2025 Beat Reporting (Education-Only Outlets) Finalists
Jill Barshay
The Hechinger Report
Jill Barshay’s Beat Reporting: How Trump Gutted Education Research
- Chaos and confusion as the statistics arm of the Education Department is reduced to a skeletal staff of 3
- Suddenly sacked
- Inaccurate, impossible: Experts knock new Trump plan to collect college admissions data
- NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card, was supposed to be safe. It’s not
- How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year
Comments From the Judges:
“Barshay’s reporting on the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education’s statistical arm was second to none — an absolute standout. It is authoritative, deeply sourced and insightful. Not only did she consistently break important news on the beat, but she created a comprehensive record of this moment in history.”
“Barshay met the moment, becoming a trusted source — or perhaps THE trusted source — for U.S. Department of Education insiders during a pivotal period of cuts. She translated the information they shared about Trump administration changes into the real-world ramifications for her audience. Barshay’s depth of knowledge and experience shines through this body of work. It’s easy to imagine that, if not for her reporting, the nation may well be without key facts about what DOGE cuts have meant for America’s top education agency.”
Michael Elsen-Rooney
Chalkbeat New York
Educating New York City’s Immigrant Students Under Trump’s Second Term
- A Bronx high schooler showed up for a routine immigration court date. ICE was waiting.
- Their student was detained by ICE. Now this Bronx school is rallying to get him back.
- At a Bronx school for immigrants, an undocumented teen fights for an education under Trump
- As Trump’s deportation campaign grows, a Bronx school and undocumented teen face tough choices
- A wave of immigration buoyed dozens of NYC schools. Now, their enrollment is plummeting.
Comments From the Judges:
“I am wholeheartedly impressed with Elsen-Rooney’s work. He consistently tells original stories with the voices of real families at the heart. His work as a beat reporter covering this newsworthy and difficult topic, especially his effort to embed in a public school for migrant students, is well-deserving of acclaim. This is what beat reporting should look like and an exemplar collection of stories other reporters should strive to emulate.”
“I gave this a ’10’ because it accomplished two things that I think are tough to do at the same time: covering a timely and important topic and telling it from the point of view of the students who were experiencing it. The access to the schools, staff, students and their families made the story so personal. Understanding what schools and families on the other end of these policies are dealing with is an important part of the picture. It’s not easy to get people to open up the way these students and families did, so I’m sure that took a lot of time and persuasion.”
Mila Koumpilova
Chalkbeat Chicago
Mila Koumpilova Beat Reporting
- 100 students in a school meant for 1,000: Inside Chicago’s refusal to deal with its nearly empty schools
- Chicago releases its Black Student Success Plan amid backlash against race-based initiatives
- Chicago Public Schools’ debt has hit over $28,000 per student. Here’s what that means.
- Chicago’s Sustainable Community Schools are growing. But few outperform neighboring schools.
- Unspent money, turnover, and tension: Chicago’s Sustainable Community Schools provide lessons for future
Comments From the Judges:
“I’ve heard of under-enrolled schools, but not at the scale of what Koumpilova is reporting in Chicago. She truly brings to light the challenges of operating a school that makes sense for student success, given the many variables, including political ones, that are at stake.”
“Koumpilova seems to have a finger on the pulse of the reporting that Chicago needs. The under-enrollment piece is what I would call a brave story — the type of reporting that says what everyone is thinking and no one is willing to say. Doing that with strong findings, yet balanced telling, is a major community service. The debt story was, similarly, a “bitter pill” type story necessary for the community to hear. And the community schools piece served this function as well, but did a good job also pointing to potential solutions and programmatic tweaks. Overall, this is a very strong package.”
