Direct Lines
Dream to Reality
Efforts on behalf of student journalism nurture hopes for a newspaper in every school.
By Sandy Woodcock
Some recently completed projects say a lot about the NAA Foundation and how it values student journalism.
In the last year, we have partnered with the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) on a three-part series of projects. Now Newspaper In Education (NIE) directors, youth editors and scholastic media advisers – and those they work with, whether teachers or students – can gain legal guidance and test their knowledge of student press law and the First Amendment through these revised, expanded and new interactive features available on the SPLC Web site. Take a minute to check them out at www.splc.org.
We know these features were needed and we know they are being used. The SPLC Web site attracts about a quarter of a million unique visitors a year. After the launch of the updated version of the Virtual Lawyer at the end of May, the SPLC reported that it was one of the 10 most requested pages on the SPLC Web site.
In August, just in time for the fall opening of many school districts, we posted “N the News.” This comprehensive, eight-unit journalism curriculum contains daily lesson plans, linked to National Council of Teachers of English standards. The lesson plans use the daily newspaper as their textbook. The curriculum is free and available for download at www.naafoundation.org.
We’ve collaborated with the Journalism Education Association (JEA) in the past year on two endeavors. First, we funded three fellowships to attend the fall conference of the National Scholastic Press Association, held in November in Chicago. These fellowships went to JEA’s Outreach Academy, providing funds to cover the cost of travel and lodging.
The Outreach Academy is aimed at new advisers of color and new advisers at majority-minority schools. An all-day, pre-conference training program, the Outreach Academy provides the skills and networking necessary to keep these advisers around for the long haul.
The second of the two efforts is our joint sponsorship with JEA of the Cornerstone Award. This award recognizes two secondary schools that have shown their students, teachers and administration thoroughly understand the importance of the First Amendment.
Entrants must demonstrate this understanding by conducting activities that promote knowledge of the First Amendment on a school-wide basis. We hope to have a flood of entries, with the award being presented at the JEA/NSPA spring conference in San Francisco.
In August, as we have for the past eight years, we mailed out Student/Newspaper Partnership Grant checks to 11 middle and high schools that have teamed up with their local professional newspapers to begin, restart or revitalize their student newspapers. Each year, we are excited about the educational opportunities offered to students working in these programs.
Comments such as this reinforce the impact of the program: “Well, here it is – the first edition of [our newspaper]. It probably isn’t error-free … but we’ve learned so much during this process. As you hold [it] in your hands, I’m hoping you’ll feel the pride we are feeling. We owe so much to [NAA Foundation].”
For the third consecutive year, we have also awarded Young Publishers Grants. These go to school newspapers that work in partnership with their professional newspapers and help to fund the creation of business plans.
A natural follow-up to the Student/Newspaper Partnership Grant program, the Young Publishers program enables student publication staffs to learn the skills and create the plans necessary to become self-sustaining through advertising sales. We’ve awarded one such grant this year and hope to give a second. One result of the partnerships will be creation of a “how-to manual” that we can share with interested newspapers and schools.
So as I look back over the year’s efforts, I’m sort of amazed at what we’ve accomplished.
Our hope is that these efforts will continue to support and strengthen student press efforts nationwide.
Research conducted in the last decade lent credence to the notion that journalism kids do better in school. In particular, they pass the Advanced Placement English exam at a higher rate. Research released this year indicated that student newspapers were still endangered and programs were being eliminated. Efforts by the NAA Foundation, along with those by other groups supporting scholastic journalism, will continue to promote the educational benefits of journalism programs and media production.
My dream? An open-forum newspaper, unfettered by administrative censorship, in every middle and high school in the country. We’ll continue our efforts to make that dream a reality.
Sandy Woodcock, director, NAA Foundation, can be reached at (703) 902-1732 or woods@naa.org.
