From 2009 to 2020, the topic that national and local newspapers most often covered was the impact of non-academic factors on learning. Non-academic factors include poverty and other issues in students’ families and communities, as well as enrollment, school closures, and access to education. More than two-thirds of teachers think it is very important for the news media to cover these factors, as Finding 10 explains.
Yet relatively few articles about the impact of non-academic factors on learning quoted a teacher. Furthermore, few of the articles that mentioned teachers portrayed them engaging with these issues, as explained in Finding 5.
Evaluation of students, teachers, and schools was the second most frequently covered topic in national newspapers. However, coverage of evaluation declined after 2015, as did portrayals of teachers being evaluated.
Local and national newspapers covered human resource management related to non-teaching positions—such as electing or hiring school board members, superintendents, and principals—more often than they covered teacher hiring, pay, and labor actions.
Which K-12 education topics did newspapers cover?
Percent of news articles about K-12 education in the U.S. by topic, 2009 to 2020. Topics are mutually exclusive.
From 2009 to 2020, newspapers’ #K12 #education coverage focused more on non-academic factors that affect learning than any other topic, but rarely quoted #teachers in those articles, according to @publicagenda research.