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 "public education" ...
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Public Service Journalism Via Apps and Interactives
The Texas Tribune uses government records lawmakers, agency chiefs, educators and influential state figures would rather not be public. Projects include a campaign finance database offers a comprehensive, searchable tool to see who's bankrolling their representatives. The public schools database provides extensive access to comparative data on all of Texas' school districts.
Tags: data; government; statistics
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Spanish-language FOIA requests
We undertook the project to explore the issue of language access and freedom of information. Our goals were threefold. First, we wanted to break new ground in open government with regards to language access by submitting FOI requests in Spanish. Second, we wanted to receive data from officials at city, country, state and federal levels to use as the basis for stories and articles that fulfilled our watchdog and public service mission. Third, we wanted to educated our colleagues and readers about their information rights so that they could have additional tools for their news production and consumption, respectively.
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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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Your Right to Know
A reporter for the Columbus Dispatch began publishing a blog designed to educate Ohioans about their rights to access public records and meetings. The blog is also used as a bully pulpit to point out government abuses in withholding records from the public and news media.
Tags: blog; open records; Sunshine Laws; FOIA; Freedom of Information Act; public records
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"Drinking at Duke"
In this two-part series, Sanette Tanaka examines the alcohol policy and drinking culture at Duke University. The reporter reveals differences in drinking policies between private and public universities, as well as examines the effectiveness of the "new associate dean," who has implemented an "education-based harm-reduction model" in an effort to curb "binge drinking among students."
Tags: alcohol; binge drinking; Tom Szigethy; Stanford; Harvard; Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research; UNC; Wake Forest; National College Health Assessment
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Renaissance 2010: Searching for Equity
Karps' investigation looked into the the impact of Renaissance 2010, an education initiative in Chicago intended to "open 100 new schools, most of the charter schools, and close 70 failing schools within a span of six years" in an effort to bring better education to areas that needed it most. This investigation looks at the actual results of the plan. To report the story, Karp had to struggle against the barriers to obtaining meaningful information on charter schools. While funded publicly, they are operated by private companies that are not subject to the same transparency laws as public schools.
Tags: education; charter schools; public schools; academic performance; FOIA; transparency; Renaissance 2010; Chicago
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Failing our Athletes: The Sad State of Sports in Boston Public Schools
This series examined the state of athletics in the Boston public school district. The amount of problems discovered was both shocking and disappointing. Some of the discovered problems were the program was “underfunded compared to cities of similar size, staffing problems, poor facilities, safety of the athletes, and competency of many coaches”.
Tags: children; kids; sports; games; education; student-athletes; court; field; season; players; uniforms; city government
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Bus-ted
The story reveals a number of things about a school district’s bus system. Some of the things revealed are school buses breaking traffic laws, and extensive records of the bus drivers, including traffic violations and speeding tickets. Once the findings were revealed, the school district wasn’t sure who hired them and the school district allowed them to be bus drivers as long as the insurance companies approved them.
Tags: Cedar Rapids Public School District; school administration; education; transportation; children; kids; Denny Schreckengast; Matt Dunbar
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Secrecy 101
"Universities hide information about their athletics departments behind a student-privacy law designed to keep grades private." Further, it hides athletes, who have done a number of unethical and some illegal activities. Also, coaches are using the law to hide their own bad behavior. All this information stunned the senator who created the law and he believes the "institutions are putting their own meaning into the law."
Tags: education; college; Senator James L. Buckley; NCAA; Ohio State; FOIA; Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); federal; sports; public records; censor; academics
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OC Watchdog Blog
"The series looks at the so-called tough-on-crime mindset that has overtaken California’s criminal justice system." Everyone continues to want the bad guys punished and to keep them off the streets, but this too has consequences. California is struggling with finances, much like everyone else, and finding it difficult to fund public safety initiatives. They should be spending the money on education and social services, which influence the community and create obedient citizens.
Tags: residents; law enforcement; police; prisons; costs; convicts; crime; punishment; laws; protection