Best of the Week — First Winner

At the edge of the world, AP reports on resilient, defiant Alaska Native islanders facing climate change

More than 600 Inupiat Natives live in the village of Shishmaref, just a few miles from the Arctic Circle, watching climate change slowly shrink their small Alaskan island home. In early October, reporter Luis Andres Henao, video journalist Jessie Wardarski and photographer Jae Hong visited the village to document how the warming world inexorably threatens their way of life.

With advance outreach, and tactful overtures after their arrival, the journalists earned the trust of residents and civic leaders who have sometimes been wary of visitors. The ultimate result: a moving tribute to the villagers’ resilience and community spirit, rendered in striking visuals and poignant, insightful text.

The package — the first major look at how Shishmaref is determined to stay put as long as possible — earned prominent online display by major news outlets in the U.S. and abroad, including Spanish and French translations.

For an all-formats project vividly evoking the tenacity of a Native village threatened by climate change, the team of Henao, Wardarski and Hong is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exclusive AP analysis reveals pandemic learning setbacks

used AP’s exclusive access to the first district-by-district breakdown of pandemic test scores to report on massive learning setbacks during the pandemic.The pair, both members of AP’s Education team, previewed their analysis for AP members who could tailor their stories for local and statewide audiences — it was precisely that reach into local newsrooms around the U.S. that led researchers to share their data exclusively with AP.Lurye’s analysis required tremendous speed and accuracy, as data was delayed or updated on deadline. And Toness incisively summarized the national implications of the data: the scope of the pandemic’s disruption in kids’ lives, from the shortcomings of online learning to the trauma many American kids lived through, especially poor children.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Team covering University of Virginia shooting earns reporting wins

kept the AP ahead and produced a nuanced and well-rounded report on the victims and students in the fatal shooting of three football players at the University of Virginia and wounding of two other students.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Focused on learning loss, AP’s reporting asks: Are adults doing enough to help vulnerable kids?

doggedly focused on kids’ academic recovery, delivered a powerful tale about adults trying – and failing – to change school in the face of massive pandemic learning loss.

Previous reporting on pandemic-related education issues uncovered this tale of two districts: Facing Richmond kids’ massive learning losses, the superintendent had already tried twice to extend the school year – something experts recommended for struggling kids to get more time with teachers. Teachers, wealthy parents and school board members had defeated the proposal, leaving supporters bereft. But in Hopewell, backing from teachers and low-income parents had led to the unthinkable – the remaking of the academic calendar, introducing year-round school.Read more.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP shows why young Americans are shunning college

News outlets had widely reported a drop in U.S. college enrollment, but nobody had really explained why. Education reporter Collin Binkley and Ohio-based video journalist Patrick Orsagos figured the best way to find out was to talk with young adults themselves.   

Binkley won a grant from the Education Writers Association and traveled with Orsagos to western Tennessee, where the pair conducted cross-format interviews with high school graduates whose stories exposed the reasons behind the trend: The high cost of higher education. Fear of student debt. A hot job market. General disillusionment with education after high school experiences disrupted by the pandemic and school closures.   

The story sparked wide discussion about the cost of college, the need for reform in higher education and the relevance of a bachelor’s degree in today’s economy. The day after publication the story landed on Reddit’s “popular” page, thanks to a post on the “Futurology” subreddit that received more than 25,000 upvotes and 3,000 comments. It appeared on at least 21 newspaper front pages, with good play on The Tennessean, The Jackson Sun, The Columbus Dispatch, The Roanoke Times and the Ithaca Journal, among others.

The story was tweeted by several members of Congress, including Sen. Marco Rubio. Parents, professors and other readers reached out via email and social media, saying the story resonated with them and demonstrated the need for America’s colleges to offer something young people see value in. And the former admissions director at Jackson State Community College offered to advise one of the students in the story on her college options; that student said she plans to contact him.  

For going to the source to find the reasons behind a major trend, Binkley and Orsagos share this week’s Best of the Week — First Place honors.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Ignoring experts, China's sudden zero-COVID exit cost lives

produced the first story to nail down how China’s sudden exit from its zero-COVID strategy cost thousands of lives, which could have been saved with the more gradual reopening recommended by experts.

Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Students at small, liberal arts New College of Florida subject of political takeover by governor

explained how professors, students and their families at the small, liberal arts New College of Florida are having their lives shaken up after the school came under attack from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as “woke.”Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

New England team elevates town debate into engaging all-formats package about free speech

took what could have been a relatively mundane state wire brief about a vote on a local ordinance and transformed the story into an engaging all-formats national package with text, audio, photos and video that became the third most viewed story on AP News on the day of publication.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP lands exclusive interview with basketball players who say they were sexually assaulted at New Mexico State  

in-depth reporting on the scandals that have rocked New Mexico State University since last year led him to an exclusive all-formats interview with the two basketball players who filed a lawsuit against the school.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Sensitive reporting and a powerful video show impact of anti-inclusion measures on students

centered LGBTQ+ students and kids of color in a powerful story to show the impact of GOP efforts against inclusion at schools.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Education team’s exclusive reporting on chronically absent students drives coverage across US

Building on the groundbreaking Missing Students project, the AP’s Education team and a Stanford educational economist analyzed data from before and after the pandemic in 40 states and Washington, D.C., to show the scope of the nation’s crisis in school attendance.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Coverage highlights significance of bands and football for Black communities

AP dove into the world of historically Black university bands and football classics to produce two compelling, all-formats features that highlight the significance of the bands and games for Black communities in the United States.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

Intimate reporting and stunning access show how the housing crisis has created missing students 

For the past year, education writer Bianca Vázquez Toness took on the difficult reporting task of finding students who have slipped through the cracks since the pandemic, and looked to Los Angeles, where advocates say the housing crisis is causing students to go missing from school.

She met a homeless mother renting space in strangers’ apartments, sleeping on a twin bed with her two children. The situation had devastated the teenage son Deneffy’s mental health and school performance.

After multiple visits to LA to meet Deneffy’s mother, and eventually Deneffy himself, he confided in Toness, allowing her to capture their narrative.

Photographer Jae C. Hong waited weeks for the family to feel safe having him inside, capturing powerful visuals when he was able to. Illustrations by Peter Hamlin anchored the story’s presentation. Eunice Esomonu put the Spanish version of the story in the immersive design, a first for AP.

Education journalists and readers alike have reached out to share how remarkable and powerful they found Toness’ reporting.

For building trust and cinematic reporting that showed the great lengths homeless kids must go to attend school, Best of the Week — First Winner is awarded to Bianca Vázquez Toness and Jae C. Hong.