The Education Writers Association (EWA) will develop a series of programming for their 2017 National Seminar, which will allow education journalists at all career stages to enhance their ability to use research. They will also pilot sequential online learning opportunities that journalists can access to build their skills in using research. The National Seminar will provide journalists with training on the use of research, with a special focus on research on solutions to counter educational inequality. Sessions will include a “Consumer’s Guide” for beginner education journalists focused on how to consume research evidence, a session on understanding research that will allow journalists to examine the basics of statistics and research, a “deep-dive” focused on assessing research on the effect of poverty on learning, and small seminars in which highly experienced journalists will be able to interview researchers and discuss the implications of their findings. These sessions will inform the development of a series of online mini-courses that build journalists’ capacity to understand and use research, which will comprise several 45-minute multimedia modules focused on various aspects of the landscape of education research.
This grant will support a multi-stranded effort to build journalists’ knowledge of how to use high-quality education research in their coverage.
