The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets 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. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "assessments" ...
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Predicting the News
Webster uses concrete examples on how analyses, including regressions and predictive indexes, can reveal stories, and methodology for how to make such an analysis.
Tags: regression analysis; predictive index; data; analysis; prediction
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Water and Politics: Tips for Covering the Local Water Utility
This tipsheet details the sort of information you should be keeping tabs on when covering the local water utility. It also offer story ideas for the beat, while also providing links to useful data online.
Tags: water; utilities; EPA; Environmental Protection Agency; National Water Quality Assessment Program; pollution; waterways
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Covering the Military Beat
Capaccio discusses the challenges of reporting on the military. He suggests resources to familiarize yourself with when you begin to cover this beat, and how to organize yourself so you have the needed resources at hand - from Pentagon URLs to up-to-date phone lists. Included in this document is a chart of Military Insignia and what each stands for by specific branch of the military. He also includes sample documents from military resources
Tags: military; contacts; Pentagon; Pen and Sword: A Journalist's Guide to Covering the Military; Ed Offley; Army; Marines; POGO; Project on Government Oversight; The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; CSBA
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Elaboration Model
The Elaboration Model is a systematic method for analyzing the effects of other variables on an initially significant relationship. Overall, it gives journalists a better understanding of how and why the initial relationship works and how other variables affect it. Many variables are likely to affect a relationship in social science, and the model helps journalists assess their effects.
Tags: chi-square test; relationship; analysis; logic; variables; communication; interpretation
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Data Before and After a Disaster
Heath lists and describes different federal programs that provide financial assistance after a natural disaster. He discusses where to get records of each program's spending, and how to best incorporate that information into a CAR story. Heath also describes the programs used by federal agencies to run simulations and assess potential damage; most of those programs are available for free and could be useful for reporters covering a recent disaster.
Tags: natural disaster; FEMA; forest service; demographics; geophysical data; SBA loans; flood insurance; housing assistance
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Using CAR for covering housing foreclosures
At the 2007 CAR Conference, Jill Reipenhoff and Geoff Dutton shared various sources of information useful for investigations about home foreclosures. Some of the sources include the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, county auditors, and the National Delinquency Survey. The authors also share some examples of their own analysis on the topic.
Tags: property law; eviction; landlords; mortgage; real estate; data analysis; HUD; assessment
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Wildfires
The author discusses how to prepare for covering wildfires. She lists websites to visit before fire season starts, in order to know what resources are available for covering the disasters in your area. Some of the websites include the National Interagency Fire Center, and the Wildland Fire Assessment Program.
Tags: fire; disaster; fire fighters; stage government; local government; environment
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Hidden Disparities
This is Gebeloff's PowerPoint presentation on a study the Star-Ledger did that showed discrepancies in property tax rates along racial lines. Using databases and GIS they analyzed 66 different townships in New Jersey that demonstrated a trend; higher-value property owners tend to underpay and lower-value property owners to overpay taxes when properties are not frequently reassessed. The Star-Ledger showed that property values should be more accurately reassessed more often.
Tags: Mapping; GIS; CAR; property values; tax assessment; property taxes
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Learning Pyramid
Wolfe designed this pyramid for trainers to assess the level of expertise of newsroom reporters and show beat reporters' ideal technology level.
Tags: Training; Evaluation; technology level; CAR
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Testing, testing: CAR and student assessment
This tipsheet offers a lot of advice to make school test scores less confusing. Hacker suggests different ways to look at the data such as using percentiles and examining scores over time. She also explains how to look at the data graphically with Excel and then interpret each chart. Finally, Hacker includes a list of online resources that could be helpful to reporters tackling this topic.
Tags: No Child Left Behind; SAT; ACT; school testing; education; scores