They Started A Newspaper. Then Their School Became The Story.

Her publication is very new, starting up less than a year ago. But like many editors steering a print publication, Tatiana Brown-Gomez found herself grappling with social media.

“I wanted to think it through a little bit more,” Brown-Gomez says. “How do we have middle schoolers run a social media account?”

Brown-Gomez teaches the nascent newspaper class at Dobie Middle School. Their publication, The Roadrunner, is named after the school’s mascot. And even though her students are new to the subject, they have pitched stories on serious topics like I.C.E. activity in their community and STAAR tests. But when news broke in April that Dobie might be shut down in order to prevent a state takeover of the whole Austin Independent School District, her staff found themselves at the center of a story that the entire city was watching.

“We kind of just went, go, go, go. And it hasn't really stopped since then,” Brown-Gomez says.

Her program is something of a rarity. Brown-Gomez says most middle schools don’t have a newspaper because there’s not a particular curriculum for such a class. When she pitched it to Dobie MIddle School principal Roxanne Walker, she was warned it would mean extra work. Brown-Gomez would be the one making this paper happen.

“I was like, ‘I don't care, I'm doing it,’” Brown-Gomez says. A former high school newspaper staffer herself, she credits the class with making her a better writer and public speaker. She wanted to bring that to her students at Dobie.

“And I saw a lot of potential and just how they wrote,” Brown-Gomez says. “I was like, something about this is telling me they just need a little bit of their own voice.”

Eventually ten students joined the program, with students from sixth to eighth grade. One of the writers who joined her staff was Ivy Sanchez.

“I was kind of nervous,” Sanchez says. “I told Ms. Brown-Gomez, am I doing this right?”

Where Sanchez was unsure of the structure, other students like Evelin Ponce felt nervous about writing articles in a language that was somewhat new to them.

“I didn't feel so confident in myself because I didn't know if I had the right words for what I was going to say,” Ponce says in Spanish. “But over time I got used to it.”

70.8% of Dobie students are enrolled in the Bilingual/ESL program. For some students, English is their second, third, even sometimes fourth language. Brown-Gomez says punctuation and grammar can prove difficult but they use it as an opportunity to learn. For her part, Ponce leaned into her strengths. For one of her first stories, she pitched an article on the school's custodians whom she had gotten to know because they also spoke Spanish.

“I'm in newspaper class primarily to talk about the issues that are happening at school,” says Ponce.

The issues at the school came to a point in early April. After a lengthy lawsuit, a state appeals court ruled that the Texas Education Agency could release school accountability ratings from the 2022-2023 school year. Over 120 school districts had sued the TEA, claiming that the agency was unlawfully changing the A-F school grading system. Grades are largely based on STAAR test results. But the court ruled that Commissioner of Education Mike Morath did not overstep his authority, and the grades were released.

Dobie had received an F. If a campus receives a failing grade five years in a row, the TEA can take over the entire school district, like it recently did in Houston. Dobie had three failing grades. In an email to parents and staff, AISD said while there have been improvements at the school, they weren’t willing to risk losing control of the district. AISD said it was considering three options: turn Dobie over to a charter school, temporarily close the school, or permanently shut it down.

Suddenly Brown-Gomez’s staff found themselves at the center of a major news story. But her first thought wasn’t about reporting; it was about her students. When they met again on Monday, she says students were blaming themselves.

“Immediately they're like, ‘oh, is it because we're bad? They immediately saw it as everybody else in this district sees our students as bad students, as bad people,” Brown-Gomez says. “I wanted to shut it down immediately and tell them our rating is based on our STAAR test. That is where that rating comes from.”

Students began discussing what to do about their school’s future.

“When I found out that they were going to close Dobie I said, 'oh, I’m going to have to put more effort so that they see that Dobie is not just a score but it’s other things too,’” Ponce says. “I mean, a grade isn’t everything.”

Step one was launching their Instagram page. Since they started the account they have frequently posted updates on plans for the school, as well as schedules for AISD board meetings and community meetings. They’ve also interviewed students, staff and parents about their reaction to the news. But they’ve also highlighted achievements at the school, posting photos of students performing in band recitals, plays, or participating in the many ACE programs including the medical academy. The reporting has provided students a creative outlet during a tumultuous time.

“I feel so excited,” Sanchez says. “I actually have a job to do. You know, I have to save the school. I have to talk about it.”

But a final decision about the school is yet to be made. AISD has opted not to temporarily close Dobie, which would have required moving students to another campus. Instead they are considering a ‘district-managed restart’ for Dobie, along with Webb Middle School and Burnet Middle School. This would allow the schools to stay open under local control, but much of the staff would be fired. Curriculum and schedules would also be restructured. AISD can also bring in a charter school in December if test scores don’t increase. AISD has to submit final plans to the TEA by the end of June.

The uncertainty has left many teachers, Brown-Gomez included, wondering if they’ll have a job at Dobie, or even in the district, next year. It could mean this will be the first and last publication year for The Roadrunner. But Brown-Gomez hopes the students take away more than just a byline.

“I want them to understand they truly have learned a lot of skills,” Brown-Gomez says. “And now they have opened so many avenues for themselves.”

Sanchez and Ponce both believe they’re leaving the class with skills that will take them far.

“I never wrote like this before,” Sanchez says. “And I feel like in my future, people are going to look at my resume and they're like, ‘what? She was in a newspaper class because she knows what she's doing.’”

“I think it’s important because it prepares us for the future,” Ponce says.

She says she’s thinking about becoming a journalist.