Not “Cool,” but Important: Looking into Learning Lab

Photo by Peter Balonon-Rosen/WBUR

This summer, I had the pleasure of interning at an NPR affiliate station in Washington D.C. Aside from producing feature pieces at leisure, my main task was writing the local news copy that no one else had time for. Long story made short: One AP wire led to another, and I ended up covering the financial crisis of Sweet Briar College all summer.

I became interested, invested and eventually consumed in the state of this all-womens’ school, which had been threatened to shutter multiple times leading up to the summer of 2015. Reaction and protests concerned much more than just money. I was observing the the value of gendered institutions be tested and questioned, supported and argued against. Leaving D.C. this past August, I was happy to see the college still open and even happier to have a newfound appreciation for education news.

At least in the bubble of student journalists I live in, education reporting is not the most popular beat. Often associated with school boards and property taxes, I found myself skipping over school-related headlines for many years, assuming their stories would be boring and unrelated to me. Surely, my experiences are shared with many. Education news, much like going to school, is “uncool” but clearly important.

WBUR’s Learning Lab aims to emphasize this importance. The website is a completely education-focused version of their main site with a few additionally feature-y spins. Apart from in-depth coverage of Massachusetts school, my favorite part of the site a line of short audio pieces lining the top that highlight citizen opinion. The questions are simple, but the answers are insightful. Currently, the site asks “What makes a good school?”Some of the answers range from “small classes” to “committed staffs”and come with personal anecdotes to back them up.

Other effective elements of the website include a school calendar for tracking the happenings of Boston-area schools and “EdReads,” which is a section that lists any story from WBUR and WGBH that mentions education. One funny observation about both though is that the web design appears dated and a bit dorky, much like education and it’s coverage on the whole.

However, it’s the humanistic elements, not the technical tools, of Learning Lab that make it a notable resource. Well-taken photos and lengthier 4-5-minute pieces make WBUR’s education coverage accessible, nearly jargon-free and, more often than not, touching. See the recent story on Massachusetts’s suspension policies for kindergarteners to fully experience Learning Lab.