Melody Petersen of The Orange County Register has two pieces of advice to offer reporters: stay patient and follow the money trail. Petersen investigated school bonds in Orange County after realizing schools were opting for expensive agreements that would push costs onto taxpayers decades after the initial bond was distributed. She found that school districts were accepting deals that would cost taxpayers more than 10 times the original amount in a special bond known as a capital appreciation bond.

Other reports from the Orange County Register state that the bond deals will cost Orange County districts $2 billion over the ...

In Atlanta, 35 educators were indicted in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, all but three of whom had surrendered at the Fulton County jail by Wednesday morning. The cheating scandal was first reported by Atlanta Journal Constitution reporters, who used statistical tests to document test score irregularities. John Perry, who did the statistical analysis for the stories, explains in the latest IRE ...

By John Bones, Verdens Gang

It started like an ordinary news story last October. One of our reporters, Frank Haugsbo, made Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the five biggest cities in Norway to get access to the kindergarten inspection reports. While reading them, he saw a pattern of violation of law.

This gave VG the idea to investigate the whole country. The inspections are done by the different municipalities, so Frank Haugsbo ...

It didn't take too many records for us to realize that teacher absenteeism was a problem in western Pennsylvania public school districts. Districts were paying millions of dollars every year to place (sometimes under-qualified) substitute teachers inside classrooms, while paying teachers for taking time off for reasons that ranged from field trips to maternity leave, professional training to family sickness.

To gather the data needed for this project, we submitted state Right-to-Know Act requests to 73 school districts in seven counties.

One of the first challenges we faced was simply obtaining the requested public records.

In Pennsylvania, public agencies ...

Investigative Reporters and Editors is pleased to be part of a new opportunity Google is launching for college journalism students. 

It's an exciting program, and here at IRE, the selected student will have the opportunity to do meaningful work with data, gain a deeper understanding of investigative reporting, be part of the annual IRE Conference that attracts journalists from around the world, and much more. Students start the program with a week at the Knight Foundation in June and conclude things with a week at Google headquarters in early August.

Here's what Google has to say about the ...

Students head to lunch at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Council Bluffs. The school district reported 58 alleged incidents to the state in five years, arguably a low rate for an urban district of 9,000 students. David Purdy/The Register

In reporting, timing is everything.  For Des Moines Register reporter Kyle Munson, the topic of bullying in Iowa schools was reaching a climax as his work was being finalized.  During the release of his series “Bullying in Iowa,” Iowa had faced two deaths related to bullying incidents, the most recent involving a northwest Iowa teen who committed suicide after ...

By Mayra Cruz
@MayraC27

Campus coverage can be daunting, but looking beyond the campus is a way to get the story, Jennifer Wheeler of The Register-Mail said at “DataU: the databases you need to cover higher ed.”

From grants to graduation rates, one of the major databases to mine for information is the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS, which is compiled by the National Center for Educational Statistics. The IPEDS information contains a general overview of institutions, including enrollment, retention rates and budgets, among other items.

“It’s a robust source of information,” said Alex Richards of the ...

Experienced reporters have some rising stars to keep an eye on, thanks to the Campus Coverage Project.

Just last week, a story edited by 2011 project participant Chelsea Boozer, now managing editor of The Daily Helmsman at the University of Memphis, was published on IRE’s “Extra Extra” blog.

The Campus Coverage Project teaches college students investigative reporting techniques by training them to examine their own college campuses. Students are encouraged to publish their work and submit it to the project’s website.

Seven articles that participants reported, edited and published since January’s training conference have been featured on ...

Memorizing test questions and passing them on to future test takers is considered cheating by most people. However, for many radiologists, attempting to become board certified, it is simply a technique used to study. CNN's "Exclusive: Doctors cheated on exams" takes a close look:

"From my understanding, I would say nationwide from my friends across the country who are all in the same stages of training throughout the years, everyone gets a group. People decided beforehand what sections I will focus on, in terms of trying to recall those questions and answers," said Dr. John Yoo, a practicing radiologist ...

Until recently, getting arrested in Philadelphia for possession of crack cocaine and admitting drug dependency would not preclude being hired or continuing to work as a police officer in the public school system.

A month-long, data-driven investigation  by The Philadelphia Inquirer found that in more than a dozen cases school police were themselves getting into trouble with the law. Even an open bench warrant issued for one officer charged with a drug offense failed to trip the school district's alarm.

In another case, an officer who showed up in court to face charges after her second arrest for drug ...