Lessons From the Educational Equity Beat

From an inside look at a 12-year-old struggling with remote learning to revealing that districts had wrongly forced parents to sign away their children’s rights to special education services, The Boston Globe’s Bianca Vázquez Toness put the spotlight on families whose educational experiences were most disrupted by the pandemic. In this year’s EWA Awards, Vázquez Toness was named the nation’s top education beat reporter, with the judges citing her track record for richly detailed stories that forced public officials to reconsider their policies and practices. She shares insights from her work as a member of the Globe’s educational equity team, and how she builds trust with her interview subjects, especially children. Plus, Vázquez Toness explains how she uses data as the backbone to her storytelling, and offers tips for more nuanced coverage of immigrant students, connecting with families, and more.