Rochester Democrat andChronicle WXXI Public Television WOKR-TV (ABC) Eight years after a highly touted school reform effort began, Rochester area residents still had concerns about education. “Grading our Schools” got hundreds of them participating – through polls, televised town meetings, focus groups and chat rooms – in appraising and redirecting the effort. The project also […]

San Jose Mercury News KNTV (ABC) KPIX-TV (CBS) KIVE and KARA Radio Santa Clara Public Libraries “Common Ground” was an editorial page project designed to encourage public discussion on controversial topics and create public spaces where those discussions could occur. On its editorial and commentary pages, the Mercury News editorial board would publish lists of […]

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 […]

The News-Star, newsstar.com Louisiana Tech University Grambling State University SPJ Lincoln Collegiate Chapter The paper used civic mapping to explore why more than a quarter of Monroe’s fourth- and eighth-grade public school students had failed high-stakes state math and reading tests. The project generated an outpouring of community help for local schools. The News Star focused […]

Savannah Morning News WSOK-AM The paper brought together 60 citizens in August 2000 as the first step in its project on Savannah’s failing public schools. The 39,000-student district was among the worst in the nation. It had gone through three superintendents in five years, the school board was fighting with the governor over school reform, […]

The Idaho Statesman Idaho Spokesman-Review Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho Falls) Post Register KTVB-TV (NBC in Boise) Idaho Public Television The news organizations gave a statewide scope to the problems of rural Idaho with their collaboration on “Rural Idaho: Challenged to Change,” a five-part series that ran simultaneously in all four papers, and as a three-part […]