2022 Beat Reporting (Small Newsroom) Winner

About the Winner:

For Emily Tate Sullivan, the timing seemed right to explore the collateral damage of low teacher compensation. 

“In nearly every interaction I had with a teacher, including interviews for unrelated stories, they would tell me before hanging up how they were fed up and thinking of leaving, that conditions in their school community had deteriorated, and that the compensation for what was asked of them had become more insulting than they could bear,” she explained. “At the same time, school districts were reporting thousands of unfilled staff openings. As a nation, we couldn’t afford to lose our teachers. But I wondered, could we afford to keep them?”

Comments From the Judges:

“The first entry was really eye-opening, with such great details and anecdotes from such a variety of teachers. The story plowed new ground on a problem education reporters have long heard about and did so in a way that was a compelling read, with good stats backing up really powerful narratives from those teaching in our classrooms — and also waiting tables, driving Ubers, etc. Really well done. Just a great example of peeling back the curtain on an issue that has been long overlooked.”

“A great, multi-faceted look into an important topic. The reporter grounded the stories in teachers’ stories and didn’t stop.” 

Photo credits: Illustration by Richard A. Chance for EdSurge; Alphavector / Shutterstock