BURLINGAME - A creative mix of media stories ranging from a look at testing issues to a profile about the shortage of school counselors and an examination of flaws in the state's special education system are among the works honored by the California Teachers Association's 43rd annual John Swett Awards for Media Excellence.
Fourteen winners of the prestigious CTA awards were recently chosen by an independent panel of media professionals. The awards honor individuals, publications and television and radio stations for their outstanding achievements in reporting and interpreting public education issues during 2001.
"These journalists are telling the story of public education at a critical time in California," said Wayne Johnson, president of the 330,000-member CTA. "The John Swett Award is our top honor for media professionals. The compassion and skill reflected in this body of work are outstanding."
There were 48 entries this year. The 14 winners will receive their awards during a luncheon in their honor at the CTA State Council of Education meeting in Los Angeles on June 8. CTA also will take out a full-page advertisement in the July/August issue of Columbia Journalism Review magazine to list the winners and give them national recognition.
The award is named in honor of the founder of CTA, who was California's fourth superintendent of public instruction.
This year's 14 John Swett Award winners and their winning entries:
Newspapers
- Duke Helfand, the Los Angeles Times, for a feature story on the shortage of school counselors, and the hardships they face.
- The Los Angeles Times, for contributions by a publication for continuous coverage of education issues.
- Nanette Asimov and Lance Williams, the San Francisco Chronicle, for a news story about students who sued California over public school conditions and were then grilled by state-hired lawyers.
- Matthew Chin, The Inland Valley Times, for a series of stories about the difficult collective bargaining negotiations of teachers in Chino.
- Jill Tucker, the Oakland Tribune, for a series of focused, poignant stories titled, "Special Education: The Broken Promise."
- Gina Keating , the Los Angeles Daily Journal, for a news story about the troubled Belmont High School project in Los Angeles.
- Jane Northrop , the Pacifica Tribune, won two Swett Awards. The awards were for a series about a grand jury investigation of a school district, and for a feature about middle school students learning lessons in aging awareness.
- Yvette tenBerge, the La Prensa San Diego, for continuous coverage of education beat.
- Jennifer Dietz Berry, the Palo Alto Weekly , for a feature story about the teacher shortage in East Palo Alto's Ravenswood City School District.
- The Independent, a San Mateo County weekly, won as a publication for a series on local school budget cut ramifications in the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District.
- Kathryn Baron, KQED-FM, San Francisco, for her six-part series titled, "The Testing of America: Education or Obsession."
- Youth Radio, Berkeley, for "Making the Grade," a production about the struggles to meet high school graduation requirements.
Television
- KXTV-TV, Sacramento, for its monthly "Teacher of the Month" series of profiles about public school teachers in the region who are making a major difference in the classroom in different, creative ways.