Public Press Reporting on School Segregation Inspires Broad Media Coverage

San Francisco youth demographics chart from Priceonomics.com

Editor’s note: Over the past several months, we have been gathering reporting that follows up on our coverage of segregation in San Francisco’s public schools. The latest pickup was a three-part series in the San Francisco Chronicle starting Sunday. Read more about it here.
 

San Francisco Public Press’ reporting package on school re-segregation has sparked conversation about race and education.

A March 27 article in the Washington Post’s Wonkblog draws heavily from the Public Press to discuss the national implications of school choice. “In San Francisco, it looks as though giving parents some measure of choice in where their children go to school…in the long term can only result in gross educational inequities,” writes the Post’s Max Ehrenfreund.

Data-crunching firm Priceonomics crafted an impressive set of visualizations based on Public Press reporter Jeremy Adam Smith’s “eye-opening” data.

San Francisco youth demographics chart from Priceonomics.com

The San Francisco Chronicle’s own data dive into school diversity cites the Public Press’ demographic analysis. It follows Smith’s March 17 op-ed in the Chronicle calling out the city’s “profound identity crisis” in light of growing racial and income inequities. This month, the Chronicle published this report. The Society Pages and Education News also link to the Public Press’ investigation.

In other local media, San Francisco Examiner reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez wrote that the package revealed “a shameful truth about our city.” The Bold Italic had high praise for the “devastating” report: “If you’re thinking of sending your kids to SFUSD (or even if you’re considering having kids at all, really), it’s worth a thorough read.” KALW Radio’s “Your Call” devoted an hourlong program to discussing school segregation with Smith and other guests, and KALW’s “Crosscurrents”  interviewed Smith for a segment on the investigation.

eremy Adam Smith prepares for an interview at KALW's studios in 2014. // Public Press - See more at: https://sfpublicpress.org/blog/2015-03/public-press-report-leads-to-discussions-on-segregation#sthash.1YDG1shh.dpuf
Jeremy Adam Smith prepares for an interview at KALW’s studios in 2014. // Public Press

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that advocates for school integration, tweeted the story to its 45,000 followers. SF Dads, Education Cities and The New York Times Magazine’s race reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones also shared the story on Twitter.

The Institute for Nonprofit News’ Senior Director of Product and Technology Adam Schweigert tweeted that the reporting left him “genuinely much more informed about that issue.”

“That’s huge,” Schweigert wrote. “And sadly, rare.”

In April the Public Press received two awards for its investigation into the enormous disparity in parent fundraising across city elementary schools: The Society of Professional Journalists’ 2014 Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting and the California Teachers Association’s 2014 John Swett Award for Media Excellence.

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