“ROUNDING THE GLOBE’-20: Critical analysis of Boston Globe education coverage
The question of the hour
Bias is a sin of commission and omission. The question of the hour, which we all have plenty of time to ponder, as we watch our water pots boil and wait for Larry Harmon to respond to my previous post, is:
Will Boston Globe readers have the opportunity to read a story like the one that appeared in the NYT (website now…paper tomorrow)?
“Despite push, success at charters mixed”
Here are two paragraphs:
“But for all their support and cultural cachet, the majority of the 5,000 or so charter schools nationwide appear to be no better, and in many cases worse, than local public schools when measured by achievement on standardized tests, according to experts citing years of research. Last year one of the most comprehensive studies, by researchers from Stanford University, found that fewer than one-fifth of charter schools nationally offered a better education than comparable local schools, almost half offered an equivalent education and more than a third, 37 percent, were “significantly worse.
“Although “charter schools have become a rallying cry for education reformers,” the report, by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, warned, “this study reveals in unmistakable terms that, in the aggregate, charter students are not faring as well” as students in traditional schools.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05…
The next few days should tell the tale..or not tell it, as the case may be.
The Globe printed the article, well, kind of, sort of.
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p>Both papers are great champions of charters, but what was a Page One, above-the-fold article in the Times–a major story–was reported (actually reprinted) in the Globe, on p. 10, perhaps one-quarter of the size.
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p>I am going to give the Globe a passing grade on this one, with the notation, “Needs Improvement.”
the article isn’t that great: kind of short and lacking in informed quotes.
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p>That said, it’s like putting charter schools on notice that, after almost 20 years of cheerleading, just after Obama and Duncan double down, that the media is actually going to look at the efficacy of the charter schools.
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p>Maybe the Globe editors have been reading you Bill.
The Globe‘s education issue — which was four articles in a glossy insert, actually wasn’t devoted to promoting charters or denigrating unions. It basically promoted the idea that kids have too much homework, bullying is a problem without a clear solution, and it’s lucrative to start your own business.
What impresses me about the Times is that they will report news that might challenge their own editorial position. I don’t know what the deal with the Globe is…no wall between editorial and news? Or groupthink? Or so immersed in a viewpoint they sincerely aren’t aware that there are other credible and reasonable perspectives.
put it on A4, but I’m fully expecting the editorial page–editor of which is married to a charter school teacher, ‘though you’ll never find that in print–to weigh in on it sometime this week.
I once engaged in an email argument with him. He’s condescending and arrogant. Ugh. Seems fitting that he’d have floated to the top at that rag.