2024 Beat Reporting (Large Newsroom)

About the Winner:

Mandy McLaren pulled back the curtain on Massachusetts’ special education system – long revered as the best in the country – revealing a morass of challenges plaguing the state’s schools, which ultimately were harming the most vulnerable. Mandy, a former special education teacher, put students and their families at the center of her reporting, elevating their voices to translate complex policies and practices into visceral terms for the average reader. 

Through the use of voluminous data and records, her body of work shone light on gross inequities further contributing to the state’s glaring income and racial divides. Taken together, Mandy’s work has significantly aided the public’s understanding of special education, igniting change at both the state and local levels.

Comments From the Judges:

“Mandy delivered one riveting read after another in this package of stories, which individually and collectively are wonderful investigative and public service journalism. Mandy has a powerful writing style, always pulling the reader in from the first sentence. She couples beautiful writing with detailed, thorough reporting. She doesn’t just write about headphones. She writes about the pink headphones one of her story [subjects] wears.”

“This is the pinnacle of education beat reporting; nuanced, child- and family-centered storytelling, dogged use of public and family records, and fair use of responses from schools, districts, and the state. It’s clear this reporting took a long time, but also built on top of itself as the reporter developed deeper expertise.”

Photo credit: Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff; Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe