The education reporter will report on key topics that impact the lives and futures of students, families, and educators across Tulsa, including educational disparities, school funding and policy, early childhood education, childcare, access to higher education and vocational training, and innovations in teaching and learning. The reporter will also highlight and celebrate the ways that Tulsans — students, educators, families, and community leaders — are working to improve educational and developmental outcomes and create opportunities for future generations.

The education and families reporter will write a range of stories — hard news and feature articles, analyses, and solutions journalism pieces — always grounding the approach in being directly relevant to the daily lives of our existing and potential audiences and in being of immediate, direct help to Tulsa communities.

The education and families reporter will be expected to go beyond press releases and press conferences and instead use independent research, engage in extensive community outreach and leverage the work of Tulsa Documenters to uncover and develop stories. This position requires a journalist with strong reportorial and storytelling skills to produce in-depth, impactful stories that resonate with people across Tulsa.

The Tulsa Local News Initiative is a yet-to-be named startup nonprofit organization that has raised nearly $14 million so far in service of a vision to give everyone in Tulsa the local news they need. The newsroom will produce high-quality accountability journalism while working directly with residents to produce and distribute community reporting, employing an innovative model for local journalism that is directly responsive to local information needs. In addition to a team of editors and beat reporters, the Tulsa newsroom will have best-in-class community engagement expertise, multimedia production, dedicated capacity for service journalism and research, and Tulsa Documenters.

At TLNI, we value learning, curiosity and diverse perspectives. We are dedicated to equitable hiring and follow best practices to create an inclusive hiring process.

• Produce a steady stream of accessible local reporting on the family and educational milestones, decisions and policies facing Tulsans, while providing context on the policymakers and decoding the systems that shape or impact them.
• Deliver a combination of day-to-day coverage and ambitious enterprise journalism that will help residents understand and have greater agency within their education systems and celebrate the promise and achievements of Tulsa’s students.
• Develop a voice that is solutions-focused, and inclusive of formats that make information accessible and actionable to all residents, including guides, explainers, and other service journalism. Coverage should be useful for families, educators, and community leaders, offering nuance and clarity on issues affecting them.
• Work collaboratively with other TLNI reporters to report on issues that cross into other beats, such as the intersection of education with economic opportunity, housing, public health, and local governance. Work with our multimedia editor/producer and community reporters to make sure our content about education policy is relevant and easy to understand for target audiences.
• Work with newsroom leadership to develop an editorial strategy for the education beat, shaping and producing content for our website, newsletters, social media, and other formats to ensure broad reach and engagement.
• Be part of a deeply collaborative newsroom that prioritizes teamwork and community engagement. The education reporter will work within TLNI’s community reporting model, which partners directly with residents to help inform coverage priorities.
• Collaborate and learn with the TLNI Documenters, leveraging their work along with insights from newsroom-led community discussions to deepen education coverage and ensure it is rooted in community concerns.
• Attend relevant public meetings and community gatherings, including school board meetings, parent-teacher association events, and education advocacy forums, to gather information, build relationships, and ensure coverage reflects the realities Tulsa’s students and families face.
• Develop a deep understanding of state and national education policies that affect Tulsa’s schools and students, using that knowledge to provide context and localize larger education trends, funding decisions, and legislative changes.

• Demonstrated commitment to local, public service journalism with a track record of producing and/or leading impactful reporting
• Strong understanding and knowledge of Tulsa neighborhoods and communities and respect for the knowledge community members can bring to the newsroom
• Experience in daily, local newsrooms
• Strong news judgment and strong communication and writing skills
• Ability to work under deadline and prioritize work
• Adept at problem solving, detail-oriented with excellent organizational skills
• Experience with and/or strong understanding of building digital audiences
• Experience telling stories on multiple platforms using audio, social media and/or video
• Entrepreneurial spirit—ability to thrive in a startup environment where team members are expected to learn as they go, think in innovative ways, and build things from scratch
• Willingness to work evenings as needed
• Strong interpersonal/communications skills - willing to negotiate and talk through issues in an honest and clear manner
• Ability to maintain confidentiality when working with sensitive information
• Ability to interact effectively with a diverse group of individuals inside and outside the newsroom
• Team player who helps and supports colleagues
• Proficiency in using public records and/or data in reporting

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $50,000-85,000 with a generous benefits package.

As a new organization, we endeavor to create a just and equitable compensation system. Salary ranges represent the full range of salaries and will be offered commensurate with experience. Entry-level and early-career reporters with fewer than five years of experience will fall within the $50,000 to $60,000 range, while reporters with decades of experience can expect to fall within the $70,000 to $85,000 range.