, I did a little (unscientific) checking.? And indeed, there have been a parade of page-one stories lately (publication dates, for the most part, refer to the print version of the paper): A ?Popular Principal Wounded by Good Intentions? in Vermont (July 18), ?Getting into Medical School without the Hard Sciences? (July 30), the ?cut and paste? plagiarism story (August 2), ?Diversity Debate Convulses Elite High School? (August 5), an above-the-fold zinger by financial reporter Gretchen Morgenson, Exotic Deals Put Denver Schools Deeper in Debt (August 6), ?Budget Ax Falls and Schools and Streetlights Go Dark? (August 7), and ?Little as they Try, Students Can't get a D Here? (August 8), and this morning (August? 10), another one, ?Schools Given Grad on How Graduates Do,? by Lewin ? and this is just the front page.
What a bonanza. And as someone who has spent his adult life in the news business (and at one (pre-Internet) time kept a year's worth of the putative paper of record stacked neatly around my one-bedroom apartment), I can only applaud the Times' new enthusiasm for what is inarguably the most important domestic policy issue facing America.
And it's not just the famous front-page that the Times is giving over to education. On page A11 today (in my ?Late Edition,? for those of?you still enslaved to print), is a Sam Dillon story?called ?School Overhaul Draws a Crowd, but Not Necessarily a Credentialed One.?? If you include the full panoply of pieces following the New York State and City education wars, editorials, letters to the editor, and the regular and guest op-ed essays, you're beginning to get the picture. On Sunday, for instance, in addition to the odd but compelling story (several listserves I follow lit up on this one) about dropping Ds, was ?Cheating Scandal Haunts Atlanta's School Chief,? by Shaila Dewan, which reads like a good WhoDunit. Yesterday, on the inside ? who can keep up? ? we had ?Lesson Plan in Boston Schools: Don't Go It Alone.? And even Randy Cohen, ?the ethicist? in the Times Sunday magazine had a challenge question about ?The Classroom Showroom.? (He said that classrooms are NOT showrooms.)? And speaking of the Times' magazine, there have been at least two big education cover stories this year:? ?The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand,? a story by Court TV founder and media entrepreneur Steven Brill, (May 23), ?(It was Brill who almost single-handedly shut down New York City's?schools ?infamous ?rubber rooms? with a long story, ?Annals of Education? in the New Yorker last August.) And ?Building a Better Teacher,? the Elizabeth Green story about Uncommon Schools founder Doug Lemov and his new book, Teach Like a Champion.
So what's happening?? Since the Times is notoriously stand offish about its story selection and reporting, I am not spending time trying to track down its reporters and editors for an explanation ? though I would be happy to hear from them if they would like to weigh in. In the meantime, I would hope someone with more time on his or her hands could see if this education reporting resurgence by the Times is actually real. And has it spread to other mainstream publications? I would also be interested to know if there is any ideological or policywonkish bent here, a theme, a strategy, a plan?? or is the?Times simply doing well what the press does best ? if it bleeds it leads ? and following these Chicago basketball buddies, Obama and Duncan, on their frenetic Race to the Top.
Stay tuned.
?Peter Meyer
