The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "graduate school" ...
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Counting Kids Out
"Counting Kids Out" exposed years of systemic cheating in Columbus City Schools, Ohio's largest school district. The rolling investigation has uncovered widespread fraud that likely resulted in higher-than-deserved report-card grades; inflated graduation rates; and bonuses for school workers who did not actually deserve them.
Tags: Columbus City Schools; cheating; fraud; graduation retes
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iLied: Exposing Mike Daisey’s Fabrications of Apple’s Supply Chain in China
This two-part investigation exposed fabrications in American monologuist Mike Daisey’s narrative about the Chinese factory workers who make Apple products, and also gave a voice to the Chinese men and women who were at the center of the international debate about factory conditions. Daisey had gained a worldwide platform as Apple’s most prominent critic; Reporter Rob Schmitz’s investigation proved that the details on which Daisey had built his compelling story were fabricated. Schmitz’s investigation aired on Marketplace and This American Life on March 16, 2012 and made international headlines, sparking a debate about journalistic truth. Schmitz’s April 2012 follow-up stories broadcast the points-of-view of actual Chinese factory workers and their employers, and helped re-shape the narrative about working conditions at Apple suppliers. Schmitz’s investigation became the most downloaded story in each program’s history. Hundreds of media organizations covered the work, sparking thousands of news articles and commentaries about the findings and the issues it raised. Online components of the work – which included podcasts, photo, and video – demonstrated the reach and longevity of multimedia storytelling; a video Schmitz shot of an iPad assembly line went viral with more than 2 million views on Youtube. The work continues to be discussed in case study format at journalism schools around the U.S., including an ethics class at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Tags: journalism; journalism education; multimedia storytelling
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Sink or Swim: Mavericks High Schools claim to help trouble students, but questions persist about their quest for profits from taxpayer money
The investigation reveals that the for-profit charter school Mavericks in Education Florida drive for profit conflicts with the company's mission of helping at-risk kids graduate from high school. Maverick's graduation rates are abysmal, former employees allege its attendance records and grades are falsified, and the schcools receive "incomplete" grades from the Florida Department of Education. Using taxpayer funds, the company is promising thousands of kinds an education that it does not deliver.
Tags: high school; mavericks; falsified; grades; frank biden
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Passing On Education
"Passing On Education" details how administrators at one of Denver's lowest-performing public high schools, North High School, allowed students to cheat in online "credit recovery" courses, therefore artificially boosting the school's graduation rate amd making those administrators look good.
Tags: Education; High Schools
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Omaha in Black and White
One out of every three high school freshman in Omaha fail to graduate in four years, and the dropout problem is even worse for black youths. Findings include: graduation rates slide sharply as attendance drops; middle school grades track closely with graduation rates; students with poor test scores in elementary school are significantly less likely to graduate; few students who enter high school with both poor attendance and poor grades in 8th grade are successful, only 20% graduate on time
Tags: education; dropout rates; graduation rates; at-risk youth; Omaha Public Schools; longitudinal data;
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Mall School
A Team 4 hidden camera investigation exposed a system that allows disruptive students to get the same diploma as other children, even though they only have to put in half the number of hours. Many of the schools they attend are run by private non-profits that are not required to have certified teachers. The students only have to spend 15 hours a week in the classroom, which is about half as much as regular students. And when it's time to graduate, they get a diploma from their home high school, just like other students.
Tags: educations; teacher certification; high school education; private nonprofit organizations; disruptive students; contracting
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Robert Felner
Former University of Louisville Dean Robert Felner was involved in a money laundering scheme that led to the misappropriation of $2.3 million in contract and federal grant funds.
Tags: Thomas Schroeder; mail fraud; University of Rhode Island; education; graduate school;
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Unoriginal Sin
A graduate student exposed an offcial at Argosy University in Chicago as having plagiarized large sections of her doctoral project when she earned that degree from Argosy. School officials at first reprimanded the student, finally allowing her to graduate but noting it would go on her permanent academic record. Meanwhile, there was no initial punishment for the official, Bindu Ganga. In the wake of the stories, Ganga was first suspended and then fired and stripped of her doctorate.
Tags: Bindu Ganga; academic fraud; Argosy University-Chicago; plagiarism
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Degrees of Justice
Higgins told the story of Charles Plinton, a graduate student at the University of Akron. The story begins when Plinton was suspended for selling marijuana to a police informant just weeks after being acquitted of felony drug trafficking charges. The story ends with his suicide a year later on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Tags: drugs; education; graduate school; drug dealing; courts; trial; public records
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Early Exit: Denver's Graduation Gap
This five-day series from the Rocky Mountain News examines the extremely high dropout rates among Denver's public high school students. The series follows the progress of some students in the school system, but also takes a look at the lives of those students who didn't make it to graduation.
Tags: Denver Public High Schools; Denver Board of Education; high school dropout rates