Choosing a school for your child’s education is probably one of the most important decisions parents have to make. If you’re interested in keeping track of how our schools are doing in and around Indianapolis, there isn’t a single go-to source for information. Indy newsrooms have carved out different areas of expertise and they supplement their reporting by collaborating with a three-person newsroom focused solely on education.
That leaves parents, students, and teachers to develop their own strategies to get their questions answered as they navigate Indy education news. It’s also challenging for area journalists and newsrooms, because education is a vast topic.
Indianapolis, unlike some major cities, does not have a single public school district serving the entirety of Indianapolis/Marion County. Instead, the city/county has 11 total public school districts, IPS included.
On top of holding all of those organizations individually accountable for their obligation to provide quality education and a safe environment to the children of our community, newsrooms must also decide whether to cover education trends. For example, the recent state legislative session brought us a cellphone ban during school hours and the Indianapolis Public School District will soon be impacted by a new board appointed by the mayor to oversee transportation and school buildings.
It would take dozens of education reporters to fully document these issues. That’s why, this week, I’m tackling reader Christy Jacobi’s question about the education beat:
“I’m curious about education beat reporters — do they still exist or has it all been left to Chalkbeat?”
Chalkbeat is a national nonprofit news organization solely focused on education. They have eight local bureaus, including Chalkbeat Indiana, which has reported on our state for 10 years. The outlet focuses its reporting on stories of school improvement, and is especially committed to capturing the experiences of those historically underserved by quality education.
Chalkbeat Indiana Bureau Chief MJ Slaby leads a team of two reporters (Aleksandra Appleton and Amelia Pak-Harvey). They cover kindergarten through 12th grade charter and district schools in Indianapolis, as well as state-wide education policies, township school districts and higher education. But three people can’t cover the beat comprehensively.
Chalkbeat allows media across the state to run their stories for free. WFYI, Mirror Indy, WISH-TV and WTHR have formal partnerships with the nonprofit news organization.
WISH-TV has a regular Tuesday segment in which a Chalkbeat Indiana reporter shares the biggest education news of the week. WTHR’s streaming show, “Parent Squad,” also includes appearances by Slaby or another member of her team to deliver education news.
Each week, Slaby’s team also coordinates news coverage with the education beat reporters at Mirror Indy and WFYI. The three news organizations divide up coverage of township districts. The Chalkbeat reporters cover Perry, Lawrence, and Decatur township districts. Mirror Indy education reporters Carley Lanich and Claire Rafford cover Wayne and Warren. WFYI covers Pike, Washington and Franklin townships. This covers the eight township districts, and the three newsrooms work together to cover Speedway and Beech Grove school districts ad hoc for now, but hope to expand coverage in the future.
Slaby says that by combining their reporting resources, local newsrooms have produced stories on significant issues like youth gun violence and the school walkouts in protest of ICE.
“I do think that the collaboration allows us to tell more stories than we could alone,” she said via email. “If we share and republish stories (whether that’s another newsroom republishing us or us republishing a story), that frees us up to go cover a different story that might not be told otherwise.”
Yes, education beat reporters do exist
Mirror Indy, WFYI, and IndyStar all have dedicated education beat reporters. Each news outlet has a different approach for their reporting, highlighting issues they think will appeal to their audiences.
Mirror Indy’s Lanich covers K-12 education in charter, IPS and township schools, while Rafford covers Indianapolis colleges, universities, and adult and workforce education programs. Their strategy for coverage is to tell stories readers want to hear (based on their feedback), localize big education trends, and partner with other news outlets to expand their reach.
Both reporters, and especially Lanich, spend a lot of time listening to parents and students at Mirror Indy community events and school board meetings. Rafford says she finds a lot of her story sources on social media, among commenters on trending posts.
Education articles that explain how the systems work are very popular for Mirror Indy. Recent examples include stories that describe how individualized education plans work and how recent grads can access job fairs.
“We really try to help inform parents and students and residents of Indianapolis,” Lanich said. “Everyone should care about education whether you have a kid in school or not, because your tax dollars are paying for it.”
She also points parents to Mirror Indy’s Documenters program if they are interested in learning about a specific school district or charter school. Lanich says that if a Documenter, or citizen-notetaker, has attended a charter or district school board meeting of interest, the published notes, which you can find on the nonprofit’s website, are another resource for curious parents shopping around for schools.
Lanich welcomes parents to call her to ask questions, as both reporters see themselves as resources with expertise and knowledge related to Indy schools.
WFYI’s education coverage prioritizes issues where the systems need improvement, says Managing Education Editor Eric Weddle. A veteran of the education beat for more than 13 years, he advises parents to follow up with questions to school officials during visits if they read a news story that is critical about a school or a piece celebrating a school success. Dylan Peers McCoy is WFYI’s investigative education reporter.
“Our focus is heavily influenced by equity and holding power to account,” Weddle said via email. “If an issue — such as unequal funding, special education shortfalls, or a lack of transparency — disproportionately impacts communities of students or reveals a betrayal of the public trust, we pursue it. We want stories that resonate whether you live in Indianapolis or a surrounding county because the underlying systemic failures are often the same.”
Marion County public schools and charter schools are fairly well covered by the collaboration between WFYI, Mirror Indy and Chalkbeat. Most recently, WFYI’s coverage of higher ed has included a story on Indiana University’s president’s salary and changes at Ivy Tech.
With a dedicated K-12 education beat reporter, the IndyStar also focuses on accountability reporting, policy decisions and the issues most affecting students and families, Executive Editor Ryan Martin said. Most recently, the beat has been covered by multiple reporters across the newsroom as the paper is hiring for a new K-12 reporter.
“Given the breadth of education issues and number of school districts, colleges and universities here, our approach blends beat expertise with enterprise reporting and cross-team coverage when needed,” Martin said.
TV news and statewide coverage
Indiana Capital Chronicle’s larger focus is the Statehouse. Reporter Casey Smith has been covering statewide education policy issues for years. The Chronicle supplements their routine and enterprise coverage, which doesn’t include specific school districts, with Chalkbeat Indiana stories.
TV news highlights education coverage, when the story is hot rather than consistent and comprehensive coverage of individual schools or districts.
“Education rarely does well,” said FOX59 and CBS4 News Director CJ Hoyt. “It is one of the most lowly ranked topics that an audience has told us they’re interested in. They’re much more interested in public safety, crime coverage. They’re much more interested in pocketbook issues, saving money.”
Both stations do still cover issues important to education, but may not commit a reporter to those stories. Instead, Hoyt may send a photographer to capture soundbites from sources or an anchor may deliver education news. Reporters at FOX59 and CBS4 have regional beats instead of topical beats like education.
“I can’t imagine that a television station is a great resource for someone to go to, to say, what school district should I move to for my kids,” Hoyt said. “I just don’t think we’re equipped to do things like rankings or talk about why this school district is better than another.”
Instead of a holistic focus, Hoyt said viewers will see stories more narrowly focused around specific aspects of certain districts like this story about mounting financial pressures in the Rush County school district.
If you’re looking for stories about a specific school or school district, you can search the websites of Mirror Indy or the IndyStar to see if your school or district has done anything newsworthy. Both are also helpful if you’re comparing schools or districts. The Indiana Capital Chronicle is useful for getting information on statewide education policy. If you want information about broader trends in education and how they are playing out here in our region, Chalkbeat and WFYI are go-to sources for that coverage. Parents might turn to TV news outlets, like CBS4 and FOX59, for the day’s biggest education news stories in our area.
Parents and families can find what they need in the Indianapolis news ecosystem’s education coverage. However, news consumers need to understand the various strengths and weaknesses of these newsrooms, and then develop a strategy to get what they need to know about education in Indianapolis.
Tracey Compton is Poynter’s Indianapolis Public Editor. You can send your questions about local media to her at indypubliceditor@poynter.org.
Mirror Indy publishes the Indianapolis public editor columns as part of a partnership with Poynter Institute to increase media literacy and trust in local journalism.