School districts across Minnesota are consolidating. This isn't a new problem. But when a community loses its school, residents can feel like they are losing part of themselves, too. Story by @inn.org member, KAXE 👉 www.kaxe.org/local-news/2...

When rural districts combine, wins for budgets and students come with identity loss

The Iron Range offers a window into communities reckoning with how their identities must change for the betterment of future generations as schools increasingly collaborate.

kaxe.org

Mark your calendars! 👉 Big Local News is hosting virtual open office hours on Sept. 25, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. PT. Whether you're a data rookie or a pro, we're here to guide you or explore collaborations with your data projects. Join us via Zoom and bring your questions. biglocalnews.org/content/news...

Need help with your data-driven story? Mark your calendar for our September Virtual Open Office Hours

Date: September 25 Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Time

biglocalnews.org

In Jefferson County, Miss., 1 in 3 children is food insecure. Schools are meeting these needs by providing children with regular meals and families with childcare and transportation. More from @mississippitoday.org 👇 mississippitoday.org/2026/09/15/j...

Jefferson County schools address hunger - Mississippi Today

Public schools are key to ensuring children have consistent meals.

mississippitoday.org

Data on grade retentions shows that, since 2012, boys were held back more than girls, and Black boys were held back at nearly three times the rate of white boys — a gap that did not narrow even as retentions across the country have declined. ✍️ @hechingerreport.org hechingerreport.org/who-gets-hel...

Who gets held back? Black boys, by a 3-1 ratio compared to white boys

Boys overall are held back more than girls

hechingerreport.org

Rural schools provide students with not just education but also hot meals, clothing, and social services. But, in Ohio, at least 120 of such schools closed over the past decade. Know more about schools in Butler County, OH, via @inn.org member Oxford Free Press 👇 www.oxfreepress.com/butler-count...

Butler County schools offer more than just education

But buildings are closing and enrollment is trending downward

oxfreepress.com

📢 Mark your calendars! Big Local News is hosting virtual open office hours on Sept. 25, Friday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. PT. Whether you're a data rookie or a pro, we're here to guide you or explore collaborations with your data projects. Join us and bring your questions! biglocalnews.org/content/news...

Need help with your data-driven story? Mark your calendar for our September Virtual Open Office Hours

Date: September 25 Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Time

biglocalnews.org

📰 Need help with data-related tasks? The Big Local News team is here to help. Join our virtual open office hours on Sept. 25, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. PT. Submit your questions in advance or ask them live (just jump in our Zoom meeting!). Details here: biglocalnews.org/content/news...

Need help with your data-driven story? Mark your calendar for our September Virtual Open Office Hours

Date: September 25 Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Time

biglocalnews.org

More than a decade of data shows that boys are likelier than girls to repeat a grade, and Black boys are held back at nearly 3x the rate of white boys. Retention rates are falling, but this gap between Black and white boys stayed consistent. @hechingerreport.org hechingerreport.org/who-gets-hel...

Who gets held back? Black boys, by a 3-1 ratio compared to white boys

Boys overall are held back more than girls

hechingerreport.org

Shoutout to WAMC Northeast Public Radio and City Cast DC, who recently published immigration stories using data from the Deportation Data Project. Sarah Cohen, senior data journalist at Big Local News, helped reporters parse through and understand the data for these stories. 👇

🗓️ Cheryl Phillips and Scott Klein will join @inmaorg.bsky.social on Sept. 2 for a discussion on emerging infrastructure, open-source approaches, and industry standards for the AI era. What can we build if we do it together? Sign up for the webinar here: community.inma.org/event-calend...

Radical Collaboration: Building Shared Tools for the AI Era

Cheryl Phillips, Director, Big Local News at Stanford Journalism, and Scott Klein, Founder, Open Journalism

community.inma.org

North Carolina has one of the highest ninth-grade retention rates in the country. Schools and parents are struggling with how best to ensure students are ready to move on to the next grade. 👉 @theassemblync.bsky.social www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...

Make Or Break

Ninth graders in N.C. are held back more often than students in other parts of the country. How can schools ensure they're ready to move on?

theassemblync.com

Boys overall are held back more than girls.

Who gets held back? Black boys, by a 3-1 ratio compared to white boys

More than a decade of data from schools across the U.S. shows stark divides in who is held back: Boys are more likely than girls to repeat a grade, and Black boys are held back at nearly three times the rate of white boys. Overall, schools are holding back fewer students than they were more than a decade ago, according to data from 2011-12 to 2021-22 analyzed by Big Local News at Stanford University, in partnership with The Hechinger Report. Despite retention rates falling, the gap between Black boys and white boys stayed consistent.

hechingerreport.org

🧵: I've been looking at grade retention in NC in collaboration with @biglocalnews.bsky.social & @hechingerreport.org. The most recent available federal data, from 2021-22, show NC ninth graders retained at one of the highest rates in the country. www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...

Make Or Break

Ninth graders in N.C. are held back more often than students in other parts of the country. How can schools ensure they're ready to move on?

theassemblync.com

Data on grade retentions shows that since 2012, boys were held back more than girls, and Black boys were held back at nearly three times the rate of white boys — a gap that did not narrow even as retentions across the country have declined. @hechingerreport.org hechingerreport.org/a-national-d...

https://hechingerreport.org/a-national-divide-over-holding-back-students-some-states-do-it-young-others-wait-until-high-school/

Fewer students are being held back, according to a Big Local News/Hechinger Report analysis. Research on the impact on students is mixed

hechingerreport.org

📊 Join us for Big Local News' virtual open office hours on Sept. 25, Friday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. PT. Get help with data-driven stories, public record requests, data analysis, and more. We're here to support you! Check out all the details here:

Need help with your data-driven story? Mark your calendar for our September Virtual Open Office Hours

Date: September 25 Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Time

biglocalnews.org

Mississippi has one of the highest 3rd grade retention rates in the county. But its 2013 policy holding back kids who can't pass the state reading test has become a model, as it paired retention with literary coaches and teacher training. @mississippitoday.org mississippitoday.org/2026/08/20/r...

Mississippi stands out for reading and grade retention

Mississippi has one of the highest third grade retention rates.

mississippitoday.org

Hawaii holds back 9th graders at one of the highest rates in the country — about 1 in 10 students failed their freshman year in 2021-22, more than double the national rate. But younger Hawaii students rarely repeat a grade. @civilbeat.bsky.social 👇 www.civilbeat.org/2026/08/hawa...

Hawaiʻi Freshmen Failing: 1 In 13 Repeated 9th Grade Last Year

Hawaiʻi has held back high school freshmen at a higher rate than nearly any other state.

civilbeat.org

For early grade reading gains, states look to Mississippi and consider holding students back Mississippi has one of the highest third grade retention rates in the country. A related policy was a key part of the state's 2013… https://mississippitoday.org/2026/08/20/reading-third-grade-retention/

For early grade reading gains, states look to Mississippi and consider holding students back

Mississippi has one of the highest third grade retention rates in the country. A related policy was a key part of the state's 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act.

mississippitoday.org

Hawaiʻi has held back high school freshmen at a higher rate than nearly any other state. 

Hawaiʻi Freshmen Failing: Ninth Grade Repeater Rate Among Nation’s Highest

Hawaiʻi has held back high school freshmen at a higher rate than nearly any other state. 

civilbeat.org

Research on grade retention shows little consensus on whether holding struggling students back helps them catch up. Our analysis found that retentions are declining nationally, but school districts throughout the country approach policies in very different ways. www.seattletimes.com/education-la...

A national divide over holding back students: WA waits until high school

The rate at which students were held back fell across the U.S. from the 2011-12 to 2021-22 school years, according to a Big Local News/Hechinger Report analysis.

seattletimes.com

Rural schools serve as community hubs, hosting food pantries, sports programs, public meetings, and other activities. Our first story in a reporting series with the Rural News Network looks at what Mat-Su in Alaska stands to lose as schools close. www.matsusentinel.com/in-mat-su-ne...

In Mat-Su, neighborhood schools double as community hubs. Closing them has sweeping impacts.

From emergency shelters and food banks to sports and church services, school buildings across Mat-Su serve as important community connectors, residents and officials said.

matsusentinel.com

Fewer students are being held back, according to a Big Local News/Hechinger Report analysis. Research on the impact on students is mixed

A national divide over holding back students: Some states do it young, others wait until high school

High school came with more responsibility and less accountability for Josiah Ulukita. Courses were much harder, teachers were less strict about attendance, and it was easier to skip school with friends or go on his phone during class, said 16-year-old Ulukita, who attends Kaimuki High School in Honolulu. He went from easily passing middle school to failing freshman English and social studies. After missing roughly half of his freshman year due to poor attendance, he found out he needed to repeat ninth grade. Ashamed, he began to skip more school, he said — until his counselor warned him that he may not graduate on time.

hechingerreport.org

For struggling students, where they live has a big effect on when or whether they’re held back a grade academically. A Big Local News/@hechingerreport.org analysis found that school districts throughout the U.S. approach grade retention in very different ways. hechingerreport.org/a-national-d...

A national divide over holding back students: Some states do it young, others wait until high school

Fewer students are being held back, according to a Big Local News/Hechinger Report analysis. Research on the impact on students is mixed

hechingerreport.org

This is the kind of reporting our data can help make possible. Big Local News scrapes the U.S. government's contracts every day, creating a massive resource that journalists can use to uncover stories like this. Interested in the data? 💡 Send us an email at biglocalnews@stanford.edu.

Big Local News@biglocalnews.bsky.social · last mo.

More delays plague a lab conducting high-risk research on animal diseases. Kate Li pulled a thread from Big Local News data on federal contract cancellations and reported this story for @science.org on delays at a $1.25-billion facility in Kansas. www.science.org/content/arti...

More delays plague a lab conducting high-risk research on animal diseases. Kate Li pulled a thread from Big Local News data on federal contract cancellations and reported this story for @science.org on delays at a $1.25-billion facility in Kansas. www.science.org/content/arti...

Massive new animal disease lab in Kansas runs into more delays

USDA doesn’t know when facility will be able to handle the most dangerous pathogens

science.org

The Reynolds Journalism Institute Innovation team is partnering with Open Vallejo and its nonprofit parent, Informed California, to build the Public Safety Scanner Tool, or PSST, in collaboration with @biglocalnews.bsky.social at Stanford. rjionline.org/news/we-are-...

We are building a tool to help newsrooms listen to emergency scanners

The Public Safety Scanner Tool, or PSST, sends automated alerts of urgent scanner traffic in real time and will be free for newsrooms.

rjionline.org

Thrilled to share that the Police Records Access Project won an @spj-posts.bsky.social 2026 Sunshine Award! Big Local was part of a collaborative effort to build a database with millions of records from across California, documenting police use of force and misconduct. www.spj.org/spj-honors-2...

SPJ honors 2026 Sunshine Award recipients for advancing open government

Society of Professional Journalists, improving and protecting journalism since 1909

spj.org

Need to keep tabs on an agency‘s leadership, stealth edits to press releases, or another online updates? Klaxon Cloud is now easier than ever and still free: Use your MuckRock account to get started.

MuckRock@muckrock.com · 2mo ago

The Klaxon Cloud browser extension, available for both Chrome and Firefox. The Klaxon Cloud website, which acts as a central landing hub to view and manage all of your scheduled Klaxon Cloud alerts and view all your tracked changes. www.klaxoncloud.org

Need to query campaign finance data fast? 🔎 Try DataTalk — a free, AI-powered tool designed to help journalists covering elections. It translates natural-language questions into formal database queries from the FEC, then pulls results with links you can cite and verify. datatalk.biglocalnews.org

DataTalk

A campaign finance agent by Big Local News. Asks the FEC bulk data in plain English, shows its work.

datatalk.biglocalnews.org

Join us for a walkthrough of Agenda Watch, a project of Big Local News at Stanford University that collects local government agendas and minutes in support of journalism and research. buff.ly/xzO4ahX

Building with Muckrock

buff.ly