Read the headlines in your local paper and you’ll likely be deluged with problems. But where are the answers?

Look closer and you can find them, thanks in part to collaborations between traditional media outlets and the nonprofit world. In 2013, the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) and the Seattle Times launched the Education Lab, which empowers reporters to spotlight promising approaches to the persistent challenges in public schools. In its first year, it received $530,000 in foundation funding — $450,000 from the Gates Foundation and $80,000 from the Knight Foundation.

The impact from the project has been impressive. Education Lab’s in-depth coverage of Rainier Beach High School — once considered one of the worst in Seattle — led to funding from the state to help the school continue a program that has helped raise the graduation rate by 25 points in three years. It also mobilized $10,000 in local community donations to the school, and inspired Portland educators to visit in an attempt to replicate the model for success.

But that wasn’t the only influential work. Education Lab reporter Claudia Rowe wrote a series of pieces in 2015 about the problems with school discipline and how suspending kids did more harm than good. In September of that year, after Rowe’s coverage sparked a discussion among educators, the Seattle School Board voted unanimously on a one-year moratorium halting suspensions for elementary students who commit nonviolent offenses.

According to audience surveys, 67 percent of readers said Education Lab stories changed the way they think about education and 75 percent said they now believe there are ways to effectively address education’s biggest problems. (Education Lab also measures its progress via an Impact Tracker developed by the Center for Investigative Reporting.)

We spoke with the Lab’s former editor (and SJN’s current West Coast Manager) Linda Shaw about the lessons learned by Solutions Journalism over the years, how education coverage has changed and what philanthropists should know about funding media projects.

GC: How does Solutions Journalism set itself apart?

LS: Traditional investigative reporting is going to uncover new problems — and that’s very important. But this kind of journalism takes the problems that are right in front of our faces and asks the tough questions about the status quo and whether we can do better, infusing more ideas into the community. I think journalism always has seen itself as a service and as a part of the community, but Solutions Journalism makes that even more explicit.

GC: What have been the biggest things you’ve learned as a result of working with SJN?

LS: Education Lab was the first major newsroom partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network, so it was an experiment to try out consistent solutions-focused coverage around a particular area. Would it attract readers in the way that we all thought? Would it make an impact? The answer to both was “yes.” To date, Education Lab stories have been credited with playing a role in changing at least three laws and other state and local policies. And readers have responded as well. I always joke that I want education news to get as many clicks as Seahawks stories. It’s not quite there yet, but the audience is growing, and we measure the impact in other ways.

GC: How has the coverage of education changed over the years?

LS: We had the tagline at the beginning, "Stop the screaming and have a conversation." And I think we succeeded in at least gaining some traction and starting new and different conversations focused on what concrete things can be done about some of the toughest problems in education instead of arguing over more abstract policy debates.

GC: What should donors know before leaping into the world of Solutions Journalism (or funding journalism in general)?

I would underscore that donors should understand the power of journalism and just let it do what it does best. And I think independence is a huge part of that — it is not going to have much traction if people think that coverage is really just an extension of someone's advocacy efforts. Having an independent journalistic coverage of the issues they care about is very powerful.