2024 Finalists for the National Awards for Education Reporting

Education-Only Outlets

Linda Jacobson
The 74
Beat Reporting for The 74

Mila Koumpilova
Chalkbeat Chicago
Mila Koumpilova Beat Reporting

Jackie Mader
The Hechinger Report
Covering Early Education

Small Newsroom

Wyatt Massey
Spotlight PA
Penn State Beat Reporting

Molly Minta
Mississippi Today & Open Campus
Investigating the Haves and Have-Nots in Mississippi’s Higher Education System

Asher Lehrer-Small
Houston Landing
Beat Reporting – Asher Lehrer Small, Houston Landing

Large Newsroom

Alec MacGillis
ProPublica
Alec MacGillis – Education Reporting

Mandy McLaren
The Boston Globe
Investigating Special Education

Hannah Natanson
The Washington Post
Conflicts in Education

All Newsroom Sizes

Moriah Balingit, Sharon Lurye, Daniel Beekman, Carly Flandro, Valeria Olivares & Alaina Bookman
The Associated Press, The Seattle Times, Idaho Education News, The Dallas Morning News & AL.com
America’s Child Care Crisis Is Holding Back Moms Without College Degrees

Jacquelyn Elias, Brian O’Leary, Megan Zahneis, Adrienne Lu & Julia Piper
The Chronicle of Higher Education
What Professors Actually Earn

Sarah Karp, Nader Issa, Kate Grossman, Becky Vevea, Jesse Howe, Justin Myers, Angela Massino, Alex Keefe, Lauren FitzPatrick, Fernanda Veles, Thomas Wilburn, Candi Meriwether, Amy Qin, Anna Savchenko & Steven Arroyo
WBEZ Chicago, Chicago Sun-Times & Chalkbeat Chicago
Covering Chicago’s First School Board Election

Broadcast

Howard Bryant, Nicole Noren, Jessica Foster, Rayna Banks, Jena Janovy, Chris Buckle, John Mastroberardino, Jessi Dodge & Lyndsey Armacost
ESPN
The Walkout: A Florida Baseball Team’s Battle – Against Itself

Wayne Carter, Mark Muller & John Stone
NBC Universal
Carter in the Classroom – Features

Dylan Peers McCoy, Nicole Cohen & Janet Woojeong Lee
WFYI & NPR
He Has a Badge and a Gun — and He Investigates School Truancy

Education-Only Outlets

Kate Hidalgo Bellows
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Traumatized Campus

Kavitha Cardoza, Caroline Preston & Valeria Fernandez
The Hechinger Report, palabra. & AL.com
A Superintendent Made Big Gains With English Learners. His Success May Have Been His Downfall.

Mila Koumpilova
Chalkbeat Chicago
‘The Kids Everyone Forgot’

Small Newsroom

Natalia Alamdari
Flatwater Free Press
Marco’s Journey

Colin Hogan
The New Bedford Light
The Students the Reading Wars Forgot

Liz Rosenberg, David Dayen, Jandos Rothstein & Gerard Edic
The American Prospect
New York City’s Last Dictatorship

Large Newsroom

Jennifer Berry Hawes & Liz Moughon
ProPublica
Segregation Academies: Decades After Desegregation, Private Schools Still Divide

Talia Richman
The Dallas Morning News
The Show Went On

Jeremy Schwartz
ProPublica & The Texas Tribune
She Campaigned for a Texas School Board Seat as a GOP Hard-Liner. Now She’s Rejecting Her Party’s Extremism.

Education-Only Outlets

Sarah Butrymowicz, Fazil Khan, Meredith Kolodner, Gail Cornwall, Sara Hutchinson, Hadley Hitson, Madeline Mitchell, Amanda Chen, Tazbia Fatima, Tara García Mathewson & Nirvi Shah
The Hechinger Report, Montgomery Advertiser & Cincinnati Enquirer
Suspended for…What?

Thomas Peele, Daniel J. Willis, Emma Gallegos, Justin Allen, Yuxuan Xie, Mallika Seshadri, Lasherica Thornton & Monica Velez
EdSource
Calling the Cops

Jasper Smith
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Once a Beacon. Now a Burden.

Small Newsroom

Joshua Bowling
Searchlight New Mexico
‘The Finer Things in Life’

Emiliano Tahui Gómez, Keri Heath & Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman
A Fatal Field Trip

Camille Phillips
Texas Public Radio
Concussions, Bruises, Bite Marks: San Antonio Special Education Teachers Say They Often Get Hurt at Work

Large Newsroom

Jenn Abelson, Jessica Contrera & Nate Jones
The Washington Post
Abused by the Badge

Mara Klecker, Jeffrey Meitrodt & MaryJo Webster
Minnesota Star Tribune
Failing Grades

Chris Quintana, Kenny Jacoby, Lamar Salter & Alexa Juliana Ard
USA TODAY
Post-Grad Football Lures Players With a Second Shot at Glory. They Rarely Get It.

Broadcast

Lisa Kurian Philip, Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, Amy Qin, Alex Keefe, Natalie Moore & Steven Arroyo
WBEZ Chicago & Open Campus
Illinois For-Profit Colleges

Ray Rogowski, Chris Papst, Jed Gamber & Anthony Durso
Fox45 Baltimore/WBFF-TV
Hiding in the Hallways

Liz Willen, Meredith Kolodner, Marina Villeneuve, Nick Perez, Soledad O’Brien, Tristan Nash, Rose Arce, Bonnie Bertram, Sandra McDaniel & Amari Leigh
The Hechinger Report & Retro Report
Affirmative Action Backlash

Education-Only Outlets

Mark Keierleber
The 74
The Rise and Fall of AllHere: From AI Innovator to Indicted CEO

Jackie Mader
The Hechinger Report
The Dark Future of American Child Care

Olivia Sanchez, Nirvi Shah, Meredith Kolodner, Joanna Hou & Laura Pappano
The Hechinger Report
Affirmative Action Backlash

Small Newsroom

Tamica Jean-Charles
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Local Head Start Provider Closes Due to Major Federal Violations

Nuria Martinez-Keel
Oklahoma Voice
Oklahoma Quietly Lowering Testing Rigor

Amber Payne, Jamil Smith, Cristal Balis, Alex LaSalvia, Melissa Clavijo, Tami Nguyen, Yuchen Hong, Sabira Khalili, Mattew Rushford & Sixun Ren
The Emancipator & Northeastern University Media Innovation Studio
The Supreme Court Ended Affirmative Action for Higher Education. The Impact Could Be Felt for Years to Come.

Large Newsroom

Sarah Karp & Nader Issa
WBEZ Chicago & Chicago Sun Times
The Leadership Crisis at Chicago Public Schools

Hannah Natanson, Sarah Blaskey, John Woodrow Cox, Teo Armus, Laura Meckler & Shawn Boburg
The Washington Post
Apalachee: The Making of an Alleged School Shooter

Aliyya Swaby & Paige Pfleger
ProPublica & WPLN News
Crackdown on Student Threats: Tennessee’s Harsh Punishment of Kids

All Newsroom Sizes

Nimah Gobir, Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli, Chris Hambrick, Ki Sung, Kara Newhouse, Beth LaBerge & Seth Samuel
MindShift/KQED
Community Schools in California

Jon Marcus & Kirk Carapezza
The Hechinger Report & GBH Boston
College Uncovered

Ilya Marritz, Kristin Nelson, Katya Rogers, Emily Botein, Jazmin Aguilera, Regina De Heer, Jared Paul, Brendan Dalton & Jennifer Munson
The Boston Globe & WNYC
The Harvard Plan

All Newsroom Sizes

Alex Walters, Owen McCarthy & Theo Scheer
The State News at Michigan State University
Inside the Nassar Documents

Katelynn Winebrenner, Laura Shaughnessy, Khushboo Rathore, Max Schaeffer & Caroline Pecora
Local News Network at University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism
Child Care: Missing in Maryland

Sarah Yousseff, Roury Fitzpatrick, Ashley Carr, Alexis Schmidt, Brianna Schmidt, Ethan Rodriguez, Steve Dixon, Shawn McCarthy, Jayden Joseph, Oswaldo Nunez, Zion Williams, Ash Prasai, Annie Marchese, Sukey Hayden & Joe Book
PBS News Student Reporting Labs
Run, Hide, Fight: Growing Up Under the Gun