Diving Into Data Workshop 2014

Data journalism is more than just reporting on numbers.  It’s taking the records of a half-million students and uncovering alarming absentee rates. It’s tracking the attrition of students from neighborhood schools. It’s showing that the more time students spend in remedial classes, the more likely they are to quit college.  If you want to learn the skills to push your reporting on numbers to the next level, apply now to our Diving Into Data Workshop, a fully paid, four-day seminar on collecting and analyzing data at the University of Washington Bothell.

We have spots for 20 reporters, editors and producers to spend July 25 – July 28 in the Seattle area learning how to use data tools, including Excel, Access and SPSS. Four veteran reporters will serve as data coaches and lead attendees through intensive training on cleaning, manipulating, and gleaning information from data sets. The conference also will offer time to work on individual projects and training on a key data visualization tool.

The data workshop is meant to encourage reporters to be more active with data-based reporting, whether for quick-hit stories or longer projects.

This seminar comes with an extensive application, and space is limited. Take time to think about the answers you provide. Applications are due July 2, 2014. Attendees are encouraged to come prepared with data sets from which they hope to develop stories at the seminar.

Past attendees of this seminar have gone on to write stories on absentee rates, remedial class enrollments, and rapidly changing student populations, among other groundbreaking efforts. We’re excited to read your applications and hope to see you in seven weeks’ time at the workshop!

Examples of stories that emerged from past data workshops:

• Betsy Hammond, the Oregonian, Empty Desks: Oregon’s Absentee Epidemic.
• Ben Herold, (Then-NewsWorks/WHYY), Philadelphia Schools Wane as Parents Choices Expand.

Quicker turnarounds:

• Danielle Dreilinger, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Summer of School Change: Where Did the Students Go?
• Brian McVicar, MLive, Time is the Enemy: Why Grand Rapids Community College is Looking to Accelerate Remedial Classes.

Questions about the workshop or application? Contact Mikhail Zinshteyn at mzinshteyn@ewa.org.

Application deadline: 3 AM of your timezone on July 2, 2014

*Application Preview: 

Below are the items that will require typed responses. Be sure to enter your answers in the appropriate boxes by following the application link above.  

• What experience do you have using data or stats for your stories? Also please describe a data-based story you think you did well. 
• Have you downloaded data from the Internet? If so what kind and how did you use it?
• Please describe how you have used Excel or a similar spreadsheet program.
• Describe how you have used Access or other database managers.
• What data do you hope to bring to the conference and what would you hope to gain from analyzing it?