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Sunday, October 23, 2011

A City Education: Two Sides to Every School's Story - Education - GOOD

A City Education: Two Sides to Every School's Story - Education - GOOD:

A City Education: Two Sides to Every School's Story

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In our A City Education series, two City Year corps members share their experiences working as tutors and mentors in schools in hopes of closing the achievement gap and ending the dropout crisis.

Radio voice recorder? Check. Headphones? Check. Microphone? Check. Reporter's notebook? Check.

After four years as a journalism major at the University of Southern California, I was ready to cover my first protest and first education story. On the March 4, 2010 Day of Action, cities across the country mobilized to draw attention to the public education crisis.

I knew the protest would give me one of the keys to a good story: conflict. Read any newspaper, and you’ll see schools covered in a disheartening, conflict-driven way—discussing controversial policies about budgets, test scores, teacher evaluations, lawsuits, and more. Most education stories remind our country that many of our