Friday, December 04, 2020
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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By having your own account, you can quickly browse information of most importance to you and see the top trends in education reporting. Plus:
You can comment, contribute ideas, and share articles with your team of friends or colleagues. Soon, you will be able to use Your BullPen to write a reporter or legislator to play for change.
Plus, by joining the Media Bullpen, you can create your own personalized news feed daily by issue, state, region, and more, and it will be delivered to you as often as you ask.
The Media Bullpen. Because education is no longer a spectator sport.
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My Bullpen
- Ex-teacher's union boss makes play to be Biden's Education chief
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Dec 4, 9:14 AM, Politico:
The former president of the nation's largest teachers union is working to lock up support from Republican senators and Hispanic leaders in her bid to be picked as Education secretary, according to officials familiar with the talks.
- Opinion: Joe Biden must stand up for charter schools
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Dec 3, 8:45 AM, New York Daily News:
As two Black education leaders who have made it our life’s work to fight for educational equity for students and families, it is disappointing to see people — especially Democrats who purport to appreciate the destructive power of >
- Opinion: Covid disrupted American kids' schools. It might be a chance to change them for the better.
-
Dec 3, 8:41 AM, NBC News:
Traditional classroom instruction has failed our children for years. The pandemic may be an opportunity to adopt student-centered, hands-on learning.
- War on Charter Schools: The NEA’s Self-Defeating Platform
-
Dec 4, 9:11 AM, National Review Online:
In its latest policy platform, the National Education Association (NEA), the largest union that represents my profession, has once again made clear that it cares more about institutions than about families and students. The platform’s >
- Opinion: Social justice begins with open schools and school choice
-
Dec 4, 9:10 AM, The Hill:
We are all concerned about social and racial inequity. A better solution than defunding police and painting “Black Lives Matter” on streets is improving educational outcomes for students. Closing schools due to COVID-19 and opposing other >
- Bars or schools? How nations rank education in pandemic priorities.
-
Dec 4, 9:07 AM, Christian Science Monitor:
If education is the foundation of a functioning society, how should it be prioritized in a pandemic? The U.S. and Germany offer a tale of two approaches, pointing to the influence of culture on decision-making.
- Increased school choice linked to better mental health for students
-
Dec 4, 9:06 AM, Medical Press:
Allowing families to choose schools that are more suited to their children may play a key role in improving student mental health, including reducing adolescent suicide rates, suggests new research published in the peer-reviewed journal >
- How Teachers' Unions Are Influencing Decisions on School Reopenings
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Dec 3, 8:44 AM, Education Week:
Throughout the pandemic, teachers’ unions in many states and large districts have played a powerful role in negotiating school closures and reopenings. And with coronavirus cases surging around the nation, the labor groups are continuing >
- Column: It’s time to admit it: Remote education is a failure
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Dec 3, 8:38 AM, Washington Post:
This remote learning debacle cannot continue — the costs will be too high. Schools are an essential service, and teachers essential workers. If we continue to act otherwise, the consequences of the shuttered school buildings will likely >
- Now we have proof that kids are paying the price of Covid
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Dec 2, 9:16 AM, CNN:
Nine months into the pandemic, the US still has not figured out how to get all of its kids safely back into classrooms, and now we are starting to see the cost of the cumulative individual and policy decisions that have made opening >
- Opinion: Betsy DeVos vowed to change American education. For the most part, she didn’t.
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Dec 2, 9:12 AM, USA Today:
DeVos, a conservative billionaire philanthropist, went on to clinch her unpopularity with her advocacy for school choice. In her view, public education money should follow students to whatever learning model their parents prefer – whether >
- Editorial: Our lack of vision is failing students
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Dec 1, 7:52 AM, The Virginian-Pilot:
To salvage the current school year and invest in our children’s future, we need more creative, unconventional solutions to this crisis. Every and all options should be on the table, yet here we are forcing binary choices — open or not, >
- Online schools see surge in new students in Minnesota
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Nov 30, 7:32 AM, Star Tribune:
As Minnesota school districts snap back from in-person to virtual learning, demand has risen at schools that specialized in online instruction before the pandemic.
- Review & Outlook: Ohio expands private school choice to half of all students.
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Nov 24, 8:58 AM, Wall Street Journal:
The pandemic has been especially tough on low- and middle-income families, but the GOP Legislature in Ohio has given parents in their state something to be grateful for this Thanksgiving by passing a major expansion of private-school >
- Failing grades double and triple — some rising sixfold — amid pandemic learning
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Dec 4, 9:00 AM, Washington Post:
Failure rates in math and English jumped as much as sixfold for some of the most vulnerable students in Maryland’s largest school system, according to data released as the pandemic’s toll becomes increasingly visible in schools across the >
- Chancellor says parents should plan for D.C. schools to reopen in February
-
Dec 4, 8:49 AM, Washington Post:
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said that parents should plan for an opening of school buildings with teachers in the third term of the academic year, which begins in early February.
- Opinion: State must prioritize funding public schools over charter schools
-
Dec 4, 8:47 AM, Houston Chronicle:
The state of Texas spends about $3.6 billion each year to support a second school system, made up of privately administered but publicly funded charter schools. It’s time to ask why and evaluate our return on investment.
- Montgomery County school board puts off vote on in-person instruction
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Dec 4, 8:45 AM, WTOP:
The Montgomery County school board voted Thursday to delay the decision to phase in in-person instruction until their next meeting, on Dec. 15.
- EDITORIAL: Parents must choose what's best for families
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Dec 4, 8:44 AM, Daily Press:
Many people are passing judgment on parents who have chosen to send their children back to the classroom during the pandemic. That shouldn't happen, for a variety of reasons.
- Charter school ordered to pay back $2.8 million in special education funds
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Dec 4, 8:13 AM, KUTV:
American Preparatory Academy, a charter school with campuses in West Valley City and Draper, Utah, is responsible for repaying $2.8 million in misdirected special education funding, the Utah State Board of Education confirmed in a meeting >
- WCS takes hit from charter schools in students and funding
-
Dec 4, 8:05 AM, The Warren Record:
Warren County Schools lost 366 students and $805,645.19 in funding to public charter schools during fiscal year 2020.
- Durham Public Schools losing students during the pandemic. Here’s where they’re going.
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Dec 4, 8:02 AM, News & Observer:
In the first month of the school year, Durham Public Schools’ average daily population fell to 30,739 students, 1,737 below the same time last year. In the second month of school, it was down nearly 4%.
-
- About 25% of kids in this N.J. school district are ditching remote learning every day, superintendent says
-
Dec 4, 7:48 AM, NJ Advance:
Before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, between 91% and 92% of students were at their desks in school on an average day in Camden public schools.
- Closing the country’s first all-girls Catholic school is a mistake | Opinion
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Dec 3, 8:30 AM, Philadelphia Inquirer:
The decision to close John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School is short-sighted and a misstep by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that will negatively impact young women for years to come. The board of directors implores Archbishop >
- How One Rochester Charter School Continues Engaging Students During Pandemic
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Dec 3, 8:00 AM, Spectrum News:
Prior to the recent spike, they offered in-person learning and a virtual option for students who preferred it. In the classrooms, there were precautions put in place, but creative ways to engage students, such as reminders put on doors to >
-
- CTU hosts meeting for parents to weigh in on remote learning
-
Dec 4, 7:23 AM, WGN9:
Parents of children in the Chicago Public Schools system had the chance to weigh in on how remote learning is working for them and what isn’t working Thursday evening.
- Commentary: Teachers’ unions wanting to close private schools doesn’t mean they have the safety and health of poor Black children in mind!
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Dec 4, 7:05 AM, Milwaukee Community Journal:
Why is the state teacher’s union lobbying Governor Tony Evers to close private and charter schools offering in-person education, even though the union has no control or vested interest over those educational institutions?
- Cleveland Heights Teachers Union, school district strike tentative deal on 1st day of walkout
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Dec 3, 8:11 AM, Cleveland Plain Dealer:
A tentative contract agreement came fairly early on in the first day of a scheduled teachers strike for the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District on Wednesday (Dec. 2).
-
- Failing grades double and triple — some rising sixfold — amid pandemic learning
-
Dec 4, 9:00 AM, Washington Post:
Failure rates in math and English jumped as much as sixfold for some of the most vulnerable students in Maryland’s largest school system, according to data released as the pandemic’s toll becomes increasingly visible in schools across the >
- Chancellor says parents should plan for D.C. schools to reopen in February
-
Dec 4, 8:49 AM, Washington Post:
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said that parents should plan for an opening of school buildings with teachers in the third term of the academic year, which begins in early February.
- Opinion: State must prioritize funding public schools over charter schools
-
Dec 4, 8:47 AM, Houston Chronicle:
The state of Texas spends about $3.6 billion each year to support a second school system, made up of privately administered but publicly funded charter schools. It’s time to ask why and evaluate our return on investment.
-
- Charter school ordered to pay back $2.8 million in special education funds
-
Dec 4, 8:13 AM, KUTV:
American Preparatory Academy, a charter school with campuses in West Valley City and Draper, Utah, is responsible for repaying $2.8 million in misdirected special education funding, the Utah State Board of Education confirmed in a meeting >
- Ducey's pledge to protect state aid for schools during pandemic comes up short
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Dec 4, 7:18 AM, Arizona Daily Star:
Arizona schools chief says districts were counting on money from the governor's fund that didn't fully come through
- Taylor to advocate for charter school options
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Dec 4, 7:12 AM, Roswell Daily Record:
A Roswell orthodontist and charter school governing council member said that he plans to advocate for more charter school options and high academic standards when he begins his service next month on the New Mexico Public Education >
- Opinion: Providence urgently needs more charter schools
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Nov 12, 6:48 AM, Providence Journal:
But in Providence and all across Rhode Island, that shouldn’t be our goal. Parents, families, residents, all of us — we don’t want to just return to normal as a school system. In a post-COVID world, we’re not seeking the pre-pandemic >
- Central Falls charter school listens to parents to improve online learning
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Nov 10, 6:54 AM, The Providence Journal:
While other school districts have struggled to make remote learning work, The Learning Community has turned an educational crisis into an opportunity to deepen its communication with families and fix problems as they arise.
- Kids belong in school — the real thing — and Chicago can make it work
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Nov 6, 7:22 AM, Chicago Sun-Times:
For proof that Chicago’s public schools can be reopened safely, look no further than the successful example of the city’s Catholic schools.
- Chancellor says parents should plan for D.C. schools to reopen in February
-
Dec 4, 8:49 AM, Washington Post:
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said that parents should plan for an opening of school buildings with teachers in the third term of the academic year, which begins in early February.
- Montgomery County school board puts off vote on in-person instruction
-
Dec 4, 8:45 AM, WTOP:
The Montgomery County school board voted Thursday to delay the decision to phase in in-person instruction until their next meeting, on Dec. 15.
- Charter school ordered to pay back $2.8 million in special education funds
-
Dec 4, 8:13 AM, KUTV:
American Preparatory Academy, a charter school with campuses in West Valley City and Draper, Utah, is responsible for repaying $2.8 million in misdirected special education funding, the Utah State Board of Education confirmed in a meeting >
- WCS takes hit from charter schools in students and funding
-
Dec 4, 8:05 AM, The Warren Record:
Warren County Schools lost 366 students and $805,645.19 in funding to public charter schools during fiscal year 2020.
- Durham Public Schools losing students during the pandemic. Here’s where they’re going.
-
Dec 4, 8:02 AM, News & Observer:
In the first month of the school year, Durham Public Schools’ average daily population fell to 30,739 students, 1,737 below the same time last year. In the second month of school, it was down nearly 4%.
- About 25% of kids in this N.J. school district are ditching remote learning every day, superintendent says
-
Dec 4, 7:48 AM, NJ Advance:
Before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, between 91% and 92% of students were at their desks in school on an average day in Camden public schools.
- How D.C.-area private schools are making education work in the Covid era
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Dec 4, 7:43 AM, Washington Business Journal:
We talked with six private schools from our List — with student bodies of between 175 and 1,060 and tuition ranging from $20,000 (for preschool) to more than $49,000 — about what they’ve been doing differently this year under Covid, what >
- CTU hosts meeting for parents to weigh in on remote learning
-
Dec 4, 7:23 AM, WGN9:
Parents of children in the Chicago Public Schools system had the chance to weigh in on how remote learning is working for them and what isn’t working Thursday evening.
- Ex-teacher's union boss makes play to be Biden's Education chief
-
Dec 4, 9:14 AM, Politico:
The former president of the nation's largest teachers union is working to lock up support from Republican senators and Hispanic leaders in her bid to be picked as Education secretary, according to officials familiar with the talks.
- Opinion: Joe Biden must stand up for charter schools
-
Dec 3, 8:45 AM, New York Daily News:
As two Black education leaders who have made it our life’s work to fight for educational equity for students and families, it is disappointing to see people — especially Democrats who purport to appreciate the destructive power of >
- Opinion: Covid disrupted American kids' schools. It might be a chance to change them for the better.
-
Dec 3, 8:41 AM, NBC News:
Traditional classroom instruction has failed our children for years. The pandemic may be an opportunity to adopt student-centered, hands-on learning.
- War on Charter Schools: The NEA’s Self-Defeating Platform
-
Dec 4, 9:11 AM, National Review Online:
In its latest policy platform, the National Education Association (NEA), the largest union that represents my profession, has once again made clear that it cares more about institutions than about families and students. The platform’s >
- Opinion: Social justice begins with open schools and school choice
-
Dec 4, 9:10 AM, The Hill:
We are all concerned about social and racial inequity. A better solution than defunding police and painting “Black Lives Matter” on streets is improving educational outcomes for students. Closing schools due to COVID-19 and opposing other >
- Bars or schools? How nations rank education in pandemic priorities.
-
Dec 4, 9:07 AM, Christian Science Monitor:
If education is the foundation of a functioning society, how should it be prioritized in a pandemic? The U.S. and Germany offer a tale of two approaches, pointing to the influence of culture on decision-making.
- Increased school choice linked to better mental health for students
-
Dec 4, 9:06 AM, Medical Press:
Allowing families to choose schools that are more suited to their children may play a key role in improving student mental health, including reducing adolescent suicide rates, suggests new research published in the peer-reviewed journal >
- Failing grades double and triple — some rising sixfold — amid pandemic learning
-
Dec 4, 9:00 AM, Washington Post:
Failure rates in math and English jumped as much as sixfold for some of the most vulnerable students in Maryland’s largest school system, according to data released as the pandemic’s toll becomes increasingly visible in schools across the >
- Chancellor says parents should plan for D.C. schools to reopen in February
-
Dec 4, 8:49 AM, Washington Post:
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said that parents should plan for an opening of school buildings with teachers in the third term of the academic year, which begins in early February.
- Opinion: State must prioritize funding public schools over charter schools
-
Dec 4, 8:47 AM, Houston Chronicle:
The state of Texas spends about $3.6 billion each year to support a second school system, made up of privately administered but publicly funded charter schools. It’s time to ask why and evaluate our return on investment.
- Montgomery County school board puts off vote on in-person instruction
-
Dec 4, 8:45 AM, WTOP:
The Montgomery County school board voted Thursday to delay the decision to phase in in-person instruction until their next meeting, on Dec. 15.
- Ex-teacher's union boss makes play to be Biden's Education chief
-
Dec 4, 9:14 AM, Politico:
The former president of the nation's largest teachers union is working to lock up support from Republican senators and Hispanic leaders in her bid to be picked as Education secretary, according to officials familiar with the talks.
- Opinion: Joe Biden must stand up for charter schools
-
Dec 3, 8:45 AM, New York Daily News:
As two Black education leaders who have made it our life’s work to fight for educational equity for students and families, it is disappointing to see people — especially Democrats who purport to appreciate the destructive power of >
- Opinion: Covid disrupted American kids' schools. It might be a chance to change them for the better.
-
Dec 3, 8:41 AM, NBC News:
Traditional classroom instruction has failed our children for years. The pandemic may be an opportunity to adopt student-centered, hands-on learning.
- War on Charter Schools: The NEA’s Self-Defeating Platform
-
Dec 4, 9:11 AM, National Review Online:
In its latest policy platform, the National Education Association (NEA), the largest union that represents my profession, has once again made clear that it cares more about institutions than about families and students. The platform’s >
- Opinion: Social justice begins with open schools and school choice
-
Dec 4, 9:10 AM, The Hill:
We are all concerned about social and racial inequity. A better solution than defunding police and painting “Black Lives Matter” on streets is improving educational outcomes for students. Closing schools due to COVID-19 and opposing other >
- Bars or schools? How nations rank education in pandemic priorities.
-
Dec 4, 9:07 AM, Christian Science Monitor:
If education is the foundation of a functioning society, how should it be prioritized in a pandemic? The U.S. and Germany offer a tale of two approaches, pointing to the influence of culture on decision-making.
- Increased school choice linked to better mental health for students
-
Dec 4, 9:06 AM, Medical Press:
Allowing families to choose schools that are more suited to their children may play a key role in improving student mental health, including reducing adolescent suicide rates, suggests new research published in the peer-reviewed journal >
- Failing grades double and triple — some rising sixfold — amid pandemic learning
-
Dec 4, 9:00 AM, Washington Post:
Failure rates in math and English jumped as much as sixfold for some of the most vulnerable students in Maryland’s largest school system, according to data released as the pandemic’s toll becomes increasingly visible in schools across the >
- Chancellor says parents should plan for D.C. schools to reopen in February
-
Dec 4, 8:49 AM, Washington Post:
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said that parents should plan for an opening of school buildings with teachers in the third term of the academic year, which begins in early February.
- Opinion: State must prioritize funding public schools over charter schools
-
Dec 4, 8:47 AM, Houston Chronicle:
The state of Texas spends about $3.6 billion each year to support a second school system, made up of privately administered but publicly funded charter schools. It’s time to ask why and evaluate our return on investment.
- Montgomery County school board puts off vote on in-person instruction
-
Dec 4, 8:45 AM, WTOP:
The Montgomery County school board voted Thursday to delay the decision to phase in in-person instruction until their next meeting, on Dec. 15.