Editorial Projects in Education

Editorial Projects in Education
Name	Editorial Projects in Education
Founded	1968
Founder	Coral Davenport
Headquarters	Bethesda, Maryland
Focus	K-12 and higher education reporting

Editorial Projects in Education is a nonprofit organization known for producing data-driven journalism and information products focused on K-12 and higher education topics. It operates flagship initiatives that track school district performance, policy changes, and trends in school choice, standardized testing, and teacher certification. The organization’s outputs are widely used by state legislatures, local school boards, education journalists, nonprofit organizations, and research universities.

History

Founded in 1968 during a period of expanding federal involvement in school desegregation and the growth of public policy coverage, the organization emerged as part of a broader movement of specialized reporting initiatives similar in era to Nieman Foundation, American Journalism Review, and early projects at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Early work tracked developments associated with landmark measures such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and later shifts tied to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act. Over decades the organization expanded from newsletter formats into large-scale data projects that paralleled analytics efforts at institutions like Urban Institute, Brookings Institution, and Pew Research Center.

Mission and Programs

The stated mission centers on improving access to actionable information for stakeholders in public education systems and increasing transparency in policy implementation. Core programs have targeted themes including school choice policy trends, teacher labor markets, and school accountability frameworks influenced by decisions in bodies such as the U.S. Department of Education, state legislatures, and municipal city councils. Programmatic work often intersects with initiatives by Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in efforts to support research synthesis, professional development for education journalists, and data literacy among school administrators.

Publications and Media

The organization produces several recurring publications and digital services used by practitioners and scholars. Flagship products have included national newsletters tracking legislative sessions affecting K-12 policy, searchable databases cataloging state-level reforms tied to cases like Brown v. Board of Education, and ranking products analogous in scope to efforts by U.S. News & World Report and Forbes in other sectors. Media formats range from long-form investigative pieces published alongside outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal to datasets consumed by analysts at National Public Radio, Reuters, and academic centers at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Stanford Graduate School of Education, and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Advocacy and Policy Impact

While maintaining a nonprofit, nonpartisan posture, the organization’s work has influenced debates in venues such as state supreme courts, state departments of education, and national forums convened by Education Commission of the States and Council of Chief State School Officers. Analyses produced by the organization have been cited during deliberations over school funding litigation, charter school authorization, and accountability measures invoked under federal statutes like Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Policymakers from offices such as Governors' offices and committees including the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions have used its compilations to inform testimony and drafts.

Funding and Governance

Funding streams historically combine foundation grants, subscriptions, and contract research, with major supporters occasionally including Gates Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, and regional philanthropic entities linked to Community Foundation networks. Governance typically involves a board populated by figures from journalism schools, policy research centers, and former officials from agencies like the U.S. Department of Education and state education agencies. Organizational transparency practices have been compared to governance models at institutions such as ProPublica and The RAND Corporation.

Partnerships and Collaborations

Collaborative work spans partnerships with academic researchers at Brookings Institution, Urban Institute, and American Institutes for Research as well as media partnerships with NPR, PBS NewsHour, and local newspapers such as Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. Project-specific collaborations have included data-linking initiatives with state departments of education and joint research ventures with university centers like the Annenberg Institute at Brown University and the Learning Policy Institute.

Criticism and Controversies

Critiques have focused on methodology choices in ranking and reporting products and on perceived alignment with funders when foundation-supported projects intersect with contentious policy debates like voucher programs and teacher evaluation systems. Commentators from outlets such as Education Week, The Atlantic, and advocacy groups spanning the ideological spectrum—American Federation of Teachers and Hoover Institution affiliates—have questioned interpretive framing, data selection, and transparency about editorial decisions. Debates have also arisen over the influence of proprietary datasets on public research access and the balance between journalism and policy advocacy in outputs used by litigants in school finance cases.

Category:Nonprofit organizations based in Maryland