2008 Winners of the National Awards for Education Reporting

Washington, D.C. – The Education Writers Association (EWA), the national professional association of education reporters and writers, today announced the winners of the 2008 National Awards for Education Reporting, the prestigious national competition for education writing. The annual contest honors the best education reporting in the print and broadcast media and is the only independent contest of its kind in the United States. Contest entries were limited to stories published or broadcast for the first time during the 2008 calendar year.

A total of 273 entries were judged in this year’s contest. First-prize winners receive a cash prize of $150 and a plaque. Winners of Second Prizes and Special Citations receive certificates. The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting includes an award of $1,000 and a plaque and will be presented to the best of the first prize winners. EWA also honors reporters who have done the best overall Beat Reporting in both small and large media and markets and for the first time this year awards prizes to bloggers and to multi-media entries. Prizes, including the announcement of the Grand Prize, will be given at the awards banquet May 2 at 6:30 p.m.during the Education Writers Association’s 62nd National Seminar, April 30-May 2 at the in Washington, D.C.

Contest judging was conducted independently, under the direction of Chief Judge Adrianne Flynn of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. This year’s panel of distinguished judges were Sandy Banisky of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; Mike Bowler, retired Baltimore Sun reporter; Debbie Cenziper of the Washington Post; Gadi Dechter of the Baltimore Sun; William Englund of the National Journal; Andrew Mollison, freelance education writer; Deborah Nelson of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; Frank Quine of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland and Ron Yaros of Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. Recent winners of the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting include: Martha Irvine and Robert Tanner of the Associated Press;Jean Rimbach and Kathleen Carroll of the New Jersey Record; and Kati Phillips, LindaLutton and Jonathan Lipman of the Daily Southtown.

IA. Newspapers Under 100,000–Breaking or Hard News

 

No Winners

IB. Newspapers Under 100,000–Feature, News Feature or Issue Package

First Prize Diane D’Amico, The Press of Atlantic City –“A Mutual Challenge: Disabled, Attending College”

Second Prize Francisco Alvarado, Miami New Times – “The F-School Bomb”

Special Citations Jack Stripling, The Gainesville Sun -”Professor of Plagiarism”

Ashley Wilson and Nanci Bompey, Asheville Citizen-Times – “Childhood Obesity: A Growing Epidemic” 

IC. Newspapers Under 100,000–Series or Group of Articles

First Prize Diette Courrégé, The (Charleston, SC) Post and Courier –“Sanders-Clyde Elementary”

Second Prize Hugo Rodrigues, Woodstock (Ontario, Canada) Sentinel-Review –“The ABCs of the EQAO”

ID. Newspapers Under 100,000–Investigative Reporting

First Prize Emily Alpert, Voices of San Diego.org -”The School Guru Who Promised Rescue and Brought Ruin”

Second Prize Sonia Smith, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate –“Deaf School Abuse”

 

IE. Newspapers Under 100,000—Opinion

 

First Prize James A. Haught, The Charleston (WV) Gazette -”Editorials on Bogus Degree”

Second Prize Margaret Downing, Houston Press – “Exit Exams”

IIA. Newspapers Over 100,000–Breaking or Hard News

First Prize Kathleen McGrory, Trenton Daniel, and David Ovalle, The Miami Herald– “Melee at Edison Senior High”

Second Prize Megan Matteucci, The Atlanta Journal- Constitution – “Clayton Accreditation Problems”

Special Citations Debra Hale-Shelton, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette – “A Secret Bonus”

David Hunn, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – “The Fall of an Icon”

 

IIB. Newspapers Over 100,000–Feature, News Feature or Issue Package

First Prize Lizette Alvarez, The New York Times – “From Combat to College”

Second Prize Jill Tucker, The San Francisco Chronicle – “A Matter of Mathematics”

Special Citation Elizabeth Green, The Village Voice – “No More Pencils”

IIC. Newspapers Over 100,000–Series or Group of Articles

First Prize Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Newsday – “School Lunch on Long Island”

Second Prize Ron Matus, Donna Winchester, Letitia Stein and Connie Humburg, St. Petersburg Times – “Teacher Quality”

Special Citations Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times – “Community College Challenges”

Rosalind Rossi and Art Golab, Chicago Sun-Times – “Schooled in Fear”

II. D Newspapers Over 100,000–Investigative Reporting

First Prize Blake Morrison and Brad Heath,USA Today – “The Smokestack Effect”

Second Prize Bill Graves, Amy Hsuan and Melissa Navas,The Oregonian – “Disciplining Oregon Teachers”

Special Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry, The Seattle Times – “Victory and Ruins”

Citation

 

II. E Newspapers Over 100,000–Opinion

First Prize Linda Lantor Fandel, The Des Moines Register – “World Class Schools for Iowa?”

Second Prize Kate N. Grossman, Chicago Sun- Times – “Calming Our Classrooms”

 

IIIA.Multimedia (Multi-media entries)

First Prize Mary Wiltenburg, The Christian Science Monitor – “Little Bill Clinton Series”

Second Prize David Andreatta,Max Schulte, Scott Sheils, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle -“Class Picture”

Special Citations Alison Damast, John Byrne, Francesca DiMeglio, Geoff Gloeckler, Louis Lavelle and Jane Porter, BusinessWeek – “B-Schools Multimedia Feature”

Mary Ann Zehr, Christopher Powers and Yasmine Mousa, Education Week – “The Lost Years: Iraqi Students in Jordan”

IIIB. Multimedia Blogs

First Prize Kent Fischer and Tawnell Hobbs, The Dallas Morning News – “Dallas ISD Blog”

Second Prize Jennifer Jennings, Eduwonkette – “Eduwonkette Blog”

Special Citation Stephen Burd, New America Foundation’s Higher Ed Watch – “Subprime Student Loan Scandal”

IVA. Beat Reporting Small Media or Market

First Prize Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Education – “Adjuncts- The Debate Evolves”

Second Prize Mila Koumpilova, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead (ND)- “Praised Horizon Has Flaws”

Special Citations Goldie Blumenstyk, The Chronicle of Higher Education – “Understanding College Costs and Finance”

Peter Schmidt, The Chronicle of Higher Education – “Higher Education Research”

IVB. Beat Reporting Large Media or Market

First Prize Rosalind Rossi, Chicago Sun-Times – “Rosalind Rossi Beat Coverage”

Second Prize Nick Perry, The Seattle Times – “Beat Reporting”

Special Citation Andy Gammill, Indianapolis Star – “Indianapolis Schools: A Year of Challenges”

V. Magazines (Including Alumni Magazines)

First Prize Adam Kissel, The Lantern – “Thought Reform at the University of Delaware”

Second Prize Jeff Chu, Fast Company– “The Iron Chancellor”

Special Citations William Selway and Martin Z. Braun, Bloomberg Markets – “Schools Flunk Finance”

Jane Wellman, Change Magazine – “The Higher Education Funding Disconnect: Spending More, Getting Less”

 

VI. Special Interest, Institutional and Trade Publication

First Prize Libby Sander, The Chronicle of Higher Education – “The Chase”

Second Prize Sarah Karp and John Myers, Catalyst-Chicago – “Class 2011”

 

 

VII A. Television Hard News and Investigative

First Prize Jeremy Rogalski,David Raziq, and Keith Tomshe, KHOU-TV (Houston, TX) – “A Dangerous Lesson”

VIIB. Television Documentary and Feature

First Prize Angela Shelley, Bret Marcus, Alexandria Gales, Brett Wood, Michael Bloecher- KCET, Community Television of Southern California – “Inside Locke High”

Second Prize John Merrow, Cat McGrath, Jane Renaud and David Wald, Learning Matters, Inc. -”Leadership: A Challenging Course”

Special Citation Abbie Boudreau, Scott Zamost, Caleb Hellerman and Mark Nelson, CNN “Campus Rage”

VIII. Radio

First Prize Claudio Sanchez and Cynthia Johnston, National Public Radio – “The Student Loan Crisis”