education writers association jobs

education writers association jobs

Exploring Job Opportunities in the Education Writers Association

1. Introduction to the Education Writers Association (EWA)

The association offers individual memberships, student memberships, and a number of different services and events. Members also can join or form groups and committees to help structure the organization’s functions. Types of membership include Individual, Student, Marketing, and Premium; membership type determines the benefits available to members.

EWA was established in 1947 as the National Association of Education Writers by a group of education journalists and researchers who wanted to improve the quality of education coverage and the complexity of the public discourse. The association uses its online services to provide education journalists with rapid access to information on their behalf, including: an informative website, an education weblog (EdWired), a resource paradigm (EdResearchOnline) that indexes hundreds of news, research, and commentary sites, and a news feed (EdWriters) of education news headlines and education-focused research news. The website has a members-only, virtual community portal that allows members to have online discussion forums, share reports and research via a document library, and obtain in-depth profiles of member colleagues.

The Education Writers Association (EWA) is a professional organization established to enhance the quality of education coverage in the media and increase the amount of public-focused information on topics surrounding learning and schools. As dedicated education journalists, the organization aims to play an essential role in educating the public and affecting positive change for future generations. EWA has been a responsive, active organization with more than 75 conferences, seminars, webinars, and other professional development gatherings hosted since 2017.

2. Benefits of Joining the EWA Job Board

Another valuable feature of our service for newsrooms, in particular, is that it provides a feed of jobs unique to this niche, curated daily by our staff with you in mind. Since 2019, the job board has also included a twice-weekly collection of remote work positions, already popular before Covid-19 pushed workforces remote. Especially for job seekers who are not EWA members (who use our job board), it is worth emphasizing what makes this service unusual when it comes to being beneficial: It focuses on a narrow specialty (education journalism), and on a specific type of employer (media outlets), location independent, and remote access to the content. We hope you check out these 6 new jobs, listed in reverse chronological order. This isn’t our only members-only job-hunting benefit.

Job seekers are often reluctant to spend valuable time checking out job board listings, so they need to be really worthwhile for someone to make them a regular stop. Anyone can visit the “public” version of the EWA Job Board, hosted by our partners at CareerEco, which is where members’ job listings ultimately end up. But working with us has its privileges. Nicolle Grayson has graciously put together a look-back report on some 2021 job board statistical achievements. In 2021, the EWA Job Board saw a 416% increase in postings over 2020, with an 85% increase in visitors per posting. In total, there were over 53,000 visitors to the job board in 2021. These and other statistics described in her blog post show how EWA members and employers are using our job board for their hiring and job-seeking needs.

3. Tips for Securing a Job through the EWA

EWA MEMBERSHIP, with self-service access to our member information system (the Source), is open to individuals and organizations that cover education in any medium (print, broadcast, online). They also extend an affiliate membership to educators and public information officers who have an interest in working with the education press. The best general advice I have for folks applying through an organization like the Education Writers’ Association is to make your application materials extremely compelling and tightly focused on the job you’re seeking. Your resume and letter of interest shouldn’t be generic – they should show your deep understanding of and passion for the field, and why you’re singularly suited for the job in question. As far as job searching in education journalism specifically, one thing I can tell you is that every newsroom, nonprofit, and other journalism operation I know of is looking for people who already understand K-12 education academically or who are active within a particular school system. So, if you’re not already writing for a school newspaper or connecting with teachers, students, parents, or school board members as a stringer, that would be a strong move.

With locations in Southern California, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., the Education Writers Association gives thousands of education reporters an opportunity to network, share ideas, and improve their craft. One of the “perks” of joining an association is that they often post job opportunities in the field they serve, which is the case here! This is a news brief excerpt from a news article written by Caitlin Scidmore. To access the full article, you can visit the EWA newsroom or, better yet, consider joining the organization! Employers are always thrilled to hire the talented, passionate people who make up our diverse membership.

4. Success Stories: Real-Life Experiences of EWA Job Seekers

Talent Development Secondary, which I helped found over 12 years ago, is part of Johns Hopkins University. EWA has been an invaluable resource to me throughout my tenure at JHU, and I’ve made countless contacts with remarkable journalists. About a month ago, I attended EWA’s Skills Seminar, sponsored by the Gates Foundation, and was also a panelist, discussing the issues with other education suiciders – my name for people like me who left a key job in schools to become a reformer. That’s how I met Rachel James, someone I hope to work with sooner rather than later. Over the years, talent development has appeared in Education Week, in National Public Radio, and in a myriad number of trade publications. Conveniently, the name dropping in Baltimore Magazine’s article about Ben Franklin High School at Masonville Cove Career Academy. Go TDS! I don’t know what the future holds, but EWA will be a big part of it.

Three years ago, I wrote a blog post and submitted it to EWA on a lark. They published it and then were willing to run this piece about my trip to Europe to find more effective models of seventh grade education – at a time when I was seriously pitching the Fellowship Program for Rennie Center to consider. Robin and Greg Head, the then-head of EWA, encouraged me to attend the conference in Chicago that year and join the EWA network. I did. The Head Foundation gave me a first-time conference scholarship and I was able to attend the spanking shiny new full-day session before the conference on covering low-income education for FREE! I helped a little with the planning for that first 3E conference in 2009 and was invited back to be on a returning booster shot at this one. I also got to network with one of my grad writing profs who was also there. My old mucker, Sasha Brown, was already back at EdWeek and called me from Chicago to let me know what was waiting for me when I returned.

Struck by Wanderlust