Media Matters did a survey of the three major cable networks: CNN, Fox, and MSNBC and discovered that only 9% of the guests on shows about education were educators.
Across MSNBC, CNN, And Fox, Only 9 Percent Of Guests In Education Segments Were Educators. On segments in which there was a substantial discussion of domestic education policy between January 1, 2014, and October 31, 2014, there were 185 guests total on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, only 16 of whom were educators, or 9 percent.
Furthermore, MSNBC Was The Only Network Above The Average. MSNBC, at 14 percent, was the only network above the average of 9 percent, while CNN and Fox were behind at 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
The survey covered the period from January 1, 2014, to October 31, 2014.
The following programs were included in the data: The Situation Room, Erin Burnett OutFront, Crossfire, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Tonight, The Ed Show, PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton, Hardball with Chris Matthews, All In with Chris Hayes, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, The Five, Special Report with Bret Baier, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, The O’Reilly Factor, The Kelly File, and Hannity. For shows that air reruns, only the first airing was included in data retrieval.
Media Matters only included segments that had substantial discussion of domestic education policy issues, including but not limited to: education reform, teacher tenure, early education, guns in schools, the Common Core educational standards, religion in schools, and school choice. We included each segment where education policy was the stated topic of discussion. We also included segments that were not limited solely to education but that featured significant discussion of the topic. We defined significant discussion as at least two speakers in the segment talking about education to one another (e.g. the host asking a guest a question about education during a multi-topic interview).
We defined an “educator” as someone who either is or has been employed as a K-12 teacher, a school administrator such as a principal, a professor of education at the college or university level, or someone with an advanced degree (master’s or Ph.D.) in education.
We counted all guests who appeared in relevant segments, using bios, profiles, resumes, and news stories available online to determine as best we could each guest’s educational background and professional experience.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No surprise here. The MSM also marginalizes the voices of labor and progressives. Ed Schultz and Chris Hayes have done some (although not enough) decent education coverage.
An outward manifestation of an authoritarian corporatist state?
PBS should be included in this statistic! About 2 or 3 days ago there was a segment on public education and they interviewed 2 “ed reformers” and one writer for Edweek… I kept wondering why on God’s earth they didn;t just contact Ravitch to speak on behalf of educators … remember the Burger King commercials years ago.. “Where’s the beef”? WHERE ARE THE REAL EDUCATORS and REAL Education experts????? It is very telling when officials talk as “experts” on public education and they do not even know the difference between summative and formative assessments (one blog responder commented in an earlier post on this)!
Maybe if some of these “supposed experts” knew about Krashen’s “Afffective Filter” theory, they could reflect on this. The constant changing of anything and everything to do with public education and in such an unresearched helter-skelter way is activating all public education learners “affective filters” (not just language learners) …. Students are understandably frustrated, bored, angry etc – all the things that hinder learning. The media just adds flammables to the fire with all their “ed experts” preaching false gospel at every turn.
Not disagreeing…but what is the definition of an educator?
Fran Grossman
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“We defined an “educator” as someone who either is or has been employed as a K-12 teacher, a school administrator such as a principal, a professor of education at the college or university level, or someone with an advanced degree (master’s or Ph.D.) in education.”
I think their definition is too broad, since TFAers would be included in that, and I would guess Arne Duncan might be as well, even though they all got their jobs without having taken a single course in education.
Arneman Dunkster and educator in the same sentence?!?
I’d think that any self conscientious sentence would self immolate before allowing that to happen to itself.
We need a word for these “experts”, sort of like the Chickenhawks – those who are experts on war but have never served.
edu-fakers
Not surprising. We are the silent, unasked subjects of the discourse of others. It seems that our primary function is to be bullied and batted around, according to whatever new notion has enchanted the vulturesque billionaires, and the elected officials whom they now own. Sad but true.
Whatever folks may think of how MMfA arrived at their 9% figure, I give them credit for two things:
1), They didn’t push it as the definitive answer to such a topic. The piece itself is short and doesn’t pretend to end further investigation.
2), They laid bare how they arrived at the 9%. Like many such figures, there is an inherent imprecision about it that they didn’t try to hide. Good for them.
Whatever the limitations of what they did, if they did indeed follow the survey procedures outlined in their short piece, it again shines light on the selective and biased MSM coverage of what is happening to public schools and their staffs and students and parents and surrounding communities.
Hence the importance of this blog and so many others, as well as all the other activities of those trying to ensure a “better education for all.”
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We have been raging about this for years. Back in the summer of 2011 SAVE OUR SCHOOLS held a March and conference in DC. The rally and march was held at the ellipse and White House. Speakers such as Diane, Jonathan Kozol, John Kuhn, and Linda Darling Hammond shared the stage….. Approximately 7500 teachers, parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens were there. Where the major networks or cable news people there? No. What received media attention? The fact that Matt Damon spoke along with his mom, Nancy Carlson Paige. Yes folks. It took a celebrity to cover this important rally. Subsequent rallies in DC haven’t been covered either. A May rally this year at NYC hall with several hundred people form all across the metro region and sponsored by over 50 varied groups was not covered.
It seems only non major news networks like Al Jazeera America have the courage to take on these stories, as they did with their exposure of the hype and hurt of TFA.
Where is that famous journalistic investigation we became so used to in the past? Bought and paid for?
It all started with Waiting for Superman and Oprah. Then Education Nation. Real educators were given a small amount of speaking time while the majority of the programming went to Reformers and charter school advocates. Even the parents on EdNation were picked by Duncan!!
Diane got a few minutes on Charlie Rose compared to other Reform guests, and you never saw her booked on any talk show like “The View” or any major network news report for a long interview. The public is so misinformed. And when real reporters try to report, and I am speaking about Michael Winerip from the NYTimes, they are fired from the education beat. btw, I do not think as Weingarten as an educator either. She hardly served in a classroom setting, and most of her rhetoric doesn’t follow her actions.
Has anyone seen Joshua Starr on any major network talking about the success of PAR as a fair and balanced teacher evaluation program? Neither have I. The media hides the truth. Take the puff piece that ran in the NYTimes on the success of “Success”. Not one mention that while scoring high on standardized tests, not one student passed the tests for specialized high schools. Or that they had customized test-prep materials from Pearson prior to the actual test. And that some of the content in those materials were actually on the test. Journalism is no longer presenting facts, but twisting them to serve the editorial agenda. The one thing FOX and MSNBC have in common is their assault on public ed and public ed teachers.
I thought this was really interesting and should have been pursued:
“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and at least one other Education Department official urged New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and his team not to choose Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr as the city’s next schools chancellor, according to several people knowledgable about the selection process. It was an unusual move by the nation’s top education official and came in the wake of Starr’s vocal criticism of some of the Obama administration’s school reform policies.”
Wow. What is that? Just petty vindictiveness or fear that a dissenter was coming in to bust up The Movement dominance? Either way it’s not pretty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/education-officials-lobbied-against-starr-in-new-york-city/2013/12/31/c3017ed0-7249-11e3-8b3f-b1666705ca3b_story.html
It may not be illegal but it is inappropriate for a cabinet officer to meddle in local politics. Duncan, coming out of the Daley machine in Chicago, is unaware of that practice. When the state legislature in Néw York was reauthorizing mayoral control of the NYC public schools, an independent civic committee called Citizens Union was planning to recommend that board members have set terms, rather than serve at the pleasure of the mayor. Duncan wrote the group a letter strongly endorsing the status quo of board members serving at the pleasure of the mayor. He warned against weakening mayoral control. He did not, however, speak at all when Governor Cuomo weakened Mayor de Blasio’s control and required the city to pay rent for all charter schools.
Duncan also injected himself into the D.C. Mayor race and campaigned with Michelle Rhee for Mayor Fenty. He lost.
Just yesterday, one of the Salt Lake City newspapers, the Deseret News, did an entire article singing the praises of John King. The headline even called him an “educator.” This is the kind of “education reporting” that this and many other newspapers pretend to have as “education reporting.” It’s sickening.
The reason for this is simple: the CC, test-and-punish reform movement (NCLB waiver program) was never intended to improve public education. A boatload of prior data had clearly shown that “standards” alone do not improve outcomes. Worse yet, when outcomes are defined as tests scores, the only real outcome will be students who are programed to be test takers. When the weakest link in the teaching/learning chain is ignored, real progress remains nothing more than a pipe dream. The bogus claims of the 91% talking head, edu-fakers is just snake oil illusion.
Not only does testing not improve outcomes, there is research indicating that standardized testing is harmful to children of poverty. https://dianeravitch.net/2013/09/26/how-standardized-tests-harm-students-and-how-to-stop-this-harm/
That’s actually very good, much higher than the number of real doctors in pharmaceutical ads, the most comparable commercial market.
When teaching is commercialized, only commercials will be taught.
Jon Awbrey: “When teaching is commercialized, only commercials will be taught.”
TAGO!
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P.S. New class at the Broad Academy: “Where’s The Beef?”
I’d like to know what percent are current K-12 educators actually working in the midst of all the policy changes. Probably a pretty small fraction of that 9%.
Sad. But as a regular reader of the NY Times and the Wash Post I rarely see any good reporting on education issues at all. Yet 100% of US kids are in schools for12 years or so, 90% of them in public schools. Isn’t education of any interest to Americans?