By Anthony Cody.

Education professor Paul Thomas has raised a powerful challenge to the state of education journalism in two recent posts. The first post tackles an article by New York Times reporter Motoko Rich, focused on the latest supposed crisis in education, that not enough high schoolers graduate “college and career ready.” Thomas provides a clear refutation of many of the faulty premises on which Rich bases her story, pointing out that similar wails regarding our schools have been heard for the past hundred years, with no evidence to support them. He writes:

The nebulous relationship between the quality of education in the U.S. and the fragility of the U.S. economy simply has never existed. Throughout the past century, no one has ever found any direct or clear positive correlation between measures of educational quality in the U.S. and the strength of the U.S. economy.

Thomas goes on to point out that most reporters covering education issues have scant direct experience in the field, and tend to rely on the often flawed “expertise” of think tank sources, most of whom also lack relevant experience in public schools. He states:

Mainstream media appear fatally wed to only one version of the U.S. public education story: crisis.

And thus, journalists reach out to the same know-nothings (political leaders, political appointees, think-tank talking heads) and reproduce the same stories over and over and over.

After Thomas tweeted his critique, a reporter at the Hechinger Report, Nichole Dobo, responded, challenging the idea that education journalism suffers because writers lack experience in the field. She tweeted: “With all due respect, do you hold all reporters to that standard? Only former US Presidents get to report on the White House?”

Thomas responded at some length, not only explaining why experience in schools is important, but also expanding on his critique of the flawed premises many reporters accept at face value. His response is well worth reading, if one cares about education journalism.

There is a non-profit organization, The Education Writers Association, which is devoted to supporting education journalism. This group convenes an annual conference, gives awards for outstanding work in the field, and holds seminars focused on key issues. I have some experience with EWA. In 2010 I received a “special citation” for my posts responding to NBC’s Education Nation. (That same year, NBC’s Steve Capus got a first prize for Education Nation itself.) In 2012, my posts in dialogue with the Gates Foundation won a second prize. In 2013, my posts on the Common Core won a first prize award.

Winning these awards encouraged me to participate actively in several of  EWA’s annual conferences, and EWA kindly covered my registration and expenses allowing me to attend, and featured me on panels discussing issues such as the Common Core. In 2012, EWA flew me to Chicago to participate in a seminar focused on school turnarounds, which I wrote about here.

However, when I went to apply for an award in 2015, I was told that independent bloggers such as myself were no longer eligible for any awards, as I wrote about at the time. Blogger Mercedes Schneider also applied for membership that would make her eligible for prizes and was refused. Only “working journalists” employed as reporters, are now eligible.

EWA staff wrote to me and explained:

We found your work to be very important in promoting the conversation on education practices and policies, but it didn’t align with EWA’s stricter standards for independent news media. Among many factors, we look for is the media outlet’s independence from what is covered, institutional verifications, and editorial processes.

At this point in time, we hope to have you continue as an active EWA Community Member.

(Note: in the newly revised bylaws “community members” are not allowed to receive awards for their work, or even ask questions at EWA conferences. They are effectively only welcome as silent members.)

Since this time I have not been asked to participate further in any EWA activities.

Circling back to the concerns raised by Paul Thomas, we have a field of education journalism that lacks adequate experience in the field they are covering. With some notable exceptions, many operate on the basis of a host of faulty premises. These premises are often actively challenged by the many educators turned bloggers such as myself, Paul Thomas, Mercedes Schneider, and more than 200 members of the Education Bloggers Network. But the Education Writers Association has erected a wall between the community of reporters they assemble and the truly independent community of education bloggers. This is symptomatic of a phenomenon known as Groupthink, as I describe here. Irving Janis notes that one of the features of Groupthink is the work of:

Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.

The issues raised by Paul Thomas are worthy of a robust debate within the field of education journalism. Is firsthand experience in schools important for those covering the complex issues facing our schools? Is public education in a crisis? Are high school graduates unprepared for college and is our economic future in jeopardy as a result?

These issues have indeed been discussed at EWA conferences, but something precious is missing – and it would be so easy to fix. If EWA would revise its bylaws so as to allow and actively encourage participation by education bloggers, the vast majority of whom are active or former teachers, then they could bring this expertise back to their events. The debate would be far richer if it included the expertise of classroom teachers and administrators, and teacher educators.

Every reporter covering education need not be a former teacher. But the professional organization that brings these reporters together should make efforts to include, rather than drive away, education writers with firsthand understanding of the issues faced by public schools. The Board of Directors of the EWA should revisit this issue as soon as possible.

What do you think? Why has the EWA chosen to exclude independent education bloggers? Will they reconsider so as to encourage debate over the issues raised by Paul Thomas?