Steve Drummond
Steve Drummond heads up two teams of journalists at NPR. NPR Ed is a nine-member team that launched in March 2014, providing deeper coverage of learning and education and extending it to audiences across digital platforms. Code Switch is an eight-person team that covers race and identity across the network, and in an award-winning weekly podcast.
Drummond brings to these initiatives more than 20 years' experience covering education issues, and nearly two decades at NPR in a variety of roles. Prior to this assignment, he was the network's Senior National Editor. In that role, from 2007 through 2013, he oversaw domestic news coverage and a team of more than 60 reporters, producers and editors in Washington, DC, and 18 bureaus around the country. In 2012, he also served as acting Senior Editor for Investigations, managing a team of six reporters and producers on investigative projects.
In addition to his journalism credentials, Drummond has also spent some time in the classroom. In the early 1990s, he left journalism temporarily, for a graduate degree in education and a brief career as a middle and high school teacher. His journalism and education interests merged in 1993, when he joined Education Week, where he spent six years as a senior editor and writer.
Drummond joined NPR in 2000 as an editor on the national desk. In 2003, he became the senior editor of All Things Considered. He returned to the national desk in 2004 to edit coverage of poverty and welfare, education, religion, and crime and punishment.
At NPR his work has been honored with many of journalism's highest awards, including three Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the Edward R. Murrow Award.
Drummond's work with NPR Correspondent Laura Sullivan on an investigation into sexual assault of Native American women earned a 2009 duPont Award. In 2008, Drummond edited a series by Sullivan, "36 Years of Solitary: Murder, Death and Justice on Angola," which also earned a Peabody, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. A three-part series, "Bonding for Profit," exposed deep flaws in the bail bonds system in this country. The series, reported by Sullivan and edited by Drummond, earned a 2010 Peabody and a 2011 duPont award. A series examining South Dakota's system for handling Native American children in foster care won a 2011 Peabody Award.
Drummond has been a reporter with The Tampa Tribune and The St. Petersburg Times in Florida and at the Associated Press in Detroit. He has written for a variety of publications including The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press, The New York Times, and Teachermagazine.
Drummond holds a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, in journalism and education, from the University of Michigan. In the fall of 2013 he was a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.
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NPR's national podcasting contest for college students is now open for entries. Submit for a chance to win the $5,000 grand prize. Deadline is January 10. -
In its sixth year, our contest handed over the mic to fourth graders for the very first time. We received nearly 2,000 entries from all around the country — and we've narrowed it down to 10 middle school and 10 high school finalists. -
In its fifth year, our contest received more than 3,300 entries from around the country – and we've narrowed it down to 13 middle school and 13 high school finalists. -
To celebrate four years of NPR's Student Podcast Challenge, we highlight teachers whose students have shined. -
From online soccer to missing Grandma, children all over the country sent us postcards about their lives. Along the way, they gave us a glimpse of what it's like to be a kid right now. -
We're looking to tell the story of how school and learning have changed around the country. Parents, if you want to help - have your kids create a postcard, and you can send it to us at NPR. -
'Open Education' was a big idea half a century ago. Kids were supposed to move around, learning in groups or exploring on their own. But, within a few years, the movement faded. So, what happened? -
Escuela Nueva (New School) isn't really new. But it is being praised as a kind of cutting-edge model that can teach the skills needed for jobs that robots can't do. -
Two authors argue that teachers should embrace controversial issues to help students learn the political process. But, they say, context is key. -
Two authors argue that teachers should embrace controversial issues to help students learn the political process. But, they say, context is key.
