Bad Reporting About Education Is Harming Schools And Students
MARCH 25, 2015
All of this chatter would be something best to ignore were it not for the fact that reporters and pundits from these outlets are often raised to prominence, labeled as “experts,” and lionized by political leaders and policy makers, while real authorities on education are overlooked or completely drowned out in the babble.
Exhibit A in the case against bad reporting on education is in the Feb. 14, 2015 issue of The Economist. An article titled “Pro Choice” highlights efforts to create new school voucher programs in many states and allow parents to take money meant for public education and use those tax payer dollars to enroll their children in schools of their choice, including private schools and charter schools.
This topic has been the subject of countless research studies and is a matter of ongoing examination by numerous authorities. Yet the writer barely skims the research and consults with a bare minimum of real experts on education policy.
Had The Economist made the effort to consult some real research and talk to bona fide experts, they would have learned that school vouchers pose some very big problems, and there are better alternatives for improving our schools.
It’s important to call out this article and others like it, not only because it’s an example of feckless journalism, but also because it exemplifies an all too common pattern when low-information reporters tackle stories about education.
When Education ‘Experts’ Aren’t
At liberal-leaning watchdog group Media Matters for America,Hilary Tone closely follows how journalists in major media outlets report on education. She unearths some startling revelations. One such discovery revealed that whenever cable news outlets such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC feature programming devoted to education, those segments hardly ever feature real educators.
Over all cable news channels, only 9 percent of guests in education segments were educators. This would be like CNBC reporting on the stock market and hardly ever consulting with experts on finance and investing or the CEOs of publicly traded companies.
Print and online news outlets aren’t much better. Tone recently came across a study that found “education experts” often cited in print and online news stories “may have little expertise in education policy.” The study found that the “experts” who are cited the most often are neither career educators nor scholars who’ve published and achieved advanced degrees; rather, they tend to be individuals from influential right-wing think tanks, with little to no scholarly work or graduate-level degree work in education.
Tone links to a write-up of the study in ScienceDaily that explains the researchers found so-called education experts associated with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC, “were nearly 2.5 times more likely to be cited” than were career educators and education scholars. In the online world, experts affiliated with AEI and the libertarian group Cato Institute were, respectively, 1.5 to 1.78 times more likely to be mentioned in blogs.
The authors conclude their findings are “cause for concern because some prominent interest groups are promoting reform agendas and striving to influence policymakers and public opinion using individuals who have substantial media relations skills but little or no expertise in education research.”
In some sense, then, The Economist is following a pattern of reporting – one that tends to spread misinformation and promote shallow opinion on very important issues.
In its examination of the long-standing school voucher program in Milwaukee – now being pushed out to the rest of Wisconsin by Gov. Scott Walker – The Economist reports that results have been “mixed,” though they impart “lessons for elsewhere.” One of those lessons, apparently, is that a school system aided by “choice” and “competition” ensures good outcomes. “Good schools, however constituted, have good teachers, inspiring principals and respond to their surroundings,” the article states. “Some of these things are easier to achieve in private schools.”
The writer does not substantiate this conclusion with any links to research studies, citations from any Bad Reporting About Education Is Harming Schools And Students:
