The Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship

Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Spencer Foundation are offering an ambitious new fellowship in education reporting, beginning in fall 2008.

The fellowship offers three annual stipends of $75,000 in a program that represents a unique blend of serious resident university study and the execution of an important work of education journalism.

The Spencer Foundation funded the program in line with its commitment to support high-quality investigation of education through its research projects, fellowship and training programs.

The Spencer Education Journalism Fellows will spend an academic year in New York to study at the School of Journalism and at Columbia's Teachers College. We expect students to use the fall semester for coursework at Teachers College and the Journalism School. Fellows would then spend most of the spring semester working in earnest, often on the road, on their individual projects. Where necessary, and depending on course selection, Spencer Fellows would be able to spread their class-work over two semesters.

Journalism Professor LynNell Hancock , a nationally known expert on covering education, children and families, will work closely with the fellows to develop the course work. Associate Dean Arlene Morgan will serve as project director.

Throughout the year, each Spencer Fellow will be invited to work with an advisor at the Journalism School who is accomplished in education reporting. Each Fellow would meet with his/her advisor weekly, at first to help define the project and its scope. As the reporting gets underway, the advisor will serve as an editor and writing coach.

In addition to the coursework and independent projects, the Spencer Fellows would meet as a group periodically and participate in conversations with influential leaders in both education and journalism. All fellows would be invited to take part in school-wide seminars and workshops, and serve as guest lecturers in graduate-level journalism classes.

By the end of the year, each fellow should be in a position to produce an article or provide a progress report that indicates a book contract or secured some other arrangement for publication.

The Fellowship seeks to elevate the level of education reporting by giving writers the time and resources to produce work of lasting value that, ultimately, will influence a national conversation about the state of education in America.

Arlene Morgan,
Associate Dean, Prizes and Programs