2002
Neighbor to Neighbor, Cincinnati, OH 2001
Partners:
The Cincinnati Enquirer,
WCET-TV (PBS),
WCPO-TV (CBS),
WKRC-TV (ABC),
WLWT-TV (NBC),
Kettering Foundation,
National Issues Forum
A year of extraordinary racial tension in Cincinnati in 2001 prompted an extraordinary response by the city’s media, led by the Enquirer, which collaborated on a project that involved 2,000 local residents in solutions-oriented conversations about race.
The paper had begun focusing on race even before rioting broke out in Cincinnati, publishing a race project March 4, 2001 – just five weeks before mobs took to the streets over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman. With Pew support, the paper worked with its partners to go beyond traditional reporting and facilitate crucial citizen-to-citizen communication.
The partners started the project with a poll in August 2001 of 1,112 adults in Greater Cincinnati. A five-part series, “Divided by Race,” Sept. 2-6, looked at the stark divide between black and white responses. WCPO hosted a panel discussion with live studio audiences in three parts of the viewing area.
The partners followed up the initial reporting project with a second, more solutions-oriented project, “Neighbor to Neighbor.” During October, partners announced an effort to bring together groups of neighbors to discuss race and possibly take some action toward reconciliation. Readers were encouraged to sign up for a session online or through a clip-and-send coupon in the paper. Neighborhood-based conversations began Nov. 11. On Nov. 25, the paper ran its first repot on what people were saying. More readers signed up.
Within four months, some 130 conversations had been held, involving more than 2,000 people. Nearly half the participants held follow-up meetings on their own. One group was meeting regularly. Several of the groups had developed recommendations for action and were exploring joint services between black and white churches and opening lines of communication between neighborhood groups and police. All the major media in Cincinnati, acting as the Cincinnati Media Collaborative, covered the conversations in regular reports or special programming. The Enquirer started regular features, including “Diversity Success Stories” and a weekend “Diversity Report Card” on how the effort was progressing.
To extend the reach of the conversation, the Collaborative partners started a book project, “On the Same Page,” aimed at getting residents to read the same book and attend a discussion group about it. The book chosen was “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest Gaines. The effort culminated when Gaines visited Cincinnati in April for a live call-in show on WCET.
Contact:
Rosemary J. Goudreau
Managing Editor
The Cincinnati Enquirer
312 Elm Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202-2410
Phone: (513) 768-8311
Email: rgoudreau@enquirer.com
Home for Good, Huntington, WV 2001
Partners:
The Herald-Dispatch
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
WMUL-FM
The out-migration of young people from West Virginia was as accepted as the export of its coal until the partners explored the consequences in “Home for Good,” a project that included a six-part newspaper series, radio reports, a televised public forum and an interactive Web site.
One of the initial challenges, finding those who had left, was nearly solved with a virtual focus group online. The Herald-Dispatch persuaded papers statewide to run an ad around Christmas Day 2001 – when former residents would most likely be visiting – asking them to contact the paper and fill out a brief questionnaire. Four-hundred people responded, creating an instant database of the diaspora. The paper emailed each one a link to a longer survey, asking why they left and what it would take to get them back; 147 people answered.
A scientific survey of 404 West Virginians added more information about how young people view the state. The paper met with two advisory panels – one made up of state and university officials, the other composed of young adults ages 18-34 – to help shape the series. Newspaper and radio reports began April 28, 2002 and ran daily until May 3, 2002. They included stories about why young people leave, where they go, why some return, how West Virginia culture and stereotypes affect their decision and measures the state could take to stem the migration. The Herald-Dispatch offered the series to papers statewide; all or part of it ran in 11 other newspapers.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting televised a live forum featuring young West Virginians and a special Web site, www.homeforgood.org, featured forums, live chats and interactive graphics that charted migration patterns.
State officials responded to the series, drafting legislation to encourage young people to stay, such as tax credits to help offset student loans. The project also gave new energy to a five-year plan the state devised to diversify the state’s economy, after the series showed many of the measures in the plan had stalled.
Contact:
Len LaCara
Former Managing Editor
Herald-Dispatch
Huntington, WV
Phone: (304) 526-2779
Email: llacara@aol.com
Beth Gorczyca
Reporter
Herald-Dispatch
946 5th Ave.
Huntington, WV 25701
Phone: (304) 526-2772
Email: bethg@herald-dispatch.com
Water. The Power. The Profit. Savannah, GA 2002
Partners:
The Savannah Morning News, Savannahnow.com
Georgia Public Radio
With the Georgia legislature expected to set statewide water policy in its 2003 session, the partners launched “Water: The Power. The Profit,” a year-long series on the Savannah River, to encourage citizen participation in the debate.
A poll of 724 people in the seven counties around the river conducted in April and May of 2002 showed few of the residents had begun to focus on water resources and had little knowledge of the issues surrounding water availability and its impact on development and the regional economy. The Morning News launched its four-part series on Saturday, June 8, 2002, laying out the issues and inviting participation in a July 16 town hall forum. More than 60 people attended and agreed that the region needs to monitor better how much water its uses and that water management should be regional, rather than done at the state or local level. There was also an across the spectrum fear of Atlanta’s appetite for water and its possible reach into the Savannah River. The paper continued periodic packages on water issues, leading up to an October forum in which 35 people discussed regional water management issues.
Online, Savannahnow.com offered a “water use calculator” that allowed users to figure out how much water they use and to compare their use with that of users in Chatham or Effingham Counties. The Web site also solicited feedback on the series and provided links to other resources and a sign-up form for the public forums.
With its goal of amplifying citizen voices in the 2003 legislative debate, the project was set to wrap up in the spring of 2003 with a final poll to study the impact of the series itself on how much respondents knew about water resource issues.
Contact:
Dan Suwyn
Managing Editor
Savannah Morning News
PO Box 1088
Savannah, GA 31402-1088
Phone: (912) 652-0322
Email: dsuwyn@savannahnow.com
Under One Roof, Washington, DC 2001
Partners:
Black Entertainment Television (BET),
BET.com
After decades of reporting about the African-American family by white news organizations or think tanks, BET – Black Entertainment Television – tackled the subject in a civic journalism project that combined the forces of the popular cable service’s new newscast and its online division, BET.com. “Under One Roof” was a year-long project that included weekly reports on BET Nightly News tied to interactive features on the Web site.
The project kicked off in November 2001 with a national poll of 724 African-American adults on a wide range of issues from educational aspirations to rap music. The sometimes surprising results won national attention. A majority of those polled agreed with the statement that black men have failed their families, and more than two-thirds said American blacks place too much importance on material possessions. The poll generated stories about the project in the San Francisco Chronicle and other papers and prompted the group 100 Black Men of America to build a town hall forum around the project. Several hundred people, including elected officials and community leaders, attended the forum in Orlando in June 2002. It was taped for broadcast on the Minority Broadcast Company (MBC) cable network.
Weekly reports covered topics such as the impact of high rates of incarceration on black families and black students who were the first in their families to attend college. The Web site hosted message boards where dozens of viewers reacted to the reports. BET.com also previewed topics being explored on the Nightly News and asked users to share their own stories on the issues, which helped guide the television reports. In April and May, the Web site conducted a pop up poll on the Under One Roof page that asked users to rank their top priorities on a number of issues such as education and economic development. Some 30,000 responses were received. The results of the poll were sent to the Congressional Black Caucus.
The project finale was an interactive map the Web site launched in October 2002. Users could navigate it to judge the quality of life for black families in 22 major American cities. The map was assembled over six months using statistics from the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Justice and 2000 census data. Online researchers concluded Columbus, OH and Houston, TX had the highest quality of life for blacks, with Baltimore and St. Louis at the bottom. The map allowed users to see how the ratings were decided and comment on them. Dozens of users wrote in, many either to question Boston’s high ranking in third place or defend Chicago, which tied with Milwaukee for 18th.
The project won Best Online News Project from the National Association of Black Journalists and a Cable Positive Award. Its success encouraged BET online and the Nightly News to continue to collaborate on civic journalism projects, including a look at black wealth and a discussion of reparations for slavery.
Contact:
Retha Hill
Vice President, Content, BET.com
BET
2000 M Street, NW – Suite 602
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 533-1914
Email: retha.hill@bet.net
Redistricting Game, Rochester, NY 2001
Partners:
Nycitizens.org
and public television stations WXXI, WPBS, WCNY, WNET, WLIW, WMHT, WCFE, WSKG, WNEDWNED
Nine public television stations collaborated on NYcitizens.org, a Web site dedicated to helping New Yorkers understand and become engaged in the process of redrawing congressional districts through an online game and other interactive features. The partners launched the Web site in the fall of 2001 as the state legislature began the redistricting process, including simple explanations of the politics and processes involved in the task. They found a way to give users a first-hand look at the complexities, however, in February 2002, when they added the Redistricting Game.
The role-playing game allowed users to be one of six different kinds of stakeholders in the redistricting process. For example, a player might take on the role of a white Republican state legislator interested in advancing Republican candidates at the state and national level. Or the player could choose to be an African-American Democratic Party official interested in both electing Democrats and getting more African-Americans elected to Congress. The Center for Governmental Research helped the partners develop realistic roles for the game.
After picking a role, players were led to a grid where they could draw districts based on their demographics and politics with actual census information guiding their decisions. The game worked by certain rules, just as the actual process does. For example, players were unable to create districts that were obviously gerrymandered. Players were told how the districts they created would likely fare in the real world.
The partners created an online curriculum for 12th grade social studies classes to give the game greater participation. They also posted essays from key federal and state lawmakers on redistricting and invited users to post their own essays in response. The site also hosted message boards and links to other resources. The partners said they got positive feedback but could not determine how many users had visited. They planned to keep the site active with other applications, such as an Election Finder that would help users find their local polling places, after the redistricting process was complete.
Contact:
Gary Walker
VP of Television
WXXI-TV
280 State St – PO Box 30021
Rochester, NY 14603-3021
Phone: (585) 258-0241
Email: gwalker@wxxi.org
Elissa Marra
Director of National Productions
WXXI-TV
280 State St
Rochester, NY 14614
Phone: (716) 258-0349
Email: emarra@wxxi.org
Building Community from Diversity, Santa Ana, CA 2002
Partners:
The Orange County Register, OCRegister.com
Excelsior
Myoc.com
Reporters developed a deep understanding of the Latino population in the Santa Ana readership area with a community mapping project that included a phone survey, an academic cultural study and a dynamic database of sources structured to stay useful even as reporters move on and off the beat.
The Register announced its mapping project to the community with fliers sent to 750 Santa Ana community groups and through messages sent to community email networks. Then a team of two project leaders, two reporters and a news assistant began the process of in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 100 community members. They also compiled detailed lists of “third places” in the community, where people go to attend to issues important to them and their families and neighborhoods.
The information was entered into a database of community resources used as a newsroom tool. It is cross-referenced by each person’s interest, role in the community and particular affiliation. A hyperlink in each entry connects to the original interview with the source so that the reporter-user can understand the background and context of an issue and the source’s involvement with it over time.
The information was also entered on a literal map, posted in the newsroom and updated each week with stickies showing new places the team found and lists of community assets. The team created a video so the whole staff could learn how to use these resources.
In September 2002, the paper conducted a survey in Spanish of 209 Latino homes in Santa Ana to learn more about life in the community. Meanwhile, a doctoral candidate from the California State University-Fullerton conducted a cultural study of one Santa Ana neighborhood. The paper published stories reporting the results of the survey and study but, more importantly, the project uncovered interesting stories from the community. For example, the Register covered an annual reunion of Mexican American alumni who desegregated a Santa Ana school in the 1950’s after learning about it through an interview. The database also enriched the reporting of other stories. A November 2002 story about immigration done by the paper’s Washington bureau benefited from Santa Ana sources found in the database.
Contact:
Dennis Foley (former Ombudsman for The Orange County Register)
County Government Reporter
The Orange County Register
PO Drawer 11626
Santa Ana, CA 92711-1626
Phone: (714) 285-2862
Email: dfoley@ocregister.com
First Amendment Forum, Pittsburgh, PA 2001
Partners:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
KDKA-TV
KDKA-AM
Pennsylvania Newspapers Association
The Pennsylvania legislature passed a new, more liberal open-records law in the summer of 2002 after a 10-month effort by the partners to encourage citizens to use public records to make government accountable and accomplish community goals. Post-Gazette editor Jane Elizabeth did not give the project full credit for the new law but she said, “We certainly didn’t hurt it.”
The effort began Oct. 13, 2001, when 300 people attended a “First Amendment Forum” in downtown Pittsburgh to learn how to gain access to public records and meetings. On evaluation forms, they gave the event an average score of 4.3 on a scale of one to five. The paper learned where citizens needed help most and developed sources for reporting on the issue.
In March 2002, the partners launched a First Amendment Web page devoted to helping citizens gain access to public records and public meetings through the state Sunshine Law and the Freedom of Information Act. Along with tips, resources and links to more information, the site featured a news story every month about the experience of an individual or grass roots organization trying to use the laws. The stories were also published in the Post-Gazette’s community editions. Users could post comments and communicate with one another through a site bulletin board The site received an average of 3,600 visits a month through the summer.
Once the new law was passed, the site geared up to explain the new law and help citizens use it. The partners also produced a pamphlet on the new law and mailed it to every municipal office in the region. The paper found that secretaries, clerks and administrative assistants were often the biggest impediments to open records, simply because they didn’t understand the law and would deny access that should have been granted. The pamphlet was intended to educate these frontline record keepers on the new provisions. When the project ended, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association took over the Web site.
Contact:
Jane Elizabeth
Education Editor
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
34 Boulevard of the Allies
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Phone: (412) 263-1510
Email: jelizabeth@post-gazette.com
Your Neighborhood, Your Future, Portland, OR 2001
Partners:
KGW-TV (NBC), KGW.com
Portland Tribune
Beaverton Valley Times
Tigard Times
Gresham Outloo
Clackamas Review
As elected planning officials in the Portland area began seeking public input on a long-term growth plan, the media partners launched a project to inform citizens and engage their interest in the process. “Your Neighborhood, Your Future” included dozens of TV and print stories about crucial growth issues. A poll and a town meeting provided a barometer of public opinion on the issues.
The project started Oct. 1, 2001, with a KGW story about growing pains in the region. Print partners followed with similar stories. Meanwhile, the partners commissioned a poll of 400 Portland area residents on growth, traffic, schools and the economy. The poll surfaced some surprising contradictions. Respondents worried about the economy and favored incentives to attract new business even as they expressed concerns about too many newcomers. They supported the urban growth boundary but opposed higher density development in cities. They wanted to ease traffic congestion but didn’t want to pay for transportation projects.
Stories continued to run from October to March, explaining the impact of growth and the trade-offs involved in related issues. KGW’s Web site offered an interactive feature that allowed users to type in their address and see how regional growth plans for 2040 would affect their neighborhood. The site also offered a slide show on growth plans for the next four decades.
The project culminated in a one-hour Town Hall Discussion on growth issues, March 15, 2002, broadcast live on KGW. A panel of local elected officials, neighborhood leaders, businessmen and citizens took questions from a studio audience of about 100 people. The meeting coincided with the wrap-up conference of the elected planning officials on Metro. When, later that year, Metro proposed expanding the urban growth boundary by 15,000 acres – the largest expansion in more than 20 years – KGW news director Rod Gramer said he believed the project had played an important part in furthering public discussion of the issue.
Contact:
Rod Gramer
Executive News Director
KGW-TV
1501 SW Jefferson St.
Portland, OR 97201-2549
Phone: (503) 226-5079
Dropping Out: Why students leave Decatur schools, Decatur, IL 2001
Partners:
Herald & Review
WILL-TV (PBS)
WILL-AM
“Dropping Out: Why students leave Decatur schools” was a civic journalism project that involved citizens, including those who’d never finished high school, in developing ideas to help keep students in school through graduation.
In November 2001, the partners commissioned a survey of 102 adults who had dropped out of Decatur public schools in the previous 40 years. For many of the respondents, it was the first time they had ever been asked why they’d left. Their answers pointed to some concrete steps for retention programs. One-third said additional help from a teacher or administrator might have kept them in school. Another third said more interesting classes would have helped.
The Herald & Review reported the results in a three-part series that kicked off on Jan. 27, 2002. Radio reports began on WILL-AM on Jan. 28. The reporting project coincided with the creation of the Decatur Joint Dropout Task Force, a community coalition focused on providing at-risk youth with support to stay in school. Task force members were invited to participate, along with school officials, in a March 21 town meeting on the drop-out problem, co-sponsored by the paper and the local NAACP chapter. Nearly 200 people attended and so many lined up to ask questions the scheduled 90-minute meeting lasted for more than two hours. The paper also identified community members to take part in a live call-in show broadcast April 17 from WILL-TV’s studio in Urbana.
The partners chartered a bus to take the participants, citizens and school officials from Decatur to Urbana on the night of the broadcast. The ride itself proved to be an important part of the project, as it became a brainstorming session for possible solutions.
One element of the project that turned out to be less successful than hoped was a program to open banks of computers on weekends for drop-outs to fill out a brief survey and be connected with community resources for job training and GED classes. The partners publicized the program through the paper and fliers delivered to several social service agencies. The program operated for only two weekends and was abandoned when, after four days, only nine people had participated. Overall, though, the partners considered the project a success, with school officials and the Task Force developing innovative ideas to tackle the drop-out problem with input from the survey, town hall and live broadcast.
Contact:
Jan Touney
Associate Editor
Herald & Review
601 E. Williams Street
Decatur, IL 62525
Phone: (217) 421-6973
Email: jtouney@herald-review.com
A Duty to Protect, Tacoma, WA 2001
Partners:
The News Tribune
KCTS-TV (PBS)
KPLU-FM
The Washington state legislature was poised in January 2002 to limit lawsuits that could be brought by victims of crimes committed by prisoners on parole until a poll commissioned by the partners showed 90 percent of the state supported the victims’ right to sue. The measure was tabled, a sign of success for a project that sought to inject citizens’ voices into the debate over what to do about the state parole system.
The partners undertook the project “A Duty to Protect” in 2001, when the state spent $53 million dollars in judgments or settlements for lawsuits stemming from parolee crime – almost as much as it spent to monitor parolees. It was clear the parole system needed reform but it was not clear what form that should take.
The partners surveyed 400 Washington residents in October and November to see where they stood on the issue. They found most wanted to retain the right to sue and less than half supported caps on damages.
The poll became the basis for a series of reports that began Jan. 7, 2002 on KCTS-TV’s “Currents” public affairs program. KPLU-FM and The News Tribune each began a three-part series on Jan.13 to coincide with the start of the legislative session. The partners also collaborated on a Web site, www.adutytoprotect.org, that included the survey, a forum on parole issues and links to lawmakers and parole organizations around the country.
The legislature did take limited reform action in 2002. It passed a measure that would allow state agencies to investigate parole system failures without fear the reports would be used in litigation. Fear of litigation had kept the state from conducting meaningful investigations. It was hoped the new bill would allow the state to learn from its mistakes.
Contact:
Peggy Bellows
Senior Editor
News Tribune
1950 S. State St.
Tacoma, WA 98405-0008
Phone: (253) 597-8456
Email: peggy.bellows@mail.tribnet.com
Reinventing Beat Reporting, Spokane, WA 2002
Partners:
The Spokesman-Review, spokesmanreview.com
Pew support allowed the paper to experiment with interactive on-line journalism tools that improved connections between reporters and readers and users. One of the most successful tools was an automated email system that was being widely used by reporters and editors within months of being created in early 2002. The system allows reporters to send out queries to a large database of readers and users. By the end of 2002, the Spokesman-Review’s database had 4,000 names in it. This was used in many ways.
For example, a reporter working on the Sept.11 anniversary story asked readers to share their thoughts about the events of that day. She found the best sources, including the person in the lead, through responses to her email. Another reporter covering the controversy over hormone replacement therapy found valuable sources though an email sent to women over 50.
Also in 2002, the paper moved to Blogs (Web logs) to interact with readers on stories of broad interest. A blog on the State B basketball championship was wildly popular with fans and even some players who were able to interact with the site in real time. A similar approach made coverage of a vote on the incorporation of a new city more engaging. Turn-out in the election was higher than predicted by local officials.
Another new feature the paper’s Web site began offering in the summer of 2002 consisted of multi-media, on-line obits: feature-length profiles of recently deceased local residents, including a slide show of family pictures with background audio from a family member talking about the deceased. Public response was extremely positive.
The paper lacked the software to count how many users were going to the newly added features but traffic to the site was increasing through 2002. And the ideas were spreading to other papers. Interactive editor Ken Sands helped 27 newspapers involved in the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) Credibility Roundtable to install some version of the database email system. He expected the tools the paper created to lead to continued innovation, including a portable producing station for creating real time, multi-media coverage of events.
Contact:
Ken Sands
Managing Editor, Online and New Media
The Spokesman-Review
999 W. Riverside Ave.
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: (509) 459-5014
Email: kens@spokesman.com
Talking Race: A New Approach, Dallas, TX 2002
Partners:
In “Talking Race: A New Approach,” WFAA wanted to do just that – try something entirely new in encouraging discussions about race. Intrigued by the concept of “video boxes” – portable, self-contained, user-activated TV cameras that have shown an ability to elicit amazingly candid remarks – the station placed its version of the devices in shopping malls in the Dallas area and asked people two questions: What do you think of race relations in America? When did you become most aware of race?
The station used the responses as a jumping-off point for a three-part series and an interactive Web page. It also shared the responses with the Dallas Morning News, which used the “interviews” on the cover and several inside pages of its Sunday Reader section on the first day of the series, Sunday, June 30, 2002.
In addition to the video boxes, the station invited public response to its questions on race through the Web page www.wfaa.com/dialogureonrace. The Web page also asked users to answer one of the following questions: “As a person of color, what responsibility are you willing to take to help reach better understanding between the races?” or “As a white person, what responsibility are you willing to accept for past racial injustice and apply toward a better understanding between the races?” Nearly two dozen non-whites answered the first question and 30 white users answered the second. The full responses were posted on the site along with several of the unedited video box responses, links to other sites, the three-part series and an interview with a Utah-based academic who developed the “Mutual Responsibility Theory” of race relations. The page received 5,000 visits during the three days of the series.
To extend the reach of the series even further, the station involved two talk radio hosts – one with a largely African-American audience on KKDA-AM and one with a largely white, conservative audience on WBAP-AM – in its effort to foster constructive dialogue on race. Both hosts agreed to feature the Mutual Responsibility Theory as a topic for their morning drive shows on Tuesday, July 2.
The final installment of the series documented how the calls to the two stations went from knee-jerk opposition to the idea that all races have some responsibility for improving understanding to more thoughtful, reasoned responses and even some on-the-air soul-searching. Even the conservative radio host ended up urging listeners to reach out more so that “familiarity replaces the unfamiliarity that leads to racist feelings.”
Contact:
PJ Ward
Field Producer
WFAA-TV
606 Young Street
Dallas, TX 75202
Phone: (214) 977-6542
Email: pjward@wfaa.com
Eye on Education, Boston, MA 2002
Partners:
WGBH radio and television (PBS)
The Boston Globe
El Mundo Newspaper
WRCA-AM
The “Eye on Education” initiative addressed such issues as character education, vouchers, charter schools and high-stakes testing. In addition to regular reports, the project featured a special week of TV programming, March 28-April 4, 2002, culminating with “A Day in the Life,” a one-hour verite film that documented a single day at Jeremiah Burke High School from different perspectives.
By presenting personal and revealing moments, the film went beyond the headlines to depict the impact of school reform in the classroom. On Oct. 15, 2001, the day the film was shot, 63 percent of the Class of 2003 faced not graduating because they had failed the new Massachusetts MCAS exams. The statistic raised the question that ran through the production: What does it really take to leave no child behind?
The radio component, English and Spanish “Teen and Teacher Radio Diaries,” aired April 1-5, 2002 on WGBH and WRCA. Early in the school year, producers selected three English-speaking students and two English-speaking teachers as well as two Spanish-speaking students and two Spanish-speaking teachers to record audio diaries of their public school experience throughout the year. The English language diaries were broadcast on WGBH and the Spanish on WRCA. The audio from all the reports was available on the Web site, www.wgbh.org/eyeoneducation, along with additional information, essays and a Pop Quiz on public education.
The partners distributed more than 100,000 parent information fliers in five languages. The Globe inserted 30,655 fliers in its March 27 edition and El Mundo printed the flier in Spanish in its pages. The partners also conducted workshops to train parents in how to use “Eye on Education” resources to conduct school-based parent discussion groups and help them take steps to improve schools.
The project brought the voices of students, parents, teachers and administrators to a broad local audience, providing detailed information to parents and generating positive feedback. WGBH planned to continue the project in the 2002-03 school year.
Contact:
Elaine Laughlin
Senior Program Manager
WGBH-TV
125 Western Avenue
Boston, MA 02134
Phone: (617) 300-3432
Email: elaine_laughlin@wgbh.org