1998 Batten Award Winner
The Baltimore Sun, MD
“Reading by 9”
In a clear example of activist journalism, the newspaper not only reported the devastating scores on reading ability and probed how children learn to read, it also went out and did something about it. It engaged employee volunteers to teach reading and it mobilized its own news pages in an impressive literacy campaign aimed at improving test scores. It is a shining example of what Jim Batten would like to see. He involved himself in very, very significant ways in community problems.
When almost 90 percent of Baltimore’s third graders got less than satisfactory ratings on reading assessments, the newspaper decided it needed to do something: It decided to make a five-year commitment to explore fully the issue of reading — with a specific goal of getting all third graders to read by age 9.
The effort began, said Education Writer Mike Bowler, with something that initially made him uncomfortable: “an activist view, designed to get people off their butts and do something, namely improve reading instruction.”
It was pioneering territory for Bowler and the other journalists, who are continuing to work on the project. But in hindsight, he said he’s glad they took that tack.
The Sundetached seven reporters for three months, and they produced an initial four-part series that was traditional explanatory journalism.
“We perceived a problem: the test scores speak for themselves. It was a difficult problem in the sense that the experts have tended to obfuscate the issue and parents are confused,” said Maryland Editor Robert Benjamin, who led the project.
“We tried to move beyond the sort of core debate between phonics and the whole-language approach to reading instruction to show that virtually all kids, irrespective of income — and even, to a degree, of IQ — can really be taught to read adequately.
“That’s a critical assumption… but it is not one that drives most school systems or schools. We tried to show people how that is, and we went to the brain research upon which that is based.
“This was not the journalism we’ve been doing,” Benjamin said. “It’s not about schools. It’s not about education. It’s not about literacy. It’s not about reading. It’s about primary-grade reading instruction.”
Bowler said he had some qualms about rushing over the social, economic and demographic data that impinge on children learning to read in order to concentrate on reading instruction. But after the initial series, the paper printed a phone number and 600 people called in over four days to leave two minutes of taped remarks; some called back to keep talking.
“Parents called up to tell us about their own sad stories with kids. Teachers called up to tell us what they’ve been doing to circumvent bad programs.” Benjamin said. “A lot of people simply said ‘thank you,’ which I never really heard too much in previous big projects.”
A second series was published that followed children in two schools where children are not reading at grade level and which are using different teaching approaches. The series set up a horse-race situation between those schools.
The Sun took pains to give “Reading by 9” a suburban thrust, so that it was not just dumping all over Baltimore City education.
“When we said that there is a problem with reading in the suburbs, in the places where people are so proud of their schools, to which they’ve escaped to have good schools, we struck a nerve that I had no idea existed there,” Bowler said. “When we got that flood of telephone calls, which were recorded, some of them were people who were crying.
“I realize that there is a huge pack of emotions surrounding the subject of reading. I think some of it has to do with guilt. I think a lot of parents, who wake up when their child reaches the fifth grade and realize he or she can’t read, begin to wonder who’s at fault. When they saw the Baltimore Sunsaying that maybe it’s the instruction, maybe it’s the teacher who never learned how to teach reading in college, I think it really struck something and in a sense, it was then that the real aspect of community journalism kicked in. Because it was then that we began to be sort of propelled by the momentum, other than our own writing and our own planning of the series.”
Benjamin described yet another unusual aspect of the project: “I don’t know that we broke down walls within The Sun, but we crossed some lines that had been there. I know that I personally worked with more people in other parts of The Sun on this project than I had in the 17 years I’d been at the paper. This raised some questions and sometimes some conflicts.”
Nevertheless, he acknowledged, “It’s become part of the community conversation.” The Sun is continuing to devote about four pages a week to covering the subject of reading. The state has stiffened the number of reading-instruction courses teachers need to take for Maryland certification. And the City of Baltimore has adopted phonics-based reading instruction for kindergarten through second grade.
And the project is being used as a prototype for similar efforts at other Times-Mirror newspapers. Said The Sun’spublisher and CEO Michael E. Waller in a video describing the effort: “We have a role as institutions in our communities greater than simply reporting the news.”
Contact:
Robert Benjamin
Maryland Editor
Baltimore Sun
501 North Calvert St.
Baltimore, MD 21278
Phone: (410) 332-6980
Fax: (410) 332-6455
E-Mail: robert.benjamin@baltsun.com
Mike Bowler
Education Writer
Baltimore Sun
501 North Calvert St.
Baltimore, MD 21278
Phone: (410) 332-6000
Fax: (410) 752-6049