Senior Reporter (Policy, Equity, Solutions)

The74Million.org, the growing nonprofit education news organization, is seeking an experienced, ambitious and creative senior reporter to join our award-winning national newsroom and help us expand our coverage of school equity, state policy, and emerging innovations and solutions. 

We’re looking for an education reporter with an eye for identifying new storylines and noteworthy breakthroughs ahead of the competition, a journalist who aspires to make an impact and is able to juggle daily news with second-day features and smart enterprise stories. They know how to use public records laws and develop sources to break news and fuel long-range investigations. They are seasoned observers of the beat who can see beyond the latest buzz to find the more important signals buried in the noise, helping readers understand the broader causes, context and consequences of the day’s headlines. 

Given the ongoing pandemic and its disruptions to the nation’s education system, we are also looking for a reporter who is comfortable with pivoting quickly to follow the unpredictable story of COVID — and the fallout for America’s students — into the 2021-22 school year and beyond. From learning losses to accelerating student recovery, widening classroom achievement gaps, post-pandemic policies and accountability systems, we are quickly realizing that school districts and education leaders will be dealing with the aftermath of this crisis for a decade to come. At the same time, an unprecedented influx of federal revenue will open doors for districts to address long-lamented deficiencies and embrace creative solutions — or squander millions. We’ll be there to cover it all.

Beyond these evolving pandemic storylines and this coverage of state and federal policy, the senior reporter will play a key role in steering our national coverage of equity, innovations and “whole child” policies, spotlighting areas where students are being left behind as well as forward-thinking educators and institutions that are improving the status quo. As part of our senior leadership team, this reporter will also collaborate with top editors in researching geographies and school systems that can be used as focal points for our core coverage of timely developments and important trends worth elevating from the country’s top 10 districts. (This will frequently include coverage of compelling issues in America’s two largest districts, New York City and Los Angeles).

In addition to your resume, please send along 5-10 of your top published clips to careers@the74million.org

Who are you? 

Proven senior reporter who demonstrates a growing ability to write for national audiences and can enthusiastically commit to both chasing the story and perfecting their writing craft. 

Self-starter comfortable in an entrepreneurial environment and detail-oriented manager of beat development, daily deadlines and larger projects. 

Journalist able to cover a wide range of topics that may play out in different states or affect different major school districts over a short time period

Effective team member able to collaborate with senior writers, web producers and videographers to produce impactful, visually compelling journalism. 

Digital native well versed in using social media as a sourcing tool and to engage and develop their audience. 

Eager promoter of their work, as well as their colleagues, who seeks to establish themselves as a regular participant in the daily online education discussion through social followings, media appearances and industry panels.

Details 

Competitive salary and benefits 

Generous vacation and holiday calendar

Location: NYC or remote with availability for regular travel to NYC. (Preference will be given to local candidates as this reporter will report into a manager based out of our NYC newsroom)

Pandemic Safety Note: Given safety protocols, our newsroom is currently working remote, and is not expected to return to the physical newsroom until at least November 2021.