2025 Explanatory Journalism (Education-Only Outlets) Finalists
Sarah Carr
The Hechinger Report
Early Intervention Services Can Help Premature Children Thrive, but Too Few Receive Them
Comments From the Judges:
“What a fascinating and impactful story! Carr took us in-depth on an undercovered issue, finding the exact right family and place to root us. Her work should be celebrated for its accessibility and the clear change she brought about for the littlest children in Illinois.”
“Amazing writing and vivid characters combined with critical information and a clear solution. It felt like the reporter was everywhere all the time. She did a skillful job of keeping track of the timeline – making the reader feel like they are witnessing time pass and circumstances result in consequences. Very impressed with the impact of the story resulting in law.”
Alyson Klein & Visuals and Immersive Experiences Team
Education Week
‘Pairing Schools’: One Strategy, Two Very Different Outcomes
- How one district reimagined elementary school
- A school pairing plan promised equity, and stirred backlash
- What makes—or breaks—a district’s school merger plan
Comments From the Judges:
“It was brilliant, no pun intended, to pair a success story from the rural South with the failure in the ostensibly more enlightened and far more liberal District of Columbia. The piece summarizing why one failed where the other succeeded also was clearly and powerfully written. The author explained the subject and also showed us how administrators, elected officials, teachers, parents and students lived through these tumultuous transitions.”
“Excellent, excellent storytelling throughout the series. Inclusion and explanation of all viewpoints and multiple stakeholder voices. Klein’s deep reporting is evident. By the time I got through the first two stories, I was creating a mental list of why the pairing worked in La. but not in DC. My list matched Klein’s third story, which shows how well she told the stories of each of those districts.”
Greg Toppo
The 74
Greg Toppo: Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure?
Comments From the Judges:
“This is a great story that covers in-depth an important subsection of the reading debates. I love the call-out on the irony of the whole language being designed to get kids to love reading – but forgetting to teach them how, and for the kids who don’t figure it out on their own, reading is no fun at all. Exceptional reporting, framed well and told well.”
“So many sharp and memorable lines in this easy-to-read piece that’s, ironically, about why kids don’t read. Some of the lines that continue to ring in my mind came from the writer himself: ‘..after more than a century of steadily expanding literacy, reading is devolving into an act relegated to a small group of elites…’ And there are many sparkling quotes from the reporter’s interviews also, geared largely toward explaining the problem – and giving some glimmers of hope at potential solutions.”
