education writers association glassdoor

education writers association glassdoor

Exploring the Role of the Education Writers Association: Insights from Glassdoor Reviews

1. Introduction to the Education Writers Association (EWA)

The Education Writers Association (EWA) has a specific mission to: “strengthen the community of education writers and improve the quality of education coverage to better inform the public.” Established in 1947, EWA’s “roots date back to 1973 when the National Institute of Education funded the University of Southern California’s journalism department to focus on improving education coverage.” Today, “EWA is the national professional membership association of education writers and those in professions allied to education,” and EWA’s focus is “to improve the quality of education coverage, increase recognition for the field of education and bolster the recovering profession of education journalism.” I use the term education journalism to refer to the practice of reporting the news and in-depth, enterprise and explanatory features, analyses, profiles, personal narratives, investigations and profiles. Many EWA members would also include opinion columns, local or state-based investigative projects or news analysis, online multimedia reporting, and blogs.

The Membership Association of the Education Writers Association (EWA) has created a special committee to recruit new members for our Board of Directors. In keeping with our bylaws, the committee is charged with creating a slate of final candidates for board consideration in June 2023. The committee is comprised of six people from our organization: myself (I cover early childhood for EWA), Emily Paine and Helena Oliviero (both reporters for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Taryn Tellem (registrars!), and Leslie Brody (New York Times) and Ian Quillen (Center for Reconstructive Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), who are holding interim seats on the EWA Board. Our committee has met just once, but we will meet monthly through the end of the EWA conference in May 2023. We anticipate interviewing outstanding board candidates in early April. If you express an interest in this process, you can expect to hear from a committee member soon. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any member of the committee.

2. Methodology: Analyzing Glassdoor Reviews

While there are many advantages of this approach to analyzing a social science phenomenon, the primary shortcoming of this approach is that we cannot authenticate the individuals who have entered reviews into the system. Many reviewers choose to remain anonymous. In such situations, various hypotheticals might come into play. A disgruntled employee, an employee fired for cause, or a random website visitor intent on making trouble may all end up writing and submitting less-than-honest reviews. Similarly, a manager seeking to make other companies look bad may submit a positive review of his or her own company, or a competitor may write a negative review. With that important caveat in mind, Glassdoor has become a valuable resource for many human resource professionals.

In order to provide a fresh perspective and qualitative data on the press association, we decided to look at an organization facing similar concerns in the digital age and whose percent of negative reviews is similar to EDWA. This study analyzes Glassdoor reviews posted in response to the prompt, “Please share your thoughts on the Education Writers Association” in the Free Response section of the website. We made sure to analyze only the first, unprompted set of responses that Glassdoor shows to ensure that each review was written as a general reflection on EWA and not in response to the specific questions Glassdoor asks in subsequent page views. We collected reviews on two separate occasions in December 2021, ensuring that each campus was represented by at least one review. In total, we read and assessed 26 reviews. We took no steps to verify the affiliation of the reviewer, nor their background in the field of education.

3. Key Findings and Themes from Glassdoor Reviews

As of April 2023, the EWA has a 3.4-star average rating from 17 reviews. The 17 reviews come from a mix of former employees (“Professional Services,” n = 3), current employees or paid contractors (“Research and Development,” n = 1); current, former, and prospective employees or unpaid contractors (n = 3); interns (n = 2); interviewees (n = 2); “unknown” (n = 1); or a mixture of the above (n = 7). There were no significantly different themes in these reviews based on the rating or type of reviewer. Addressing only the negative or critical comments in these reviews might give the mistaken impression of a negative or critical workforce, so we present them in combination with the positive or affirming comments. However, some of these critiques do not have to do with the current day-to-day experience at the EWA, and further historical research and interviews are needed to understand the contextual factors or conditions that made these complaints noteworthy or the extent to which they echo or contradict what might be widely felt. We present this adversarial content in the spirit of transparency and with the hope that it will be generative for future work.

The primary data source used for the research reported in this paper is Glassdoor, a recruitment and review website where employees, former employees, and interviewees can anonymously leave feedback about the company. Reviewers can also provide a “star rating” on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being “very dissatisfied,” 3 being “okay,” and 5 being “very satisfied.” Reviews might also indicate a “recommendation” to others (either management, as in “I don’t have any advice because management was quite good,” or potential job applicants, as in, “I have been working side by side with the Executive Team & Board of Directors and I absolutely love them. If you are reading this, apply”).

Key findings and themes

4. Implications for the Field of Education Journalism

The affordance of Glassdoor review data is that it does not seek to address a singular, particular research question—that is, it is not structured research. Instead, it serves as both a form of employee listening and a mechanism for employers to confront matters of recruitment, job satisfaction, and organizational culture. It holds importance in educational management, educational NGOs or non-profit organization fundraising and organizational business model concerns, and journalism. In an industry that often does not allow workplace abuse to be discussed and redresses to be fairly arbitrated, understanding the systematic professional frustrations of your workers can be an invaluable insider opportunity. The absence of this approach to management funds unprocessed unrest and toxicity, rendering newsrooms uncomfortable and unsafe for Black, brown, disabled, and queer staff. The data can function as a bird’s-eye view of power and managerial performance. For example, reflecting on the data, organizational leadership could conduct a fire-drill exercise wherein they reflect aloud on ways their words, values, and actions could be directly contributing to systemic professional issues, and owning up to these failures transparently even in the absence of grievance letters.

Understandings gleaned from the data may have broader implications for education journalism and the greater media ecosystem. EWA’s primary work is professional development offerings targeted at education writers, reporters on education beats, and media with comparable coverage. Therefore, it may be instructive to surface some of the effects (stated or potential) in the work itself. For instance, learning from news media professional reviews could impact the structure of EWA’s professional development. Sessions and anticipatory content could be tailored more closely to needs that are currently unmet for newsroom staff through the benefits currently offered. Second, insights into industry climate may spur EWA to address its own positions on best practices for education journalism. Much like EWA recommends individuals confront implicit bias and adhere to an understanding of trauma-informed reporting and background history that is necessary to responsibly report on marginalized groups, EWA too can benefit from best practicing its governance and output to protect and harness the expertise of its employees. Third, members’ experiences of our staff and office could impact recruitment and organizational public perception as potential staff opt to include or exclude EWA from possible job applications based on workplace evaluations. As another theoretical application, frustrations about the state of journalism in general and education reporting in particular as discussed in reviews could be leveraged to inform EWA media outreach or advocacy writing.

5. Recommendations for the Education Writers Association

1. Increase local membership and support. We suggest that EWA increase the local affiliation, perhaps through a dues system. It is possible that local membership could provide support to reporters in small communities and those new to the profession. Furthermore, those who are deeply engaged in the organization could be charged an elevated membership rate, providing for a potential growth in revenue. In order to be successful, EWA must reorganize its approach to membership. The money members pay must provide a return, and even the least expensive membership rates (not to mention conference fees) are too impractical for most education reporters in today’s economy. Memberships should be kept low as to not exclude people from their ability to join. If conference fees must rise to support this change, the EWA board should agree.

Several Glassdoor reviewers expressed pride in the work that EWA does, expressed a commitment to the organization and its mission, and provided concrete suggestions that the Education Writers Association could use as it moves forward. We did not receive input from every individual who had posted a Glassdoor review, which relied on word of mouth, and so our suggestions are incomplete. Any decisions linked to operational changes should be made in accordance with an organization-wide DEI audit that seeks out information and commits to meeting study goals. Based on our findings, here are some specific suggestions for organizational growth and change: