A year ago, The Seattle Times and Solutions Journalism Network hatched “Education Lab,” an intensive, ongoing examination of emerging responses to the challenges facing public education in Washington State. In that time, The Times has produced more than a dozen major features, accompanied by video documentaries, guest opinion pieces, Q&As, and hundreds of shorter articles and blog posts – all informed by the solutions lens.
The question: Has all this moved the needle? Have readers noticed? Do they care? Has solutions-oriented reporting changed, as we would expect, the way people think about, discuss, and act on education issues?
We’re starting to get answers. In August and September, The Times conducted an online survey of its readers, exploring awareness of and engagement with the Ed Lab series — and the results now are in. Executive summary: People have noticed. They do seem to care. For many, solutions coverage does seem to be changing the perceptions of problems in schools and how they might be addressed.
[For more of this story, written by Keith Hammonds, go to http://solutionsjournalism.org...b-moving-the-needle/]
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