Covering Education

A Model Curriculum for Professors of Journalism

The Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, working with the Columbia University School of Journalism, has developed a new model journalism course on covering education that is now available for download.

With a look at twenty key issues in education today, the course is designed for both undergraduate and graduate-level students gain a strong understanding of critical issues in education and how to cover them.

Journalism instructors will find a suggested syllabus and assignments, along with tips on interviewing children and incorporating research on the education beat. The course includes an extensive list of resources from suggested books to lists of useful websites and blogs. Links are included to more than 100 exemplary newspaper and magazine articles and research studies available online. Issues range from school finance to testing, charter schools and No Child Left Behind.

Download the course here (42 page pdf).

As taught at Columbia University

LynNell Hancock has taught the course for three years at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 2009, two of her students received the Fred M. Hechinger Prize for their reporting on education. Here are samples of her students' work.