Tuesday, January 18, 2022
About
About the Media Bullpen
America’s future, its short and long term viability, is wholly dependent on how we educate our children.
The Media Bullpen is a dynamic, virtual newsroom that covers the news and the news of education. It’s a sophisticated and unique technological environment that allows everyone to get in the game on the greatest discussions of our day. To understand those discussions, we need great information and reporting on all the issues relating to education—all the time.
Each day nearly 500 stories—and sometimes many more—are produced in the media about education, but they often lack the context for the public to get engaged.
The Bullpen reporters—the umpires—react and respond in real time to the press as it rolls out its coverage in print, online or broadcast, at the local, state or national levels. They score the coverage using the metaphors of that favorite American pastime, baseball. Articles are given strike outs, pop flies, singles, doubles, triples, and home runs, reflecting a particular story’s objectivity, proper context, its exploration of data, and search for accuracy.
In so doing, the Media Bullpen provides a critical eye to help the public better understand the complexity of the issues being reported.
More than anything else, the Bullpen allows readers to be their own umpires. A full suite of social media applications allows readers to get engaged by sharing the Bullpen’s content with friends, family, other media outlets, activists, and school leaders. Readers can help to make education great only by demanding greater education reporting.
The Media Bullpen is an entirely separate, editorially independent division of the Center for Education Reform, and the strategic evolution of its pioneering and well-known media relations and news monitoring work.
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The Media Bullpen. Because education is no longer a spectator sport.
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- Desperate to fill teacher shortages, school districts ask parents and various staff to become substitutes
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Jan 12, 9:56 AM, CNN:
With more teachers sickened or sidelined by the highly contagious Omicron variant, school districts across the country have resorted to extraordinary measures to keep classrooms running.
- Education: The Issue that Could Break Partisan Gridlock
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Jan 7, 9:28 AM, Newsweek:
Divisive and complex issues such as the pandemic response and critical race theory have a lot to do with the attention now focused on education, but there is also common ground sitting just below the surface
- As more schools start 2022 with remote learning, advocates say 2021 was 'historic year' for school choice
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Jan 5, 9:29 AM, The Center Square:
As school districts across the U.S. start 2022 in remote-learning settings or are considering doing so because of a rise in COVID-19 cases, parents now have more options as 22 states expanded or created school choice initiatives in 2021.
- Teachers confront half-empty classrooms as virus surges
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Jan 14, 10:13 AM, Associated Press:
Teachers around the U.S. are confronting classrooms where as many as half of students are absent because they have been exposed to COVID-19 or their families kept them at home out of concern about the surging coronavirus.
- Bloomberg’s $750M Grant Is the Jolt the Charter Sector Needs — and a Litmus Test for White Democrats Who Claim to Back School Choice
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Jan 14, 10:11 AM, The 74:
If education reform were a religion, then professing to just “follow the evidence” and “listen to communities” would anchor the liturgy. Charter schools, however, are a curious case that tests the faith. Urban charters have proven to be an >
- National School Choice Week spotlighting education options for kids
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Jan 14, 10:08 AM, KCVR:
As school disruptions hit national headlines, again, it’s a reminder that families must have options for learning. Every family has different, changing needs: A survey we wrapped up last week found that 52% of parents say they considered >
- National School Boards Association stumbles into politics and is blasted apart
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Jan 14, 10:07 AM, Washington Post:
Its leaders compared aggressive school protests to ‘domestic terrorism.’ The backlash was fast and severe.
- Pivoting to Remote Learning: Why It Is Harder in Some States Than Others
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Jan 14, 10:06 AM, Education Week:
When it comes to the question of who gets to call the shots on a switch back to remote instruction, states have wildly different answers, an Education Week analysis found. Education Week contacted every state education office to determine >
- Allan Sherer: Why We Can’t Wait For The System To Repair Itself
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Jan 13, 9:59 AM, Forbes:
We believe in less than 20 years we will see clearly that the community-driven response to Covid ignited a wave of education reform that broke the monopoly of a bloated and outdated bureaucracy and dramatically advanced education >
- College Enrollment Continues to Shrink
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Jan 13, 9:58 AM, Wall Street Journal:
College undergraduate enrollment continued to shrink this fall and has now declined by more than a million students since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, according to a report released Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse >
- Students Lose Appeal on Right to Civics Education, But Win Praise From Judges Anyway
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Jan 13, 9:52 AM, Education Week:
Students asserting the right to an adequate civics education have lost their appeal of a federal court ruling that dismissed their suit accusing the state of Rhode Island of failing to prepare them for the duties of citizenship.
- How One West Side Charter School Kept Students In Class Through The Latest COVID-19 Surge
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Jan 13, 9:06 AM, Book Club Chicago:
Not all parents are happy North Lawndale College Prep has remained open — but many said the school has taken safety steps and communicated with parents in a way CPS could learn from.
- Memphis mother starts her own micro school for cultural identity, social emotional learning
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Jan 13, 6:08 AM, WATN-TV:
"For me, education is about learning versus knowing. I don’t think there’s an endpoint or an arrival,” said Lab School of Memphis founder Coi Morrison.
- Union, parents mull if Chicago teacher standoff was worth it
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Jan 12, 9:52 AM, Associated Press:
For some, the ends didn’t justify the means, dragging out uncertainty for students in the largely Latino and Black low-income district.
- Editorial: Does declining school enrollment spell disaster? That argument doesn’t add up
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Jan 18, 9:09 AM, Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles schools are among those facing a double whammy on funding in future years. To start, the birthrate has been declining here and throughout California since 2008, which means fewer kids in school now and years into the future. >
- California schools under intense strain, fighting to stay open during Omicron surge
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Jan 18, 9:07 AM, Los Angeles Times:
A student shows her negative coronavirus test result from a cellphone to enter Olive Vista Middle School this week. Schools throughout the state are strained as coronavirus rates soar.
- NYC schools to allow remote option as attendance plunges during COVID surge
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Jan 18, 9:00 AM, New York Post:
A remote option is coming back to city schools in response to plunging attendance amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
- Opinion: Boston Public Schools should go into receivership
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Jan 18, 8:53 AM, Boston Globe:
It would be hard to design a school system that has more poorly served Black and brown students than BPS.
- Ducey’s voucher program if Arizona schools close classrooms is now open
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Jan 18, 8:42 AM, KTAR:
The portal for qualifying Arizona families to sign up for vouchers if their schools pause in-person learning is now open, Gov. Doug Ducey announced Friday.
- More accountability, transparency and choice needed in post-COVID-19 education system
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Jan 18, 8:37 AM, The Augusta Chronicle:
Improving our schools to overcome COVID-19-related learning losses will require efforts from many corners. But let’s be clear about one thing: Kids weren’t getting what they needed to succeed even before COVID. A return to normal with a >
- SC lawmakers focused on passing school choice expansion
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Jan 18, 8:25 AM, The State:
S.C. A school voucher plan that would allow South Carolina parents to use the public school dollars allocated for their child on a variety of private educational expenses is expected to receive serious consideration in the Legislature this >
- Michigan Democratic Party deletes post questioning parents' role in schools
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Jan 18, 8:15 AM, The Detroit News:
The Michigan Democratic Party has deleted a weekend Facebook post that questioned the role parents have in deciding what is taught in public schools and drew criticism from conservative and school choice groups.
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- NYC schools to allow remote option as attendance plunges during COVID surge
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Jan 18, 9:00 AM, New York Post:
A remote option is coming back to city schools in response to plunging attendance amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
- Opinion: Boston Public Schools should go into receivership
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Jan 18, 8:53 AM, Boston Globe:
It would be hard to design a school system that has more poorly served Black and brown students than BPS.
- Virtual learning in New Jersey this time around? Both easier and more difficult for staff and students
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Jan 18, 7:24 AM, Philadelphia Inquirer:
As many districts have switched to virtual this year to account for coronavirus-related staffing shortages, teachers have had to dust off their virtual tool kit as learning resumes on screens.
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- Michigan Democratic Party deletes post questioning parents' role in schools
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Jan 18, 8:15 AM, The Detroit News:
The Michigan Democratic Party has deleted a weekend Facebook post that questioned the role parents have in deciding what is taught in public schools and drew criticism from conservative and school choice groups.
- Chicago Teachers Union's illegal strike is over, but parents sue to stop next one
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Jan 18, 8:08 AM, Illinois Policy:
But a group of CPS parents alleging the “remote work action” called by the CTU members was actually an illegal strike are seeking a court ruling to prevent similar labor actions in the future.
- A charter school with all-day outdoor education in the middle of winter
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Jan 18, 8:01 AM, Wisconsin State Journal :
Almost all of the lessons at the Kickapoo Valley Forest School are held outdoors, even on days when the temperature plunges well below freezing. The nature-based curriculum is central for the 4K and kindergarten students and their >
-
- More accountability, transparency and choice needed in post-COVID-19 education system
-
Jan 18, 8:37 AM, The Augusta Chronicle:
Improving our schools to overcome COVID-19-related learning losses will require efforts from many corners. But let’s be clear about one thing: Kids weren’t getting what they needed to succeed even before COVID. A return to normal with a >
- SC lawmakers focused on passing school choice expansion
-
Jan 18, 8:25 AM, The State:
S.C. A school voucher plan that would allow South Carolina parents to use the public school dollars allocated for their child on a variety of private educational expenses is expected to receive serious consideration in the Legislature this >
- Learning French changed her life; now she shares that gift at immersion charter school
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Jan 18, 7:55 AM, Daily Advertiser:
Now she takes her immersion experience and passion for French with her to work every day as principal of École Saint-Landry. The French immersion charter school in Sunset opened in August inside the former First Baptist Church of Sunset on >
-
- Editorial: Does declining school enrollment spell disaster? That argument doesn’t add up
-
Jan 18, 9:09 AM, Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles schools are among those facing a double whammy on funding in future years. To start, the birthrate has been declining here and throughout California since 2008, which means fewer kids in school now and years into the future. >
- California schools under intense strain, fighting to stay open during Omicron surge
-
Jan 18, 9:07 AM, Los Angeles Times:
A student shows her negative coronavirus test result from a cellphone to enter Olive Vista Middle School this week. Schools throughout the state are strained as coronavirus rates soar.
- Ducey’s voucher program if Arizona schools close classrooms is now open
-
Jan 18, 8:42 AM, KTAR:
The portal for qualifying Arizona families to sign up for vouchers if their schools pause in-person learning is now open, Gov. Doug Ducey announced Friday.
- How One West Side Charter School Kept Students In Class Through The Latest COVID-19 Surge
-
Jan 13, 9:06 AM, Book Club Chicago:
Not all parents are happy North Lawndale College Prep has remained open — but many said the school has taken safety steps and communicated with parents in a way CPS could learn from.
- Memphis mother starts her own micro school for cultural identity, social emotional learning
-
Jan 13, 6:08 AM, WATN-TV:
"For me, education is about learning versus knowing. I don’t think there’s an endpoint or an arrival,” said Lab School of Memphis founder Coi Morrison.
- Union, parents mull if Chicago teacher standoff was worth it
-
Jan 12, 9:52 AM, Associated Press:
For some, the ends didn’t justify the means, dragging out uncertainty for students in the largely Latino and Black low-income district.
- Editorial: Does declining school enrollment spell disaster? That argument doesn’t add up
-
Jan 18, 9:09 AM, Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles schools are among those facing a double whammy on funding in future years. To start, the birthrate has been declining here and throughout California since 2008, which means fewer kids in school now and years into the future. >
- NYC schools to allow remote option as attendance plunges during COVID surge
-
Jan 18, 9:00 AM, New York Post:
A remote option is coming back to city schools in response to plunging attendance amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
- Opinion: Boston Public Schools should go into receivership
-
Jan 18, 8:53 AM, Boston Globe:
It would be hard to design a school system that has more poorly served Black and brown students than BPS.
- Chicago Teachers Union's illegal strike is over, but parents sue to stop next one
-
Jan 18, 8:08 AM, Illinois Policy:
But a group of CPS parents alleging the “remote work action” called by the CTU members was actually an illegal strike are seeking a court ruling to prevent similar labor actions in the future.
- A charter school with all-day outdoor education in the middle of winter
-
Jan 18, 8:01 AM, Wisconsin State Journal :
Almost all of the lessons at the Kickapoo Valley Forest School are held outdoors, even on days when the temperature plunges well below freezing. The nature-based curriculum is central for the 4K and kindergarten students and their >
- Merit Academy to resubmit charter school application to Woodland Park School District
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Jan 18, 7:57 AM, The Colorado Springs Gazette:
Because of a surge in attendance, the Jan. 12 RE-2 School District Board of Education meeting was moved to Woodland Park High School’s Dickson Auditorium. The 130 people who showed up wouldn’t have fit in the usual meeting >
- Learning French changed her life; now she shares that gift at immersion charter school
-
Jan 18, 7:55 AM, Daily Advertiser:
Now she takes her immersion experience and passion for French with her to work every day as principal of École Saint-Landry. The French immersion charter school in Sunset opened in August inside the former First Baptist Church of Sunset on >
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School to start Criminal Justice Academy
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Jan 18, 7:52 AM, WDSU:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School has announced it will start a first-of-its-kind Criminal Justice Academy to educate students about the criminal justice system thanks to a $55,000 youth workforce development grant from the Lower >