Tinasbeen

I'm now a published journalist!

As most of you know, I spent the summer as an intern with the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a non-profit newspaper that covers education issues in Philly. It was a great experience - I got to discover what it's like to be on the reporter's side of an interview (quite different than being an interviewee), learned a bit about investigative journalism, and worked with great people on important issues. If you know any undergrads or grads who might be interested in doing something similar, the Notebook is offering a bunch of unpaid internships this fall (see their website here: http://www.thenotebook.org/about/internships.htm , and the paid one that I had will almost definitely be available again next summer through the Fels Foundation's very cool "Internships in Community Service" program in Philadelphia; check out their site here for details: http://www.samfels.org/internships06.html

Anyway, the fall issue of the Notebook came out today, and it features two articles from me on school contracting - one on how the Philadelphia school district uses informal and no-bid processes to choose contractors for educational services (like after-school programs), and the other on how the district is going to decide whether or not to renew its contracts with the six private organizations that have been managing schools in the district for the last five years. I also compiled responses from about a dozen people (elected officials, activists, teachers, etc) about whether or not those contracts should be renewed, helped research an article about how school contracting is affecting unions in the city, and helped edit several other articles.

Responses to the EMO renewal question from some of Philadelphia's mayoral candidates are already up on the Notebook's website - http://www.thenotebook.org - and hopefully the rest of the edition will also be posted online soon. In the meantime, those in Philadelphia can pick up a free copy from the newsracks by the front desk of the School District's headquarters (440 N. Broad), a stack in the NE tower of City Hall, and at Robin's Books on 13th St. If you want a copy mailed to you, you can subscribe to the Notebook here: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=2212 for $20 a year - and only $12 for students!

I'm looking forward to reading the issue myself - if you manage to check it out, let me know what you think!

posted by Tina @ 6:06 PM