Verbal Skills and the Value of Scholastic Journalism

Computational Thinking and Expository Writing in the Middle School

“…Research on the teaching of high school journalism informs both our pedagogy and curriculum. There is evidence that students immersed in the journalistic experience (e.g., school newspapers) perform better on indicators of college success, such as the SATs, than their peers who do not [Bruschke 1999;Dvorak 2009;McDonnell 2004]. This corroborates the constructivist perspective of Papert [1980] and Turkle [1984] within the domain of journalism.…”

Who Are the “Journalism Kids”? Academic Predictors of Journalism Participation in Secondary Schools

“…Given this study’s findings, a key theoretical question that future researchers will need to address is the following: Why would participation in scholastic journalism contribute to academic achievement over and above the positive influence of student journalists’ academic and demographic backgrounds? Future researchers also may need to derive more precise ways of assessing journalism’s unique academic contributions than the broad standardized test scores used in previous studies (Bruschke & George, 1999; Dvorak et al, 2009; Dvorak & Choi, 2009). Such new measures may, perhaps, focus on the skills that journalism strengthens directly and uniquely.…”

“…One showed that journalism students' writing scores increased over a 1-year period, in contrast to a decrease in non-journalists' writing scores (Morgan & Dvorak, 1994). Another showed that newspaper students had higher standardized verbal scores than similarly achieving non-journalism students (Bruschke & George, 1999). An analysis of college journalism outcomes showed that high school journalists were more likely than non-journalists to choose the journalism major before entering college, which was positively related to both college grade point averages (GPAs) and the number of internships students held before graduation (Becker, Han, Wilcox, & Vlad, 2014).…”

“…A central tenet of research on journalism education in U.S. secondary schools (i.e., scholastic journalism) is that participating in student media results in positive academic outcomes, specifically in higher scores on standardized reading and writing assessments. The case was presented most comprehensively in Journalism Kids Do Better: What Research Tells Us About High School Journalism (Dvorak, Lain, & Dickson, 1994), and subsequent studies have contributed corroborating evidence (Bruschke & George, 1999; Dvorak, Bowen, & Choi, 2009; Dvorak & Choi, 2009; Morgan & Dvorak, 1994). Although this literature consistently shows that journalism education is related to higher achievement in English, studies have left unresolved the question of selection: Do “journalism kids do better” because of journalism, or because journalism attracts better students?…”

Budget Cuts in Scholastic Media: A Focus Group Study of Oklahoma Journalism Advisers’ Survival Skills

“…Research also shows a positive link between high school journalism and academic achievement (Newspaper Association of America Foundation, 2008). In addition, Bruschke and George (1999) showed a positive correlation between scholastic journalism and verbal skills, and Clarke and Monserrate (2011) show journalism activities in high school lead to a sense of collective decision making.…”