In early May, 409 education reporters, communicators, and public figures gathered in Stanford for the 66th annual seminar of the Education Writers Association (EWA).
The seminar had record attendance, due, at least in part, to a very rich program. Pre-seminar study visits included visits to Hillsdale High School (a SCOPE partner), Stanford's d.school, the Stanford Graduate School of Education's (GSE's) FabLab@School. Plenary programming featured GSE dean Claude Steele speaking on stereotype threat, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan fielding questions from reporters, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman in a lively interview with outgoing EWA President and Wall Street Journalist reporter Stephanie Banchero, Nobel laureate economist James Heckman, and Khan Academy founder Sal Khan. Other featured speakers included Linda Darling-Hammond, Prudence Carter, John Merrow, Sean Reardon, Michael Petrilli, and numerous other leading reporters, researchers, and education newsmakers. The full agenda can be seen on the EWA web site.
The seminar concluded with an awards ceremony honoring top education reporting for 2012 for "dogged journalism, accomplished storytelling, and insightful analysis produced by print, radio, and online media outlets across the country." The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting went to The Chicago Tribune for “An Empty Desk Epidemic.”
Many sessions were recorded. EWA will be sharing coverage of the events on EdMedia commons, and SCOPE will share links to the recordings as they become available. Currently, some powerpoints are available here and here.
The seminar was co-hosted by SCOPE and the GSE, who co-sponsored along with the American Educational Research Association.
