The staff and fellows of the Hechinger Institute write regularly on education and journalism issues. When available, some of those articles and essays will be posted on this page.
Richard Lee Colvin, Director: "Telling the Story of School Reform"
The daily, unglamorous work of improving public education rarely captures headlines or generates chatter unless it fails.
Liz Willen, Assistant Director and Justin Snider: "Education Reporters Say They Need More Training"
Reporters who cover education believe overwhelmingly that the beat requires specialized knowledge.
Liz Willen, Assistant Director: "Course on Covering Schools Breaks New Ground"
Armed with computers, laptops and lots of questions, the aspiring education journalists found their way to a sixth-floor classroom on a cold morning in January and began tackling the first myth about urban education: the teacher as hero.
Liz Willen, Associate Director: "Obstacles to Covering Pre-K: Getting Your Editors to Care"
May 2006 -- As an education reporter for the New York Daily News, Joe Williams found a wealth of story ideas about pre-kindergarten, from competing political agendas to teacher training issues and the starkly different quality of programs. He also found an unexpected obstacle: His own newspaper.
Richard Lee Colvin, Director: "Congratulations! You're About to Fail"
It's the time of year when the well-educated brace for the seasonal whine of high school seniors who didn't get into Harvard early action and the subsequent ululating of parents who for the next four years will annually fork over the price of a midrange BMW to some less prestigious school.
Richard Lee Colvin, Director: "Climbing Out of the Bunker, How School Leaders and the Media Can Peacefully Coexist -- and Why They Must"
Insight can come from hard work. But it also can show up as an unexpected, although almost always welcome, visitor. I was graced with such a visit in May, at the end of a seminar the Hechinger Institute organized to help journalists focus their attention more acutely on the nature and quality of leadership in education.
Richard Lee Colvin, Director: "Straddling the Democratic Divide"
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's Senate confirmation hearing in January was thick with encomiums. He was praised by Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa for the "fresh thinking" he brought to his post as Chicago schools chief for seven years.
Willen, Assistant Director: "Second Annual Hechinger Scholastic Prize Awarded To J-School Students At Columbia"
Two graduates of Columbia University's School of Journalism are winners of the Fred M. Hechinger Journalism prize, awarded for the second time this year in honor of the former New York Times education editor for whom the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media is named.
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