I hadn’t seen Christine Pitts’ name in a while when I came across her recent Oregon Journalism Project (OJP) interview — part of an interesting new effort to rebuild accountability-oriented journalism in the state.
In this new interview, the former NWEA and CRPE staffer talks about education coverage, the startling differences between teaching in North Carolina and Oregon, and her work with Open Schools, a Portland-area nonprofit.
Like many states, Oregon is dealing with funding issues, declining enrollment, and — until recently — a new but still-too-weak school accountability law — as well as not enough high-quality education coverage.
However, the Oregon Journalism Project might be a big help, says Pitts who was interviewed for the inaugural overview.
“From what I can tell they are establishing somewhat of an objective and critical publication series around lots of things in Oregon, but specifically how education relates to it.”
Watch or read the transcript above or on YouTube. Listen to it on Spotify or Apple.
Above: Over the past year, OJP has produced seven education-focused stories including Oregon’s Education Workforce Climbed While Student Enrollment Slid, Leaving It Up to the Locals Impedes Oregon’s Much-Needed Reading Recovery, and Statewide Graduation Rates Are Up for Nearly All Student Groups.
Until recently, “there was this sense that not everything is on the table — not everything is being discussed publicly. There are some things that we’re talking about in private that we’re assuming other people might be talking about, but nobody’s really putting it out there for us to fully look at as a community.”
According to Pitts, these little-discussed issues include the role of the teachers union, the state’s low ranking on NAEP, the influence of the state education agency. But OJP appear to be willing to ask hard questions — with urgency.
“They’re willing to unpack this and I think what is so different about the reporting happening at OJP is they’re acting with urgency.”
According to Pitts, the coverage of the Portland teachers strike was also a key moment.
“After the strike, you kind of saw some of these reporters really understanding like where the shadowy corners were in our coverage of K-12 education,” says Pitts. “That to me was a critical turning point.”
In particular, Pitts praises schools coverage from Willamette Week’s Joanna Hou and the Oregonian’s Julia Silverman.
Previously from The Grade
How to survive covering a teachers strike (2024)
Lessons from Portland (2023)
