Media View of State and Local Education Reforms

Session: Media View of State and Local Education Reforms

10:15 - 11:15 am. - Tuesday, February 27

Moderator, Jean Cook, APR, Mississippi Department of Education; MAPE board member

Panelists: Jeff Amy, Kate Royals and Jackie Mader

Journalists from Mississippi’s top news organizations will share their perspectives on the state of public education in Mississippi, which reform efforts have been the most effective and how school districts are adapting to higher expectations.

Jeff Amy has covered education and other topics for The Associated Press in Mississippi since 2011. Before that, he worked for newspapers in Mobile and Anniston, Alabama. Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Mississippi Today reporter Kate Royals is a Jackson native who previously worked as a reporter for The Clarion-Ledger covering education and state government and was a news producer at MassLive in Springfield, Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree from Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communications and attended Millsaps College.

Jackie Mader is an award-winning multimedia editor and a staff writer for The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit education news outlet. She is a former teacher and covers education in Mississippi, as well as early childhood education nationwide. Her work has appeared in newspapers across the country and on radio stations including MPB and WNYC, and she has been published by online outlets including PBS and The Atlantic.