Dap and a Slap for the Spokesman-Review
The Spokane Spokesman-Review is my local newspaper, and overall I'm pretty happy with the work they do. They get a lot of criticism in the Lilac City for their treatment of the Jim West situation, but I think it's a story that had to be told.
Lately they've been doing some bang-up education stories as well. On July 16th they did an *excellent* cover story on expenditures by local school boards. West Valley of Spokane had suffered a levy failure in recent memory, but their school board went on a "retreat" across the state lines where they dined on $60 lobster dinners at one of Coeur d'Alene's swankest restuarants. That can't have gone over well with the voters.
Similarly, ace education reporter Kandis Carper did a superior article about how Central Valley has become the most recent front in the math wars, with parents petitioning the district to offer classes that teach math the traditional way to offset deficiencies they perceive in the inquiry-base Core Plus curriculum.
I wish I could link to the articles (they're good!), but the Spokesman chooses to hide everything behind one of the more restrictive pay-to-peep systems of any newspaper website in the state. I'd also love to see them group all of the education articles together on one central page, the way that they do it at any of the newspapers listed to the right in my links section, and I'd point out for special recognition the Seattle Times, which is easily the nicest, most user-friendly education news page in the state.
The Spokesman is sitting on some great work. If they did a better job of getting the word out, they'd be one of the best.
Lately they've been doing some bang-up education stories as well. On July 16th they did an *excellent* cover story on expenditures by local school boards. West Valley of Spokane had suffered a levy failure in recent memory, but their school board went on a "retreat" across the state lines where they dined on $60 lobster dinners at one of Coeur d'Alene's swankest restuarants. That can't have gone over well with the voters.
Similarly, ace education reporter Kandis Carper did a superior article about how Central Valley has become the most recent front in the math wars, with parents petitioning the district to offer classes that teach math the traditional way to offset deficiencies they perceive in the inquiry-base Core Plus curriculum.
I wish I could link to the articles (they're good!), but the Spokesman chooses to hide everything behind one of the more restrictive pay-to-peep systems of any newspaper website in the state. I'd also love to see them group all of the education articles together on one central page, the way that they do it at any of the newspapers listed to the right in my links section, and I'd point out for special recognition the Seattle Times, which is easily the nicest, most user-friendly education news page in the state.
The Spokesman is sitting on some great work. If they did a better job of getting the word out, they'd be one of the best.
posted by Ryan at 2:20 PM
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