High School Newspapers Are a Thrifty Way to Teach Civics
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Much has been written about the need to revive civics education after years in which standardized-testing requirements emphasized math and English language arts at the expense of instruction in history and government. High school journalism builds on the same logic for promoting civics. It also provides a cost-effective way to strengthen students’ writing and research skills, while giving them early lessons in how to report and edit responsibly and assess the quality of the information they are bombarded with.
Nationwide, school newspapers have weighed in on local conflicts like classroom mask mandates and school-board wars; reported on hot-button issues for students like the redesign of the SAT; and even investigated allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers.
Yet student journalism needs to be strengthened and expanded. As of 2011, 64% of U.S. high schools had student news publications — the vast majority produced in conjunction with a class, according to a national survey by Kent State’s Center for Scholastic Journalism (an updated survey has been delayed by the pandemic). On average, the schools that do not have newspapers have a majority of students who are low income and Black or Latino.
Schools and districts should support campus news outlets, whether as an extracurricular activity or for academic credit. For one thing, student newspapers — especially those published online — are cheap. The biggest cost is supplemental pay for teachers who act as advisers. The most popular web platforms for producing online publications cost just a few hundred dollars annually.
Supporting news outlets at schools in low-income and minority communities would have the added benefit of creating a pipeline for minority journalists who have long been underrepresented in the media. Although there has been an uptick in Black journalists in recent years, Latinos still make up a disproportionately low percentage of the total number.
The Scripps Howard Foundation recently awarded $600,000 to Elon University in North Carolina and the University of North Texas to train and mentor high-school journalists, specifically targeting “young people from underrepresented communities.” Similarly, Google just awarded a grant to Baruch College (where I teach) to support the training of faculty advisers for high school newspapers in New York City, among other things.
While faculty advisers are important for providing guidance on journalistic standards and ethics, schools should leave the publication responsibility to students.
More state legislatures should enact freedom laws for such press outlets.
New Jersey just became the 15th state to protect the First Amendment rights of students publishing on high school and college news sites. These laws are written to counteract the impact of a 1988 Supreme Court decision that gave schools discretion to censor student speech “for any legitimate pedagogical concern.” Some administrators have seized on that “overly vague” standard to guard their schools’ reputations, according to Hadar Harris, executive director of the Student Press Law Center.
So far, 31 state legislatures have passed or are still considering such censorship laws. The role of high school newspapers in pushing back against censorship is just one of many reasons these outlets should be promoted by schools and districts.
“There is something special about journalism,” said Kira Zizzo, a senior at Rock Canyon High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and editor-in-chief of the Rock, which is produced as part of a class for which she gets credit. “It truly amplifies student voices.”
The school paper’s reporting on a recent county school-board controversy is a textbook case for how journalism works. Soon after four candidates who were funded by conservative groups were elected to the Douglas County board, Zizzo began attending the meetings and conducting research on issues like the school district’s new equity policy and the superintendent’s support for the teachers’ union.
When the new members were accused of meeting secretly, in violation of open-meeting laws, to discuss firing the superintendent, Zizzo knew she had a story. She and other student staffers covered the ensuing protests and posted updates on social media.
Zizzo also interviewed parents, students and teachers and sought out the conservative board members for comment — though they all refused to speak with her — before writing her story. Related articles about the protests followed, as did national media coverage of the school newspaper’s reporting.
Meanwhile, from Grosse Pointe South High School in Michigan to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, student newspapers have been covering everything from the new SAT format — which will be shorter and digital — to the future of mask mandates.
In New York City, investigations by the Classic, the student paper at Townsend Harris High School in Queens, have been lauded for, among other things, reporting on allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers.
Today there are more public high school news outlets than commercial and weekly newspapers combined, and some play an important role in reporting on local news. While principals and teachers find themselves in the crosshairs of the culture wars, and parents battle over what should be taught in the schools, the young people who are most affected by these debates have the best chance of cutting through the acrimony and having their voices heard.
More at Bloomberg Opinion:
- Do Americans Even Know What Free Speech Is?: Stephen L. Carter
- Wokeism Has Peaked: Tyler Cowen
- Misinformation About Misinformation: Tyler Cowen
- Extend the School Year to Prevent Learning Loss: The Editors
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Andrea Gabor, a former editor at Business Week and U.S. News & World Report, is the Bloomberg chair of business journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the author of "After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform."
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.