Chalkbeat is a non-profit news organization that covers

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

in several American communities. Its mission is to "inform the decisions and actions that lead to better outcomes for children and families by providing deep, local coverage of education policy and practice." It aims to cover "the effort to improve schools for all children, especially those who have historically lacked access to a quality education". Its areas of focus include under-reported stories,

education policy Education policy consists of the principles and policy decisions that influence the field of education, as well as the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems. Education governance may be shared between the local ...

, equity, trends, and local reporting. Chalkbeat was founded as GothamSchools in 2008 by Elizabeth Green and Philissa Cramer. It merged with EdNews Colorado, founded by Alan Gottlieb, in 2013, and then redesigned and relaunched the website as Chalkbeat one year later. Chalkbeat has eight bureaus where it reports news regularly:

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. In New York City, Chalkbeat's competitors include three

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s and a public radio station with an education-focused blog. Another key competitor is Capital Education, owned by

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

. In 2016, Chalkbeat clarified its expectations, standards and editorial practices by unveiling a formal "code of ethics" that covers all its bureaus. Chalkbeat has also introduced an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

impact tracking platform called MORI (Measures of Our Reporting's Influence).

History

Chalkbeat began as a merger of GothamNews/GothamSchools in

and EdNews Colorado in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. GothamSchools was founded in 2008 by Elizabeth Green and Philissa Cramer, who started off with a local New York City education blog. From the beginning, they received requests to expand their coverage to other parts of the country. The organization was initially funded by Open Plans, a technology non-profit founded by

Mark Gorton Mark Howard Gorton (born November 7, 1966) is the creator of LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file sharing client for the Java Platform, and chief executive of the Lime Group. Lime Group, based in New York, owns LimeWire as well as Lime Brokerage LLC (a ...

. EdNews Colorado started as a magazine and was developed by Alan Gottlieb. GothamNews and EdNews Colorado merged in January 2013 and were relaunched jointly as a national network, first known as Education News Netowrk and then as Chalkbeat. Green said the organizations "decided to merge because it's hard to build a sustainable business around journalism". Though the existing brands had loyal followings, "there is power in numbers. It made sense that we should all have one name." The new organization started additional bureaus in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

and

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

. These new bureau locations were chosen for having a lot of changes or possibilities in their local

as well as local foundation support. Chalkbeat raised $2.2 million in revenue in 2013, most of which came from philanthropic funding and about one third from ads and job boards listings. As the organization has expanded, it has attracted more funding from foundational donors and individuals. Donors include local foundations as well as the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

, the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, and the

Walton Family Foundation The Walton family is an American family whose collective fortune derived from Walmart makes them the richest family in the United States of America. Overview The three most prominent living members (Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton) have consiste ...

, each of which gives between $200,000 and $400,000 per year as of 2016. In the year 2016, Chalkbeat had approximately 250,000 visitors per month. About one quarter of readers work for education non-profits, another quarter are teachers, 11 percent are researchers or

policymakers Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...

, and 10 percent are parents, according to Green. Their

target audience A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to said intended audience. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumer within the predetermined ...

includes both "education insiders" and interested people who care about

education inequality Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of academic resources, including but not limited to; school funding, qualified and experienced teachers, books, and technologies, to socially excluded communities. These communities tend to be his ...

. Chalkbeat expanded to

in early 2017, and later that year it announced plans to expand to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

in 2018. In 2020, ''

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook ''The Philadelphia Public School Notebook'' is an independent, nonprofit, free news service that serves the parents, students, teachers, school leaders, and other community members involved in Philadelphia Public Schools, Philadelphia public school ...

'' joined Chalkbeat to create Chalkbeat Philadelphia. In October 2020, Chalkbeat launched Votebeat, a project to report on local issues related to voting, starting with the 2020 United States election and with plans to continue through the 2022 midterm election. Votebeat has received funding from the

Institute for Nonprofit News The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a non-profit consortium of journalism organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism through its association of member entities. History INN was founded a ...

as well as other donors.

Elizabeth Green

Elizabeth Green is the

co-founder An organizational founder is a person who has undertaken some or all of the formational work needed to create a new organization, whether it is a business, a charitable organization, a governing body, a school, a group of entertainers, or any other ...

, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Chalkbeat. Green, who is based in New York City, studied

teaching method A teaching method comprises the principles and methods used by teachers to enable student learning. These strategies are determined partly on subject matter to be taught and partly by the nature of the learner. For a particular teaching method t ...

s in the U.S. and Japan for six years. Her book ''Building a Better Teacher'', launched with a ''New York Times'' magazine story, discusses the principles behind teaching skills and how complicated teaching can be. She believes that good teachers "are not born, they're made", and that "teaching must itself be taught". The book covers how teachers can be more effective and how policymakers can improve educators' skills. Green previously worked for '' U.S. News & World Report'' and ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', where she covered education. She realized the importance of covering news from

pre-school education A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

, including issues ranging from school policies to

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

, and wanted to write about education on a local level. This is why Chalkbeat mainly focuses on education news in

local communities A local community has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical l ...

Code of ethics

Chalkbeat originally adopted a

code of ethics Ethical codes are adopted by organizations to assist members in understanding the difference between right and wrong and in applying that understanding to their decisions. An ethical code generally implies documents at three levels: codes of bus ...

to govern the conduct of its team members in 2015. In 2016 it announced a new formal code of ethics in order to formalize existing practices and ensure consistency within the organization. Its code of ethics draws inspiration from other nonprofit news organizations, including

The Marshall Project The Marshall Project is a nonprofit, online journalism organization focusing on issues related to criminal justice in the United States. It was founded by former hedge fund manager Neil Barsky with former ''New York Times'' executive editor Bi ...

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...

, ''

The Texas Tribune ''The Texas Tribune'' is a news website headquartered in Austin, Texas. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events. Its website and content in various delivery platforms serve as an alternativ ...

'', and the

Center for Investigative Reporting The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in Emeryville, California. It was founded in 1977 as the nation’s first nonprofit investigative journalism organization, and has since grown into a multi-platf ...

, as well as from professional organizations such as the Education Writers Association and the

Society for Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

Impact tracking (MORI)

MORI (Measures of Our Reporting's Influence) is an

WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

plugin for tracking and reporting the impact of an organization's journalism, which Chalkbeat developed in 2014. It has "deep ties to

Google Analytics Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand. Google launched the service in November 2005 after acquiring Urchin. As o ...

, as well as its own built-in taxonomies for detailed story types and impact types." It was initially only used privately within the organization, but after two years, Chalkbeat announced the open-source release of the MORI Impact Tracker plugin, as the first product in the MORI Platform. The impact tracker allows users to record impacts individually, review impacts over time by searching and sorting them, and export lists of impacts to a spreadsheet for further data crunching and sharing. Users can attach impacts to a particular

post or a broader category or tag or stand alone. MORI also has a dashboard widget to display the latest impacts. MORI includes article-tagging, event-tracking and goal measurement. Journalists categorize the article by type and then identify the

before posting or publishing an article. They can also add a narrative description and an impact tag to the article page in the

content management system A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...

(CMS) if there is a meaningful offline event related to the article. MORI requires editors to set goals before publishing, and metrics are provided in terms of progress to those goals. Goals can be set in categories such as Content Production, Content Consumption, and Engagement. At first, Chalkbeat was unsure whether its journalists would use MORI, but the reception was positive, with reporters and editors enthusiastic about making use of the data it produced.

The MORI Cycle

The three-part "MORI Cycle" enables Chalkbeat to determine which types of stories led to the most impact, so that the team can plan to write more of them.

Reception

Chalkbeat has been praised for offering balanced, nuanced reporting on local education issues;

Cornelia Grumman Cornelia Grumman is an American Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. She is the Director of the Early Education Program at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation (http://mccormickfoundation.org/) in Chicago. From 2008–2012, she was the executive direc ...

wrote that the organization's reporting "humanizes schools" instead of buying into a simplistic negative narrative. The organization's funding model has led to criticism from those who see a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

and feel that Chalkbeat is too focused on "a reform-minded policy community". Chalkbeat says that it has editorial independence and that its coverage of reforms is not always positive.

Awards

Awards listed below are referenced from the Chalkbeat official website.

2018

* Green Eyeshade Awards (SPJ Southeasthern US)

2017

* AERA Awards for Excellence in Education Research * Colorado Press Association * Education Writers Association Awards * Best in Indiana Journalism (SPJ Indiana) * Excellence in Journalism (SPJ Detroit) * Green Eyeshade Awards (SPJ Southeastern US) * Top of the Rockies (SPJ Region 9)

2016

* Education Writers Association Awards * Best in Indiana Journalism (SPJ Indiana) * Top of the Rockies (SPJ Region 9)

2015

* Education Writers Association Awards * Best in Indiana Journalism (SPJ Indiana)

2014

* Education Writers Association Awards * Best in Indiana Journalism (SPJ Indiana)

2013

* Education Writers Association Awards

2011

* Education Writers Association Awards

2010

* Education Writers Association Awards

2009

* Education Writers Association Awards

External links

*
Votebeat

References

{{Portal bar, Current events, Journalism American news websites Non-profit organizations based in New York City WordPress Nonprofit newspapers Organizations established in 2014 Internet properties established in 2014 2014 establishments in the United States