Education Reporting -- The Good, the Lousy, the Lousy

I guess I'm not the only one with strong feelings about education coverage this week:

First there's Jenny D, whose post (Lousy Education Reporting) lambastes a recent series as follows: "it didn't add anything to the debate about education, or the difficult work of educators."

The Education Wonks find some praiseworthy work in their posting (Local Education Reporting: A Positive Example), highlighting the article for" journalism that asks probing questions and yet refrains from counterproductive personal attacks."

UPDATE: Lori Crouch of EWA pipes in with a helpful lesson in journalism:

"Unfortunately, some bloggers can't seem to differentiate between news stories and editorials/columns. The item singled out by edwonks is an editorial, not a news story. Editorial writers are free to ask hard question *in* their copy while reporters have to ask hard questions of sources and hope they give straight answers... Presumably the editorial is based on an actual story about the district spending that $11,0000...."

Earlier this week, my post (The NYT Misses Badly on Education Funding Story) chastized the Times for a misleading headling and unbalanced story about NCLB funding.

I won't belabor the point, but Stateline's article on NCLB also seems skewed towards conflict and controversy (and liberal bias): No letup in unrest over Bush school law. Connecticut has yet to file its lawsuit, Utah has yet to turn down the cash or take any concrete steps towards negating NCLB, and scads of states (including Vermont most recently) are seeking and finding relief through waivers and accommodations from the USDE.