Philly Education Reporter Leaves For National Gig

Benjamin Herold, who has doggedly covered the Philadelphia education beat for The Notebook and NewsWorks, announced today he’s leaving local coverage and taking a national gig with Education Week:

Via the Dep’t of Bittersweet Announcements: I’m leaving @newsworkswhyy & the #phillyeducation beat…to go cover #edtech for @educationweek!

— Benjamin Herold (@BenjaminBHerold) April 23, 2013

Along with the Inky’s Pulitzer-winning Kristen Graham, Herold has defined the ed beat in Philadelphia in recent years, pursuing stories about the likelihood of cheating on standardized tests during the reign of former (and late) Supt. Arlene Ackerman. That reporting helped pull the thread that held Philly’s self-delusion together: Hey, the district may have its faults, but at least we’re improving according to widely accepted standards. Turns out we weren’t, and the district is now reckoning with its decades of failures. Hopefully, we’ll still have reporters on the beat who can keep the spotlight on.