Eductaion Hurt By High Gas Prices, Says Fox News

Indeed.  The effects are increasingly apparent.

Via Wonkette (via ThinkProgress)

Sawchuk Moves From Ed Daily To EdWeek

Congrats, condolences. Education writer  Steve Sawchuk has left Ed Daily and is headed to EdWeek.  At the Daily, he covered teacher quality and accountability for three years.  Before that, he worked for the Title I Report.  He says he goes to be each night "with dreams of growth models dancing in my head."  No word yet on what beat he'll be covering for EdWeek. 

Why (Education) Journalism Is So Bad: Internships

Only the most career-minded and financially able candidates get top internships in journalism, points out Adele Waldman in the latest issue of The New Republic (Intern or Die). This creates an ever-smaller journalistic gene pool that often misses big stories, leading Waldman to ask:  "What would it be like to have more education reporters who'd spent time teaching in struggling public schools or metro reporters who'd been cops or social workers?" I might argue that administrative or other governmental experience would help an education reporter as much or more as the classroom, but it's fundamentally a good point Waldman makes.  

New Blog, New Blog Recommendations

More newspapers are creating blogs about education, and the latest is the Times of London, whose new blog, Schoolgate, is savvy enough to guarantee some web traffic with a list of Ten Best Blogs about Education. 
Everybody loves a new list.  And writer Sarah Ebner is kind enough to include this blog along with other blogs that I should read more often like Parentalcation, Huff English, So you want to teach, and the Daily Grind.

Fakest News Trend Of The Month (So Far)

Newspapers are increasingly notorious for promulgating fake news trend stories based on nothing more than a couple of individual anecdotes.  The best example I've seen lately comes from the Chicago Tribune, which recently printed a story claiming that white suburban families were moving back into Chicago and sending their kids to public schools there (Urban families building city experience for kids).  Nothing could be further from the truth, as it turns out.  There are no numbers to back up the story, and in fact things appear to be trending the other way.  [Cross-posted from D299.]

On The HotSeat: "Strange Prom"'s Brooke Hauser

By now, you've probably read the article, This Strange Thing Called Prom, which opens like this:

“We’ve been watching prom on TV,” said Lyse Pamphile, a Haitian girl who had already snagged as her date the captain of the soccer team, a tall, sandy-haired boy from Poland. “The typical prom has a prom queen and king.”

“And the mean girl and the prissiest girl and the girl who wants to go with every boy,” a Venezuelan girl chimed in.

“And then there’s the virginity-losing thingy,” Lyse added.

“Getting pregnant?” Hawa said with a slight gasp.

“That’s an American tradition,” replied a girl from Gabon, rolling her eyes.

Maybe you've even watched the video.  Now you want to hear from the author, Brooke Hauser, whose story about immigrant and refugee kids has hit a deep note with readers -- and Hollywood. 

Click below to check out Hauser's thoughts on the story, the tremendous response she's getting so far, what makes for great nonfiction writing, and an update on what's happening with the characters from her story. 

"Small Talk" Moves To A New Home

After years blogging on a rough Yahoo 360 site, small schools guru Mike Klonsky has moved to a new, better-looking and -working location (here), from which I am sure he will continue to excoriate corporate-style school reform and known-nothing sellouts like me. 

Media Darlings -- Media Suckers

The Columbia Journalism Review finds much to mock about the media's overuse of the same "person in the street" by several media outlets this past weekend.  The current example is a Hillary supporter ( Carmella Lewis, Media Darling).  A few years ago, a Long Island guy named Greg Packer was turning up everywhere (Long Island Everyman Masters the Sound Bite).  How lazy and stupid can you get?

I don't know if the problem is quite the same in education journalism, though I dare journalists to go a year without quoting hyper-convenient "general-use" pundits and think tankers (Petrilli, Finn, Rotherham come to mind) with precious little experience and often no first-hand knowledge of the situation being discussed.  We already know what those guys think.  Talk instead to educators and operatives who are directly involved or researchers who have a long-standing commitment to the topic at hand.  Or to folks like Mike Cohen or Mike Dannberg or MaryEllen McGuire (among others) who may be a little harder to get to but are more likely to know what they're talking about.

Beat Writers: Don't Kiss Up To Those Who Give You Access

"What you usually end up writing about them is the cover story – the half-true piece of semifiction that those people want the public to see," says this Portland Tribune sports columnist about the perils -- too much access and familiarity -- that come with beat reporting (Pixels or paper,  truth doesn’t care).  "You begin to realize you’re usually getting played."

I'm Writing This Blog To Help The Poor

"If you see a large, powerful, well-organized lobby citing the needs of the poor as the rationale for something or other they're almost certainly full of it," writes Atlantic blogger Matthew Yglesias (A Rule of Thumb). 

"In the real world, poor people have extremely little political clout and anything that's attracting a lot of political attention is almost certainly doing so because it's of concern to the non-poor."

KIPP Book (Work Hard, Play Nice) Coming In January

Hidden at the bottom of Jay Mathews' recent review of Relentless Minds (Dangerous Minds) is the name of the Matthews much-anticipated book on KIPP, which is apparently coming out in early 2009:  Work Hard, Be Nice.  The title -- a KIPP mantra -- always reminds me a little of other mottoes like Don't Worry, Be Happy (or Google's motto: Don't Be Evil).

 

Homeless Kids In The Classroom -- And How To Get Them Back

Here's another big, in-depth look at public education from a mainstream paper, proving that they still do these things at least once in a while. This one by reporter Cathy Grimes at the Hampton Roads VA Daily Press is about homeless kids, and profiles several over the course of a chaotic month in their lives:  Homework is harder when there's no home.  It's not just a feel-bad piece, however.  Changing requirements for tracking homeless students are also included in the package, as well as educators' strategies for finding and bringing homeless students back to school. Some of the profiles: High school dean tracks down his 'MIAs', 'Some days, we had no gas, or the car didn't work'.

Favorite Passages & Paragraphs

What are your favorite passages or paragraphs about education?

My journalism class focused on writing style this week, which got me thinking about what little  stylishness I've attempted in my own writing.  Not much, but there are a couple of efforts from Education Next that might qualify, including this description of Paul Vallas reflecting on his accomplishments in Chicago just after leaving there (Political Educator):

Self-assured and capable of torrential speech, Vallas only rarely admits to doubt or fault. "The job was easier than I thought it was going to be," Vallas recalls, walking briskly on a sunny weekday shortly before his appointment as Philadelphia schools CEO was announced. "The honeymoon never ended." 

How could you replicate that, even if you wanted to? As CEO of the Chicago schools, Vallas combined Rudy Giuliani's gruff exterior and stunning self-confidence with a Bill Clinton–like mastery of policy minutiae and John McCain's open door to a fawning, half-intimidated press. He held regular press conferences, called back reporters at all hours of the night, and spoke in commanding detail about specific schools and neighborhoods.

Some of the examples we discussed in class included Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Bobby Kennedy's speech about the killing of Martin Luther King.  Here are some favorites (not about education) from the other journalism students.   

So, what are your favorite passages or paragraphs about education?

Previous Post:  Great Writing -- All -Time Favorites 

Terry Bergeson, "Superintendent Of Public Destruction"?

One of my favorite kinds of blogs is the kind written by anonymous employees, full of complaints and scuttlebutt that only an insider can provide.  That's what this one is, focused almost entirely on Terry Bergeson, the superintendent of schools for Washington state, who is up for re-election and is apparently not well-liked by at least one of her employees.

Time-Lapse Story Chronicles Fates Of 24 Kindergartners

I'm a sucker for these "time-lapse" articles that follow kids over what should have been their K-12 experience, even though they usually feature highly mixed and tragic outcomes (School 9 kindergartners had difficult lives in '96 Democrat & Chronicle).  Maybe it's the sense of depth you get from reading about kids' lives over a 12 year span -- so often lacking in mainstream news coverage.  Maybe it's the reality check that you get from reading about kids' real lives, over time -- not a year, a program, or a short-term effort.

From last year:  Two Good "Time-Lapse" Education Stories

 

Who Got It Wrong? The Principal, Or The Press?

The news has been full of stories about the supposed "pregnancy pact" in Gloucester, MA (Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High).  How very Juno, everyone said.  Blame it on Knocked Up, said others.  Teen sex, oh no!

However, there are now all sorts of doubts about the story's accuracy (Mass. mayor says no proof girls had pregnancy pact, Principal has ‘foggy’ memory of pregnancy pact story). 

We've either got a really confused principal (Joseph Sullivan) or some really credulous reporters (Time, etc).

More New EdWeek Blogs And Bloggers Not A Bad Thing

By my count, EdWeek now has a bazillion blogs -- one for each reporter, basically. 

Alyson Klein (right) has officially joined Michele McNeil as a blogger at Campaign K12 -- no more guest blogger status for her. 

Not to be outdone, Kathleen Kennedy Manzo and Sean Cavanaugh (left) are heading a new blog, Curriculum Matters, for all the folks out there who care about what happens in classrooms, whoever you may be. 

I would make fun of them going overboard just like I make fun of the boys at Flypaper except that -- key difference -- these blogs actually include original reported news much of the time. 

You know, information, updates, facts not found elsewhere.  As readers of this blog well know, there's too little news on blogs and too much opinionation. 

New York Times Adopts "Power Couples In Education" Idea

Today's New York Times article about the couple that runs TFA and KIPP is going to make a lot of people a little bit nauseated, given the already imbalanced praise-to-accomplishment ratio that goes along with TFA and KIPP.  (There are just 14,000 TFA alums, and 65 KIPP schools nationwide.)  Others will find it too soft and uncritical.  Me, I'm just excited that the Times had adopted my "power couples in education" way of looking at the world. 

Previous post:  Power couples in education

"Good Night, Moon...Good Night Po-Pos"

From The Wire, Season 5.  Via The Plank (Worst Children's Book Ever).

How Debate Lost Its Soul -- And Might Get It Back

HBO is premiering its documentary about two different high school debate teams tonight.  You might want to check it out.  This isn't just a story about fancy vs. not fancy schools.  There've been lots of changes in debate since back in the day -- not all of them good ones.  The unintended consequence of time limits and judges' scoring emphasize speed over quality. 

Previewing Paul Tough

Paul Tough's book, Whatever It Takes, is coming out in September and may be the next big book on education. 

Tough has a cover blurb from no less than public radio star Ira Glass (his former boss) and is described on the back as "one of America's foremost writers on poverty, education, and the achievement gap."

"In Tough’s inspired portrait, sure to be as deeply influential as Tracy Kidder’s of Paul Farmer, Canada shares center stage with the parents and children of Harlem as they hopefully, anxiously enter a “conveyor belt” of integrated programs, from Baby College to Harlem Gems to Promise Academy."

Here's his 2004 article on Geoffrey Canada, the focus of his book: The Harlem Project.  Here's the December NYT Magazine article many of you may remember: What It Takes to Make a Student. Here he is in a December 2006 interview: Paul Tough On The HotSeat.

The Likeable Secretary Spellings Snookers The Press Again

Even in defeat, the ever-likeable EdSec Spellings still manages to charm reporters and get good press written about her.  The latest example -- and the first of what I'm sure will be a slew of "so long, Margaret" features -- is in today's Times (Bush Loyalist Fights to Save ‘No Child’ Law), written by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who has been White House correspondent for the past couple of years. 

The piece does capture how little Spellings and others appreciated the bipartisan moment that created NCLB.  Like a rookie winning the championship her first year in the league, Spellings didn't realize that not every year was going to be like that. And its retelling of the story of NCLB is relatively unobjectionable.

But this is pretty light stuff for a long profile in the Times.  Ooh, she travels a lot and changes into jeans for flights.  There's little effort to capture Spellings' role in the problems that followed the adoption of NCLB -- the regulatory delays, the rigid enforcement regime -- or her evolution (flipflop?) when she became Secretary in the second term. 

Perhaps most problematic, Stolberg lets Spellings get away with blaming what happened after NCLB was passed on 9/11 and the war in Iraq, rather than delays, broken relationships with Democrats, and rigid pride while she was in the White House.

UPDATE:  Always the suckup, Andwonk says the profile was well-reported with only minor flaws (Stolberg On Spellings).

Business Reporter Gets Nieman To Study Truancy

The journalists who won the prestigious Nieman this spring -- good for a year of study at Harvard -- include David Jackson of the Chicago Tribune, who's planning to study how truancy affects dropout rates.  Interestingly, Jackson is not an education reporter -- his byline appears on stories about Rezco and real estate. There's no requirement that reporters study the same subject as they report on, however, and it will be interesting to see what Jackson comes up with. Check out Jackson's project and the others' here:  Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

TFA Alums Survive Having Their First Year Chronicled In Print

I had a chance yesterday to sit down with three of the four TFAers featured in  the new book about their experience, Relentless Pursuit.  Sorry for the bad picture-taking, but pictured here are Rachelle Snyder, Hrag Hamalian, and Taylor Rifkin with the author, Donna Foote (from left to right). 

More details to follow, but they were all extremely positive about their TFA experiences despite having been put in an extreme situation even by TFA standards, surprisingly OK with the experience of having their first-year gaffes and dramas out there for all to see, and are all still in education (though increasingly not in the classroom). 

Oil Program Doing Better Than Reading Program, Says Leno

"A federal study released today shows that President Bush’s $1 billion a year Reading First program has done nothing to increase the reading skills of young students,” said Leno. “However, his Oil Company First program—going like gangbusters.”

Via a recent EWA newsletter. 

Katie Couric Does Education (Again)

Click below to see the summaries of CBS Evening News' three-part series on "what works" in education, which begins tonight. 

There's a segment on Michelle Rhee (natch), one on GPS trackers being used in Dallas (scary), and the Esperanza Academy in Lawrence, Mass.

The good folks at CBS were kind enough to send a look ahead.

"The Trouble With Boys" Coming September

Five years into covering education for Newsweek, reporter Peg Tyre wrote a cover story called Boys Crisis that generated controversy and led her to write a book coming out in September, The Trouble With Boys.

"The ferocity of the response from the academic feminists was telling—and I began to understand why talking about the underachievement of boys can be so difficult... Right now, we have 2.5 million more college-going females than college-going males. The growing education gap between men and women is having, and will continue to have, massive implications for our children and our children's children."

Coverage Of NCLB Worse Than Coverage Of The War

"You know, looking over Sam Freedman's farewell column on Wednesday, I concluded that, compared to the media coverage of education, esp. NCLB, the media coverage of the run-up to the ruinous Iraq war, as described by Scott McClellan, was positively aggressive."

    -- Jerry Bracey

Editors With "Deeply Held Erroneous Beliefs"

"Writers shape words into luminous sentences and the sentences into exquisitely crafted paragraphs. They weave the paragraphs together into a near perfect article, essay or review," writes Michael Kinsley in a recent issue of Time (Writers Vs. Editors: A Battle for the Ages).

"Editors "are idiots, most of them, and brutes, with tin ears, the aesthetic sensitivity of insects, deeply held erroneous beliefs about your topic and a maddening conviction that any article, no matter how eloquent or profound or already cut to the bone, can be improved by losing an additional 100 words."

WSJ Gives Big Love To Gates-Funded Small Schools

An informative but pretty decontextualized story in the Wall Street Journal about the proliferation of small new schools that is all but guaranteed to enrage most of the folks who've actually gone through having their schools closed in any of these cities:

"Inner-city school systems throughout the country are moving fast to open legions of small, experimental schools, in many cases replacing bigger institutions that were becoming unmanageable....The drive has been criticized at times for forcing some students to travel far from home for a general education or crowding them into facilities that then take on some of the problems associated with the schools that were closed down."

Transforming Inner-City Schools To Train Tomorrow's Work Force WSJ (free)

Great Writing -- All -Time Favorites

Great writing makes you care about something you might otherwise pass by.  My favorite example of this is a looong 2001 article in the New Yorker about the evolution of the ice cube industry (abstract). And so, to help make it through the long week are some strong examples of narrative nonfiction journalism that you might like -- examples from the writing class I'm taking this summer:

The Aria of Chris Matthews Mark Leibovich NYTM
Common Ground J. Anthony Lukas
Dr. Daedalus Lauren Slater Harper's
Power Steer Michael Pollan NYTM
The Duke in His Domain Truman Capote New Yorker
The Soldier Alexandra Fuller New Yorker (abstract)
Swamp Nurse Kate Boo New Yorker
"The Agent"                [PDF] (Adapted from The Looming Tower)
Can't Win for Losing (review of Working Poor in the NYT)

None of them are explicitly about K12 education, though several examples (Common Ground, Swamp Nurse, Working Poor) about poor communities and social policy. 

What are your favorite magazine or news articles, or all-time favorite nonfiction writers? Let's add to this little list.

Freedman Writes Last NYT Education Column

Today's education column will be Sam Freedman's last, he writes this morning (Education Stories, Inspiring or Otherwise).  Two months ago, this blog reported that the Times was eliminiting its weekly education page and not looking for a permanent fulltime education columnist ((Times Might Be Phasing Out Education Page, Column).   In his farewell column, Freedman laments the politicization of NCLB distracting from its potential and expresses skepticism about some of the reforms lauded by Chancellor Klein in New York City. 

NEA Policy Wonk Enters The Blogosphere

Some of you may have noticed a new ad over on the right side, touting a new NEA blog/podcast page from Joel Packer:

Yes, Packer (and the NEA) are joining the blogosphere (here).  Should be fun. I don't care much for podcasts, but they're providing transcripts and I can imagine Joel being good at this.  It certainly seems like a wise move on their part to be getting their view out more regularly than via press release.  Now if only the AFT Blog would come back into full form, and if someone from SEIU started blogging about education issues, we'd have a quorum.

I Was Nice Before I Started This Blog.

This weekend's long article about infamous blogger Emily Gould (Blog-Post Confidential) was long and ridiculous (and not nearly as salacious as it could have been) but raised a couple of worthwhile points nonetheless:

1.  Blogging can lead you to write really, really mean things.  It's only a guilty conscience and some well-timed remarks from friends and colleagues that have kept me from permanently going off the deep end on this one.

2.  Bloggers can't be counted on for introspection or candor.  Few admit to changes of heart, motivations, or satisfaction in their work, much less describe experiences in anything but the most self-promoting ways.  You know who I'm talking about.  And the other one, too. 

3.  Blogging can be deeply addictive -- especially at the euphoric start.  Witness the orgy of  opinionating that Fordham is going through right now.

Women's Group Says Boys Not In Crisis; Female Reporters Agree

The news coverage of the gender education issue continues to disappoint:

Yesterday's front-page Washington Post story identified the report's source and included a dissenting view but that's about it -- no examination of the quality of the report itself (No Crisis For Boys In Schools, Study Says). 

The Times' story includes no dissenting view at all and seems to suggest that the report confirms most other studies, which I don't think is the case (Girls’ Gains Have Not Cost Boys, Report Says).

EdWeek says something but I still can't the site to accept my password or something (AAUW Sees No Educational Crisis for Boys).  Help, Jeanne! Help!

Not everyone is content to let the AAUW report on gender differences in education go unexamined:  Surprise--The AAUW Finds that More Girls than Boys in College (Reason), About that education crisis (Sara Mead on TNR), and Our view on gender and education (Richard Whitmire at USA Today).

This is a report, not research.  This report comes from an advocacy group, not an independent or academic organization.  Journalistic orthodoxy is that researchers' and reporters' own personal views and experiences (including gender) don't shape their writing, but let's be honest:  that's just not humanly possible.  I'll let others consider the quality or completeness of the work itself. 

Leaving Education, Leaving Print Journalism

Dallas Morning News reporter, columnist, and all-around bon vivant Josh Benton is finishing off his journalism fellowship at Harvard in style -- by leaving the DMN and taking another job. 

He's leaving the paper (and the education beat) to become the founder director of the new Nieman Digital Journalism Project at Harvard. 

This via sources at the paper and via Benton's Facebook page.  Yes, he announced his job change there.  Makes sense, actually.  Congrats, condolences.

UPDATE:  With Josh's departure, three of five education reporters at the DMN have departed the education beat in short order -- Benton, plus Karen Ayers and Staci Hupp.  Sound the alarm!

How The Sacto. Bee Uncovered The "Racial Reclassification" Story

All sorts of good things in the latest EWA newsletter, including some journalism job announcements, an interesting look at the development of that Sacramento Bee article about schools "reclassifying" students' races in response to AYP subgroup reporting requirements, and more.

Staff Changes At The PEN Newsblast

Albert Lang, who has of late been putting out the PEN NewsBlast, is moving on from that post as of today.  Formerly of CommunicationWorks, where his clients included the Center on Education Policy, Lang is apparently going to the e-Luminate Group, where he's going to work on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Congrats, condolences to Lang and to PEN. 

One of the longest-running online education outlets, the NewsBlast has penetrated deeply into schools and classrooms.  Organizations and PR outfits fight hard to get into the Blast and are elated when they get in there.  No permanent replacement for Lang has been announced.

Here's Lang's last NewBlast, which I'm sure will soon be going for big bucks on eBay. Here's the post that announced his arrival (Lang In For Schaffer At PEN).  Here's a post from last June about the departure of Lang's predecessor (PEN NewsBlast Guru Rides Off Into The Sunset).

How Education Blogs "Outsource" Newspapers' Roles

Here's a chart that the Dallas Morning News' Kent Fischer showed recently to describe how the content from a traditional newspaper article matches up to the content of a blog post and the comments from readers that accompany many posts. 

Essentially, Fischer is arguing that blogs replace news articles by "outsourcing" the anecdotes, opinions, and analysis that make up most of a newspaper story.  The result is just messier to read, unverified (to the extent that newspaper stories are verified these days), and in some cases uninformed (not that experts are always all that informed).

Fischer's blog is called the Dallas ISD Blog. 

Another NYT Education Reporter To Leave

K12 education reporter Diana Jean Schemo says she's taking the buyout and leaving the NYT.  She says her plans are to finish a book on the U.S. Air Force Academy and work on some magazine pieces. Schemo joins recent education departures including Karen Arenson (buyout) last week.  Based in DC, Schemo has covered education for the paper since 2000.  Here is a list of Schemo's clips.

UPDATE:  Schemo covered early childhood and higher ed as well as K12, and plans to do more writing for the Times and other outlets in the future, on a freelance basis.

The New Scholastic Administrator

The latest issue of the new Scholastic Administrator is out, including some pieces that I wrote or had a hand in editing.  Here's a taste from the table of contents:

Meet the Gates Foundation’s Education Honcho
What’s Next for NCLB
Is Obama the Education Candidate?
The Top Ed Trends to Watch
Five Things You Need to Know

 The Housing Crisis Hits Schools The fall in the housing market is hurting the budgets of school districts across the country. Here’s what administrators are doing to stem the damage. 

Chicago Public Radio Reporter Ousted Over Frabrication Allegations

Every beat has its problems with fabrication and plagiarism, it seems.  Why not education?  In a story first reported here earlier this week, the Sun Times is now confirming that WBEZ's Jay Field has been forced to resign due to allegations that he fabricated at least one story. "Field, who most recently was on the education beat, was forced to resign over allegations that he had fabricated a story, sources said. The story never made it on the air."  I'm told that the station is combing previous stories to see if there's any obvious evidence of other fabrications.  Thus far, Field has refused any real comment, responding briefly to an email saying that he had left the station and was looking for other opportunities.  Well, it looks like it's going to take more than that for Field -- and Chicago Public Radio -- to get things back in order.  Previous Post:  Chicago Public Radio Education Reporter Resigns Suddenly

Chicago Public Radio Education Reporter Resigns Suddenly

Chicago Public Radio education reporter Jay Field (pictured) has resigned, in what appears to be a sudden departure.  Field has not so far responded to my attempts to find him.  Earlier today, however, WBEZ managing editor Sally Eisele stated that Field had resigned, as of Friday, April April 18th, but said she could not provide any further details.

It looks like Field was at the station for roughly seven years, the last two and a half of them on the education beat.  The first education story that I can find from Field is from October 2005.  The last story that I can find posted on the WBEZ site is April 14th -- about students returning to DuSable after a recent scare.  A list of his pieces is here.  (A bunch of his work was also picked up by the national, NPR.  See list here.) 

His LinkedIn profile says he's a graduate of Colby ('94).  He won a Lisagor for a piece he did with Julia McEvoy in 2003 -- perhaps as a freelancer.  According to this website, he joined the station in 2001 as a general assignment reporter.

Field's departure seems sudden and may have been unexpected, given that he only recently returned from paternity leave.  I'm still hoping to find out what, if anything, happened, and who, if anyone, will replace him. [Cross-posted from D299.]

Times Higher Ed Reporter May Be Leaving Paper

We're losing education journalists like mad this week.

First we lose the Chicago Tribune's Stephanie Banchero for a year to some silly fellowship in California. 

Now, word on the street is that New York Times higher education reporter Karen Arenson is leaving the paper sometime soon as well.*

What next?  Jay Mathews decides he wants to be a crime reporter?

Not sure what she's written?  You can find tons of her stories here.   

*Remember:  this rumor is worth what you paid for it.  I still haven't gotten official confirmation.  I'm not even sure if this picture is really of her.  But, assuming it's true, congrats, condolences.

UPDATE:  Arenson confirms via email that she's leaving, after 30 years at the paper and 12 on the higher ed beat.

Next Up For Edublogging: Full-Time, Professional, Mainstream

Hard as it may be to believe, all this education blogging that's going on is still so far part-time and/or amateur (unpaid), and little of it part of mainstream news sites.  But that won't last for much longer, I don't think.  Someone will soon get hired to blog about education full-time on a mainstream site.  Things have already gone far beyond the first fulltime mainstream hire in other areas.  For example, many of the best bloggers who cover economics have already been hired, writes Megan McArdle on the Atlantic blog (Blogging goes professional).  Ditto for politics.  It could be ether someone new we've never