Submit Your Best Education Reporting to 2024 EWA Awards

The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce the 2024 National Awards for Education Reporting. Journalists may submit entries from Nov. 13, 2024 to Jan. 8, 2025 at 6 p.m. Eastern. 

Journalists who published work in 2024 on any education topic in any medium are encouraged to enter EWA’s annual journalism contest, which honors the best education reporting across all news media. The awards program offers a total of 19 prizes, with cash awards ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.

EWA’s journalism competition aims to highlight the outstanding reporters working to illuminate what happens in classrooms, schools, colleges and universities, as well as uncover inequities and disparities in the system and highlight solutions.

Updated Awards Categories and Rules 

This year, the seven-member awards task force made up of Journalism Advisory Board members and other journalist members tweaked the awards’ subcategories after making substantial changes last year. The collaborations and visual storytelling categories were eliminated. In addition, subcategories were created in news and features for education-only outlets. EWA also changed the newsroom sizes. 

Entry Fees for Members and Nonmembers 

• Early Bird Discount: $75 for members and $125 for nonmembers to enter the awards until Dec. 18, 2024 at 6 p.m. Eastern. (Membership is free.)
• Regular Price: $125 for members and $175 for nonmembers to enter the awards until Jan. 8, 2025 at 6 p.m. Eastern. 
• The student journalism category is $25.

EWA Awards Categories 

In the National Awards for Education Reporting, EWA plans to present 17 awards winners with $1,000 cash prizes in seven categories: beat reporting, data reporting and visualization, features, investigative/public service reporting, news, podcast, and student journalism.

Winners of the three beat reporting category prizes will be eligible for the Ronald Moskowitz Prize for Outstanding Beat Reporting, which comes with an additional $2,500. Winners of the other categories and divisions will be considered for the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting. The grand prize comes with $10,000.

Entries will be judged on criteria that include the quality of writing and reporting, freshness and depth of insights, clarity of explanation, impact, and innovation of presentation.

For more information on the awards, visit EWA Awards or contact EWA at awards@ewa.org.

About the Education Writers Association 

The Education Writers Association (EWA.org) is the national professional organization dedicated to strengthening the community of education writers and improving the quality of education coverage to better inform the public. Member journalists benefit from the organization’s high-quality programs of training, information, support, and recognition.

Thank You!

EWA would like to thank the volunteer EWA Awards task force for helping to update the awards categories. The task force included Journalist Advisory Board members and other volunteers. From the JAB: Wayne Carter of NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth; Leah Clapman of PBS NewsHour; and Larry Gordon, freelance and EdSource. Others included Morgan Matzen of the Argus Leader; Sascha Raiyn of WDET; Monica Rhor of Chalkbeat; and Eric Stirgus of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.