He is an author and a former education correspondent for The New York Times and a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal. His work has appeared in theBoston Globe, Education Week, USA Today and academic journals such as Columbia University’s Teachers College Record and Voices in Urban Education, a quarterly produced by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. At USC Annenberg, he has taught media history and education and urban affairs reporting, with an emphasis on class and race issues, and reporting and writing classes for undergraduate and graduate students. He holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.