For some schools, it was spring break. For others, it was the first week back in person. However, several districts have decided to remain remote through the rest of the year, and some students and parents aren’t ready to return to classrooms. The process has been especially chaotic in some Bay Area districts.

🔊 A majority of school districts are now open. But not everyone wants to return. (NYT)
🔊 After A Year Of Remote Classes, Teachers Meeting Students For The First Time (NPR)
🔊 Percentage of Students Learning in Remote or Hybrid Classes Drops (US News)
🔊 Reopening hurdles linger for schools, despite rescue funding (AP)
🔊 LAUSD goes to great lengths to show schools are safe to reopen. But it’s a tough sell (LA Times)
🔊 Some 250,000 Houston-area students will finish school year at home (Houston Chronicle)
🔊 Why one district is staying closed for the rest of this school year (San Diego Union-Tribune)
🔊 What one Chicago-area district’s decision says about the challenges ahead for America’s schools (Chalkbeat)
🔊 S.F. and Oakland families find disarray in school reopening (SF Chronicle)
🔊 In San Francisco, Turmoil Over Reopening Schools Turns a City Against Itself (NYT)

For other big stories this week, see Media Tidbits two sections below.

Ten months after the death of George Floyd, which prompted Black Lives Matter protests across the country, contributing editor Amber C. Walker revisits some of the promises made by education news outlets to address systemic racism in its own ranks. 

Some encouraging steps have been taken, according to Walker, but the appetite for reflection and action doesn't yet seem to be there. Walker found just one Black education journalist willing to talk to her about their newsroom experiences — on the record or otherwise: Chalkbeat’s Lori Higgins. Writes Walker, “bringing on more journalists of color still won’t make newsrooms more anti-racist unless leadership grows more willing to listen to, trust, and yield power to Black reporters.”

ICYMI: Earlier this week, we also republished Alexis Wray’s amazing piece in Scalawag about how student journalists at a North Carolina HBCU researched and influenced racist local media coverage of the college community. 

MEDIA TIDBITS

📰 SPOTLIGHT ON PARENTS, SCHOOL BOARD RECALLS, LOCAL ELECTIONS: Parents and school board disputes were a big feature of this week’s education news, including stories about Chicago-area school board races (Tribune), a controversial Washington, D.C., parent messaging page (Washington Post), Philadelphia parents leaving the district (WHYY), Bay Area board recall efforts (San Jose Mercury News), and of course board members suing each other (SF Chronicle). The controversies are unfortunate and not necessarily helpful to kids, but the coverage is important — I’m hoping that education reporters continue to focus on parents’ views and experiences during the rest of the spring.

📰 WORRISOME RETURN TO SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE STORIES: I've seen a couple of school gun violence stories in the past few days, prompted in part by the return of mass shootings in recent weeks. However, I'm worried about coverage that, as in the past, amplifies risks and fears rather than contextualizes them. School gun violence is tragic and real — and infrequent, a fact that should be featured in these kinds of stories. The USA Today article is clear about the problems associated with active shooter drills — a strong point — but is also full of speculation about a future surge and fails to give readers context about kid safety risks or gun violence locations. The 74’s story also features worried educators and school safety experts, but it includes a key disclaimer noting that school shootings “remain statistically rare.” Let's not pivot from a year spent unnecessarily terrifying teachers, parents, and kids about school COVID risks back to terrifying them about school gun violence.

📰 CAREFUL ABOUT THOSE TEACHER TREND STORIES: Stories about teachers leaving the field are a regular part of education coverage, usually signaling readers about the difficulties of teaching or the perils of making schools work better for kids. But they’re often flawed by a lack of understanding of teacher supply and demand issues and sometimes can be quite superficial in how they describe what’s going on. A recent example is the New York Times’ As Pandemic Upends Teaching, Fewer Students Want to Pursue It. “It is *way* too soon to make a conclusion like this,” notes Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum. “The evidence in the piece is underwhelming to put it mildly.” 

📰 NEW EFFORTS, NEW ANGLES: There are a handful of interesting experiments that could provide helpful lessons for education coverage. For example, the Boston Globe is teaming up with Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research to “resurrect and reimagine” The Emancipator, the first abolitionist paper in the U.S. Editorial page editor Bina Venkataraman told us that “education will most certainly be one of the topics we cover as we try to frame solutions that can bring about a racially just society.” We’re also hoping to see some education-related coverage in Capital B, a nonprofit newsroom headed by former Vox editor-in-chief Lauren Williams focusing on journalism that serves Black communities.

PEOPLE, JOBS
Who's going where & doing what?

EVENTS
What just happened & what's coming next?

Above: She's been taking a break from Twitter but not all is lost. The New York Times’ Erica Green will talk about “voice, agency, and untold stories” at a Yale SOM event April 13.

⏰ Coming up: Sunday night’s new episode from WNYC’s The United States of Anxiety is the long-awaited sequel to Marianne McCune's Two Schools In Marin County, one of the best examples of education journalism last year. The Atlantic contributor Amanda Ripley has a new book out on Tuesday, focusing on the spiral of conflict that has overtaken politics and infected journalism. Former Spencer Education Journalism fellow S. Mitra Kalita will be part of a Fundamedios Spanish-language journalism event April 6 on the color of objectivity. Also April 6, CJR and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma are hosting a rethinking gun violence coverage session that has obvious implications for school gun violence coverage.

⏰ ICYMI: The Washington Post’s Moriah Balingit and Hechinger’s Liz Willen were guests on The Takeaway’s recent education segment, How the Pandemic Is Deepening the Divide in Education. The LA Times’ Howard Blume was interviewed in an EWA Radio segment, Let’s Talk About Teachers’ Unions. Dallas Morning News’ Education Lab leader Eva-Marie Ayala spoke on a panel including students, parents, education experts, and educators about ways to help students succeed. WNYC’s Gwynne Hogan reported a segment on school policing and the NYC mayoral race. (Read about the media’s little-noted role in encouraging school police programs here.)

A kindergartener on his first day in person at his Oakland school told a swarm of reporters he’s “happy.” (H/t Jill Tucker)

CORRECTION: Last week, we linked to a story in the Sacramento Bee by Sawsan Morrar and Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks, and we failed to credit Yoon-Hendricks. We apologize for the omission.

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