Making ‘The Grade’: Welcoming Alexander Russo’s New Blog

Posted May 6, 2015 in Better Conversation

Tracy Dell’Angela is a writer, education nonprofit executive director and a mom passionate about education improvements. Full profile →

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As a longtime education journalist in Chicago, I often scoured Alexander Russo’s education blogs for hidden gems—little bits of insider scoop from principals, anonymous posts about a policy gone awry, sometimes a smackdown of a colleague who got the story wrong. Sometimes it was me, or my newspaper, that was getting smacked down.

And as much as I grumbled, there was always something about getting called out that inspired me to dig a little deeper, to be more thorough, to challenge my own assumptions. In short, to get it right.

Today, Russo is launching a new endeavor called The Grade, which he describes as an education journalism blog that “takes a steady look at how education news gets created and see how to make it as accurate, complete, and interesting as possible.”

We, at Education Post, are financially supporting The Grade because we believe we can’t have a better conversation unless we are being honest with our readers—parents, teachers, taxpayers—the folks who have a big stake in understanding what is really happening in our classrooms, our school boards, our statehouses around education.

Our co-funder in this venture is the American Federation of Teachers, which might seem like the craziest of funder marriages if it didn’t make so much sense. The critics on both sides can assume we’re cancelling each other out.

Still, Russo will catch plenty of grief for his funders, and I’m sure his motives and fairness will be questioned. We’re used to that here at Education Post, and we know someone can accept outside money while still preserving integrity and independence.

So bring it on, Russo. Keep us all honest.