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UW-Madison journalism students explore ideal in K-12 education

May 23, 2012 By Stacy Forster

When it comes to K-12 education in the state of Wisconsin, a group of University of Wisconsin–Madison journalism students has a pretty good idea of what would make for the ideal system.

Photo: edUtopia

University journalism students sparked a conversation about improving K-12 education in Wisconsin. This is one of the photos from the project.

In a collaborative effort, 30 students in the UW–Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Intermediate Reporting classes this spring produced a final project called edUtopia.

Sue Robinson, assistant professor, and Steven Walters, lecturer and senior producer for WisconsinEye, said the students advanced the conversation about problems in Wisconsin’s educational system by creating dialogue about possible solutions instead of simply rehashing its faults.

Their reporting highlighted innovation and creativity in K-12 education throughout the state, exploring four topics: education costs, today’s student, the utopian classroom and benchmarks.

The students interviewed more than 100 experts, teachers, principals, superintendents, parents and students, then brainstormed possible solutions.