The Education Writers Association provided twenty journalists who have less than two years of experience in education coverage with an orientation session immediately before the EWA 2016 National Seminar (May 1–3, 2016), which focused on “The Quest for Quality and Equity.” This session covered how journalists can make the most of education research in their reporting and exposed them to researchers working on the topics that they will frequently encounter in their reporting. Each journalist also received a copy of the EWA Reporters Guide to Making Sense of Education Research. The mentorship component of this program matches each novice journalist with a veteran education journalist. Mentors will provide personalized feedback and constructive criticism, and are required to interact with their mentees on a monthly basis. Program participants must produce at least one substantive news story on the focal topic of the National Seminar. This program will help education journalists gain greater comfort working with education research and, in turn, enhance public understanding of the complexities of this topic.
This grant supports the professional development of novice education journalists through a six-month training and mentorship program called New to the Beat 2.0.
