Blayney story ideas

Story 1:

Lack of attendance policy and enforcement at Central

Mission: to clarify what the attendance policy is, and what the consequences are

Why now: students can miss dozens of days with no note and still pass. Students can not fail due to attendance

Essential questions:

• Why have a policy if it is not followed?
• Is the policy building-wide or district wide?
• Some students receive court summons and some do not? Why is this?
• Why do some students get suspended for skipping class, but not full days?

Sources to use:

• Principal
• Superintendent
• Truant student
• Other district’s policies
• People in the truancy court system (student and employee)

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them:

• Privacy issues with individual students’ attendance records, get permission from the student and the parent
• Sugarcoating from the superintendent and avoidance of admitting the problem, talk to multiple administrators

Media to best tell the story: online and newspaper, because it will be long and in-depth so we wouldn’t have time or space concerns

Visuals: charts and data, infographic heavy

Range of story angles, supporting materials: the angle would be multiple angles from all sources interviewed

How will the various information pieces be visually presented: the text will be broken up with subheads and with the infographics

What legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled?   We could face some issues on reporting on reasons that students are truant, depending on our sources. If the school and/or district is not enforcing a policy, they will not want it to be made known to the public.  I will tell my students to not back down, stick with facts and not an agenda.

Story 2:

Boys basketball team makes it to state

Mission: to cover the boys basketball team on their accomplishment of making it to the state tournament

Why now: timeliness

Essential questions:

• How did you make it to state?
• What will you do to prepare?
• How long has it been since we’ve been, won, etc? History of…

Sources to use:

• Coach
• Players
• Fans
• Roster
• Season stats

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them:

• Coach and players are busy, but we will have built a relationship already throughout the year so they will be more willing to make time for interviews prior

Media to best tell the story: social media, podcasts of players and online

Visuals: photos, sidebars, fun infographics, timeline of the season

Range of story angles, supporting materials: coach, team captain, seniors, fans

How will the various information pieces be visually presented: short text stories with a lot of visuals and infographics

What legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled?
We shouldn’t face any legal or ethical questions in regard to a basketball story.  Reporters just need to make sure all their statistics are correct. If not, they will need to run a correction.

Story 3:

Invisible illnesses, and how students deal with them daily (diabetes, epilepsy, MS, etc.)

Mission: to show how students with chronic illnesses live, as their disability is not visable

Why now: this is an underrepresented minority in our publications

Essential questions:

• What is your day to day routine and how is it different/same to other students your age?
• What does the school do to accommodate you?
• What do you wish people knew about your illness?

Sources to use:

• Students with disabilities
• School nurse
• Parents?
• Doctors
• Administration about district policy

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them:

• Students will have to see what privacy issues arise with students discussing their illnesses. The school nurse will need to talk in generalizations. Students may bring up issues if they don’t feel accommodated, which may become a completely different story for my reporters.

Media to best tell the story: Podcast, online, print

Visuals: photos of students doing what they need to do (with permission)

Range of story angles, supporting materials: The angle will be told mostly from the students’ perspectives.

How will the various information pieces be visually presented: Long text broken up with sub-heads. Sidebars of info about the illnesses reported on.

What legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled?Medical records would be the legal issues faced and we will handle by getting permission from the student and parents.

Story 4:

Changes in graduation rate since implementation of standards based grading 6 years ago

Mission: to show how a new grading system has affected graduation rates and see what all stakeholders think about the change

Why now: timeliness and the systems has had time to be implemented

Essential questions:

• What is the change in graduation rates in the district since the implementation of SBG? Does it differ from school to school or is it similar?
• Who ultimately made the decision? Are there plans to change anything currently?
• How do teachers feel about the current grading system?

Sources to use:

• Superintendent
• School board
• Parents?
• Teachers
• Graduation statistics
• Other districts that have implemented SBG

Potential issues with sources and how to solve them:

• Teachers may be hesitant to talk negatively about the grading scale in fear of their superiors and/or not wanting to influence their students. We could possibly just give their title and keep them anonymous.

Media to best tell the story:
Online and newspaper

Visuals: timeline of grading scale changes, data showing rates

Range of story angles, supporting materials: The angle will be neutral, from an outsider perspective with quotes from those directly affected.

How will the various information pieces be visually presented: Long text broken up with sub-heads. Charts throughout the text

What legal, ethical and social responsibility questions might you face and what are some ways they might be handled?
Those who voted against the grading scale may not want to say why since it is what the district is using now. Teachers may be hesitant to talk negatively now, but allowing my students plenty of time to find the right amount of sources to cover all angles will help.