KPHO/KTVK (State of Our Schools)
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I. Introduction (15m)
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II. Storytelling (40m)
- Introduction
- Opoids in prison: How one state's success could work in Maine
- Wickenburg district using 4-day week to woo, keep teachers
- School suicide screening program in Ohio leading to fewer deaths
- Police business checks lead to drop in crime
- Land Bank discussing its impact on Cleveland over the last 10 years
- More restaurants seeking to appeal to your eardrums as much as your taste buds
- Plan G: How Georgians are taking control of the climate conversation
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III. Engagement (25m)
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IV. Case Studies (35m)
- KSHB (Safe KC)
- KXAN (Save Our Students)
- KPHO/KTVK (State of Our Schools)
- KGTV (Transparency Project)
- WGME (Working Solutions)
- WBBM
- WXIA
Public schools in Arizona are among the worst in the nation, according to Education Week’s annual report card. Teachers demanding higher pay walked off the job statewide in 2018 as part of the “Red for Ed” movement. The following year, CBS affiliate KPHO and independent station KTVK, both owned by Meredith and co-branded as Arizona’s Family, decided to examine the problems of the state’s schools through a solutions journalism lens.
Coverage was informed by a survey of superintendents in all 207 of Arizona’s public school districts conducted over the summer to which about half responded. A grant from the Solutions Journalism Network paid for staff training in data journalism to help them analyze the responses to discover why some schools succeeded while others failed.
Based on the results, reporters and anchors produced multiple stories each week for a month on challenges faced by Arizona’s schools and how local leaders were solving them. The bulk of the reporting was done by the investigative and special projects teams.
State of Our Schools: The Search for Solutions launched in mid-August as classes resumed in local schools. The stories aired in most newscasts across both stations. The project also had a dedicated digital landing page with a searchable database of schools, a comparison tool and an interactive map of districts.
KPHO reached out to local and national leaders to explain and build interest in the Save Our Students project. Check the engagement section for details.
“I think that this model of adding a solutions angle is something that we are going to be applying to future projects, not only because I think it’s good journalism, but our managers seem to like it,” Loew told the Cronkite News Lab. “At the end of the day, if I can tell my bosses ‘Give me a small team and we can do 12 stories on this issue,’ they’re going to like that.”
LESSONS LEARNED
