The Education Show

A former alt-weekly columnist and current Northeastern University professor, Dan Kennedy has long been thinking and writing about journalism via Media Nation.

In this new interview, he observes that, while these are perilous times for journalism writ large, things are relatively good in the New England area he tracks most closely, including not only the Boston Globe but also MassLive — which recently announced a new education news pilot project in Worcester County — along with promising nontraditional outlets and approaches like the Bay State Banner and the New Haven Independent.

As is true in other parts of the country, however, the grassroots coverage in New England is both spotty in terms of its coverage areas and the quality is hit or miss. Meanwhile, the everyday coverage from the Globe and other mainstream outlets can be superficial.

When the big outlets “really dig down and do some serious enterprise reporting, they do a great job,” says Kennedy. It’s “the day-to-day coverage where I think some of the softness tends to come in.”

Despite journalism’s many challenges, a wholesale reinvention would be unnecessarily disruptive.

“I don't think that's a good idea,” says Kennedy. “There’s still a lot of older people who are relatively satisfied with the news product as it is. And why would you drive them away?”

Instead, he proposes adding ancillary new products designed to appeal to different audiences — video-based presentation, etc. — that can be bring accurate information in a more appealing form and approach.

Watch above or on YouTube. Listen at Spotify or Apple. Transcript.

Previously from The Grade

‘We are the media now,’ says school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis

A frustrated podcaster turns up the heat

A veteran reporter steps in where traditional news falls short

Literacy, blue-state politics, & media reluctance

Eviction, housing affordability, & rethinking education news

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

In January 2022, Boston Mayor Wu appointed Brandon Cardet to the BPS School Committee with great enthusiasm. Four years later, Cardet is no longer on the board -- and looks deeply uncomfortable being asked “Why not?”

Listen to the full discussion in the 1/21/26 episode of the Shah Foundation’s Last Night At School Committee.

Recall that the lack of coverage of Cardet’s non-renewal was a source of frustration for LN@SC co-host Ross Wilson.

Related from The Grade

Frustrated podcaster turns up the heat

Parents, school closures, & media coverage

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

If Vernée Wilkinson seems familiar to you, there’s a reason for that.

The head of School Facts Boston has been interviewed numerous times, featured by the Boston Globe, and profiled here at The Grade.

Like many other places, Boston schools are facing moves and mergers, as well as what Wilkinson politely calls “student outcome issues” in this new interview.

And, while the Boston Globe and other outlets provide a steady stream of media coverage, according to Wilkinson, there’s too little direct engagement between journalists and everyday parents — and not enough ongoing coverage.

Watch the interview above or on YouTube. Listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Read a transcript.

Unlike others, Wilkinson is understanding about the challenges news outlets face in terms of time and relationships with elected officials and public agencies. And she’s not unilaterally opposed to the need for some schools being closed or consolidated.

However, the head of the organization launched in 2019 is critical of district communication and engagement efforts leading up to recent consolidation decisions and the distracted coverage that the media so often provides.

“The public organized and came out in robust opposition to the proposed closings and mergers,” says Wilkinson about the December hearings.

And yet the committee ignored the opposition.

“There’s something missing in between in the way that decisions are being made — the way decisions are being communicated — and the way that the community doesn’t feel that it’s being heard.”

The hearing protests were covered well, according to Wilkinson, but the attention hasn’t been sustained.

Previously about Wilkinson

A mother’s journey, helping families navigate BPS and protecting her own from it (Boston Globe)

Boston schools lost 15,000 Black students in the past 20 years. Where did they go, and will they ever return? (Boston Globe)

Previously from The Grade

What parents really want

Schools coverage should serve parents’ needs, says journalism researcher

Parents need reporters — and vice versa

Finding real parents — on deadline

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

Corey DeAngelis and I first connected online way back before the pandemic, when he was watchdogging traditional news outlets for lazy coverage, winning corrections from outlets like the Washington Post, and pushing stories that were too hot for most mainstream news outlets to carry until they absolutely had to. (Think Elizabeth Warren sending one of her children to private school.)

Fast forward to early 2026, and you’ll see that DeAngelis isn’t focusing so much attention on the traditional media any more. He doesn’t have to. With 250,000 social media followers, he says, “we are the media now.”

Watch or read above or on YouTube, listen on Spotify or Apple.

Asked about the evolution of his work, DeAngelis says “I’d say most of my work in 2020 was fighting with people online. And I’d say more so now, my work is about reporting news… [But] if you come swinging at me, I’m going to point out who you are.”

Asked about mainstream media coverage of education issues, DeAngelis struggles to come up with the names of traditional outlets or individual journalists. “I think more people are thinking about individuals as opposed to institutions.”

He also talks about why he’s not part of the Trump administration. “I think you can make more of an impact from the outside than the inside,” says DeAngelis. “I think that going into an administration in government would just de-fang me.”

Previously from The Grade

Make room for non-traditional education journalism!

'At this point, everyone’s a journalist, right?'

What's it like being a citizen journalist?

How journalists can help prevent sexual misconduct in schools

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

While several other education teams around the nation are downsizing, the Houston Chronicle education team remains one of the largest around. At the helm is former Houston Public Radio reporter Laura Isensee, replacing longtime editor Jennifer Radcliffe.

Isensee has trained and mentored other reporters before, and she worked at the Miami Herald before moving to public radio. Her work for Houston Public Media was frequently outstanding.

But assigning and editing a compelling mix of different kinds of stories is a challenge for any journalist, and lots has changed in the education landscape, locally and otherwise. The state is just embarking on a billion-dollar private school choice program. Higher education has turned into a school culture wars minefield — as have a few nearby suburban school districts. The Houston Independent School District is in its third year of a state takeover.

Despite all this, Isensee doesn’t envision major changes — only deeper coverage.

“I think the team is on a really strong trajectory,” she says , citing both recent accountability coverage and enterprise stories from the previous year. “I see my role and really my vision is helping them do the best work that they can and to grow as as reporters.”

Watch above or on YouTube, listen to it on Spotify or Apple, Uncorrected transcript here.

Previously from The Grade

Coverage lessons from the Houston takeover (Jennifer Radcliffe and others)

Urgency, experimentation, and expansion at The Baltimore Banner (Ruth Ciera Mull)

Making education news more useful at the AL Ed Lab (Ruth Serven Smith)

How WBEZ breaks free from the ‘hamster wheel’ of daily news (Kate Grossman)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

It’s always great to talk with students, parents, and educators who have had their lives depicted in the media, to get their thoughts about the experience of being a subject — good, bad, and mixed.

So I was eager to speak with Doraian Givens, the former TM Landry student whose life was upended in 2018 when the school was exposed for giving falsified information to colleges and for inflicting physical and mental abuse on students. She’s a major character in the new book, MIRACLE CHILDREN.

Despite the harrowing circumstances involved, Givens describes the experience of having her life depicted in the book as “a little mixed” but overall a good one.

She credits journalists including co-authors Erica Green and Katie Benner for exposing what was happening, despite the manipulation and lies the Landries were perpetuating.

She encourages education journalists to ask hard questions, get as much information as they can, and be fearless about contacting authorities. “I know it seems a little scary, but you have to remember you are dealing with children.”

Most of all, Givens urges reporters to stay in touch with vulnerable sources after a story comes out.

Watch or read the interview above (or on YouTube), or listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Previously from The Grade

The radicalization of NYT reporter Erica Green

The necessary discomfort of debunking a feel-good education story (with Katie Benner)

New York Times story exposes school fraud and media credulity

Widening the lens: What makes Casey Parks’ HBCU story so good

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

You can watch the interview above (or on YouTube), listen to it on Spotify or Apple, or read the transcript.

In this new interview conducted over the weekend, former full-time education reporter Erica L. Green describes last week’s release of her new book (co-written with fellow New York Times reporter Katie Benner) as an occasionally overwhelming homecoming — “a culmination of so much of what I covered my entire education reporting career.”

And she’s been gratified to see that — for the most part — readers and reviewers seem to have understood that the purpose of the book isn’t to vilify or to exonerate the parents, the Landries, the students, or the college admissions system in any simplistic kind of way.

The gist of what Green has to say is that college admissions is far from a meritocracy, elite colleges aren’t the only measure of student success, and — most of all — the success of Black students shouldn’t be used as a societal release valve to distract attention from a punishingly inequitable system.

“When they succeed, we celebrate — and when they don’t, the the failure is on them,” says Green. But “the failure is not on them. It is on this country.”

Asked how her journalism has changed since the Landry scandal was exposed eight years ago, Green says she’s become “a lot more radicalized” and cites as an example her onetime belief that the Landry kids could have gotten into elite colleges without faked transcripts and essays.

“I helped feed a lot of the narratives that we now see in the book have been so consequential and detrimental.”

What should journalists do differently? According to Green, it’s keeping kids at the forefront of the story, questioning why a story appeals so much, and not backing down in the face of resistance to journalistic skepticism — even if the questions are interpreted as being racist or if what you find might be misused by some as confirming incorrect views.

Most of all, journalists need to depict the people they write about as fully human characters, not tokens or stereotypes.

Watch the interview above (or on YouTube), listen to it on Spotify or Apple, or read the unedited transcript.

Previously from The Grade

The necessary discomfort of debunking a feel-good education story (Katie Benner)

New York Times TM Landry story exposes school fraud and media credulity

What makes New York Times education reporter Erica Green so good?

How to write better stories about students with disabilities (Amy Silverman)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

I had the chance to speak with Ross Wilson, who heads the Boston-based Shah Foundation and cohosts a podcast called Last Night at School Committee, which describes itself as a “bite-sized summary of Boston School Committee meetings.”

Now in its 7th year, the podcast is one of those things that you don’t realize you need until you hear it — and then wonder why they’re not a regular part of every big-city school district board meeting in America.

Along with inadequate graduation requirements and enrollment losses that are part of nearly every discussion these days, two things that are on Wilson’s mind right now are the $200 million a year Boston spends on busing kids around the city — the most in the country, he says — and Mayor Wu’s little-noted decision to “non-renew” an outspoken board member named Brandon Cardet-Hernandez — a key decision that has not yet been reported, he says.

“You're getting me at a time where I'm quite frustrated by local media coverage of education,” Wilson says. “The media should be covering these things.”

In an effort to turn up the heat, Wilson says the recently non-renewed former board member Cardet-Hernandez will be coming onto his podcast as a regular guest.

The next Boston school board meeting is this Wednesday, January 21st. The podcast usually comes out the next day.

Watch the interview above (or on YouTube), listen to it on Spotify or Apple, or read the uncorrected transcript.

Previously from The Grade

Requiem for a parent-run education podcast

What Boston parents really want from education news (Boston)

In Boston, a veteran reporter steps in where traditional news falls short

How I unintentionally became an education reporter (Minneapolis)

What happens when a non-traditional podcast fills in to cover school board meetings?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

Seven years ago, after a nationwide slew of social media hype and frothy media coverage about deeply impoverished kids from Louisiana getting into Ivy League colleges, the New York Times’ Katie Benner and Erica L. Green revealed that their courses, transcripts, and essays — but not their ACT scores — had been faked, and that the unregulated private school they’d attended had manipulated them and their parents even as some kids were being subject to physical abuse.

This week, Benner and Green’s book about what happened is out, and I had the chance to talk with Benner about what she and Green learned in turning the investigation into a book.

To me, the Landry story seems full of obvious holes that journalists should have checked out. (Ask a kid to say something in Mandarin, for example.)

Banner’s take is that there were no obvious incongruities between what the kids, the school, and the colleges were saying. She does, however, urge journalists to ask hard questions even when doing so can feel extremely uncomfortable.

Watch the interview above (or on YouTube), listen to it on Spotify or Apple, or read the unedited transcript.

Previously from The Grade

New York Times story exposes school fraud and media credulity

What makes New York Times education reporter Erica Green so good?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe

A veteran of traditional newsrooms like the Boston Globe and Herald, Scott Van Voorhis is carving out a spot in the brave new world of nontraditional media.

He’s got a successful four-year-old Substack called Contrarian Boston, which includes both original reporting and commentary. He’s hired David Mancuso to cover education policy.

But that’s not all. He’s hosting the relaunch of GBH public television’s long-running weekly show, ‘Beat the Press,’ led by longtime host Emily Rooney. And he’s hosting a noontime webinar about the issues facing Boston public schools with a panel including yours truly a week from Wednesday.

Mayoral control and English learners. Graduation testing and access to algebra. Attendance problems, enrollment declines, and school closings. The Boston area has many of the same issues facing other big-city school systems.

And Contrarian Boston is an increasingly prominent nontraditional presence — along with Will Austin’s Boston Focus and the Shah Foundation’s Last Night At School Committee Meeting.

Van Voorhis has a lot to say in our half-hour conversation about the inadequate quantity, consistency, and aggressive of traditional education coverage. Watch it above or on YouTube. Then be sure to follow him and sign up for the webinar. Read an uncorrected transcript. Listen to it on Apple or Spotify.

Previously from The Grade

What happens when a non-traditional podcast fills in to cover school board meetings?

Requiem for Seattle’s parent-run education podcast

Mandy McLaren, the education beat’s TikTok star

Why reporting on literacy is so hard — and tips for making it easier

Bright spots and black holes in New England education coverage

Make room for non-traditional education journalism

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alexanderrusso.substack.com/subscribe