Education
Reporting
Collaborative

We are a groundbreaking, eight-member media collaborative — encompassing local and national news organizations; education-specific outlets and mainstream newsrooms; newspapers, websites, and the nation’s largest wire service. We came together in 2020 at the height of pandemic school shutdowns, with the vision that together we could do more ambitious, contextualized work — particularly when it comes to solutions-oriented reporting.

The Collaborative has joined forces for eight major projects, spanning topics including the student mental health crisis and how to better teach math. We’ve found that the collaboration makes us stronger, challenges our thinking, and gives new depth and reach to our coverage of the most urgent education issues of the day. Our work has been honored with two national awards.

With support from the Solutions Journalism Network

Projects

The Math Problem

Sluggish growth in math scores for U.S. students began before the pandemic but has snowballed into an education crisis. These stories highlight the stakes, as well as potential solutions.

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Saving the College Dream

Community colleges are in trouble. Scant advising, labyrinthian financial aid, and unclear career pathways are among the challenges facing the two-year schools and their students. In this series, the Collaborative looked at the crisis facing these institutions, and ways to solve it.

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Tackling Teacher Shortages

An examination of the overlooked challenges and promising solutions to staffing issues facing American schools. Finalist in the national Education Writers Association awards.

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Supporting students: What’s next for mental health

More than 1 in 3 high school students have historically reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. In many communities, those numbers have skyrocketed during the pandemic . But in some places, educators and others are experimenting with new ways to address students’ mental health needs — or reinvent old strategies.

Reading Remedies

The pandemic put learning gaps in the spotlight, but even before Covid, our schools were in turmoil over how to teach kids to read. We scoured the country for examples of hope and progress. Second place in the national Headliner Awards for Education Reporting.

Back to class: Lessons on how schools can rebound from pandemic disruptions

This series from the Collaborative examined the strategies and best practices school districts embraced after a year and a half of unprecedented disruption.

For more information or to pitch a topic for the collaborative, please e-mail project manager Sarah Carr [email protected].

Education Reporting Collaborative