Our news director succumbed to years of price quotes and good old-fashioned begging last year when he approved the purchase of a computer for our investigative unit.
Not long after the mouse touched the pad, he wanted to know what story we could turn with the help of the computer.
So I glanced through IRE's 100 Computer-assisted stories. From that we found a story outlined on school field trips.
Journalists at The Tennessean found that poor schools in poor neighborhoods were not going on as many field trips as students from wealthier schools, even though experts say poor children need field trips more because it is often their only opportunity to go to places like zoos and museums.
The synopsis showed the story only took a week and a half. It sounded perfect for our first computer-assisted story.
Getting started
Our market covers school districts in two states. So we chose some of the largest and smallest districts on both sides of the state line. After the first two telephone calls, I realized this was going to take much longer than a week and a half.
Only two school districts had the information loaded into a computer, and other districts didn't know if they could find specific costs for field trips.
I told them if that was the case, we had another story.
We eventually narrowed the scope of our story to six school districts. We limited our examination of costs to elementary students. We chose that age group because they get the majority of the field trip funding.
Gathering the data took almost two months. The schools that didn't have the data compiled electronically really dragged their feet. When we finally got data, it often lacked the information we requested. Some districts didn't keep detailed information, such as how much each individual trip cost.
We used Microsoft Excel exclusively for this project. No scientific methodology behind that - it was the only one I knew how to use. I requested a list of all tax dollars spent for field trips in the current school year and the past school year.
We defined a field trip as any off-campus trip, excluding extracurricular activities. The database included about 300 records.
We listed each school individually, the trip taken and cost of trip. Then we added total cost per school, per school district and per student. We also categorized the types of trips taken and counted those.
Results
From the comparisons, we concluded same size school districts took about the same number of field trips, but spent varying amounts of money. Most schools took the same types of trips, except for the Kansas City School District.
A few schools in that district spent a large chunk of the budget for out of town, overnight trips. The district also spent six times more than a comparably sized district on the Kansas side. We were also able to conclude some schools relied more on parent-teacher organizations or private funding while others relied on tax dollars.
The district's assistant superintendant said out-of-class experiences are important and will continue but said out-of-town trips may be reduced and spending may on those trips may be cut.
Now that I know how to use a database manager, I see how the project could be easier. Counting the trips and categorizing them would be quicker and easier to evaluate. Linking tables would add more insight as well.
Reporters at The Tennessean had this tip for others who want to do the project: "The information is there," they wrote in 100 Computer-assisted stories. "You just have to go out and look for it. As long as you ask for it at the school administration building, you can get it."
Good advice. All it takes is patience and persistence.