Jenny Brundin
Education Reporter
Twitter @CPRBrundin
 jenny.brundin@cpr.org

Jenny Brundin is the education reporter for Colorado Public Radio. She joined CPR in 2011 after spending 16 years at KUER in Salt Lake City. Before her career in radio, Jenny worked as a literacy teacher at a refugee center in Alberta, Canada.

Education:
Bachelor’s degree in political science, McGill University; Master’s degree in journalism, University of California, Berkeley. Jenny also holds a graduate diploma in adult education from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Professional background:
Jenny joined Colorado Public Radio as education reporter in July 2011 after spending 16 years at KUER, Salt Lake City, as senior reporter and news director. While at KUER, Jenny provided far-reaching coverage on a number of topics, including education, politics, immigration, health care and business. As news director, she also developed projects and series focused on issue-specific forums, citizen-based projects, commentaries and youth-produced stories.

Before her career in radio, Jenny worked as a literacy teacher at a refugee center in Alberta, Canada, where she developed curriculum and participated in the country’s first program designed to help refugee children and teens adapt to life in Canada.

Awards:
Jenny has won numerous national awards from Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, regional Murrow awards for news seriesand was named Best Radio Reporter six times by the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists. In 2013 and 2015, Jenny won first prize nationally for education beat reporting in the Education Writer’s Association contest and third prize for her report on violence in Denver schools.Jenny won second prize in the nation in beat reporting in EWA’s 2014 contest.Jenny also served as senior fellow in NPR’s Economic Training Project in 2009.

Q & A

Why I became a journalist:
I lived near a library and spent lots of time in the periodicals room reading newspapers from around the world. I loved how newspapers connected me to different perspectives, ideas and issues. I wound up in journalism because I enjoy learning from people all the time and having the privilege of being let into their lives to tell their stories.

Why I got into radio:
Radio is a magical medium to me. My love for it began on cold winter nights in Montreal, sitting in the dark, watching the radio lights flicker from CBC’s “Brave New Waves,” an underground music show. Later, someone gave me a shortwave radio. I was entranced by the pops, crackles and headlines from around the world – Cuba, the Netherlands, India. As an intern at KQED in San Francisco, I did my very first radio piece on the city’s amazing mural art. I loved the challenge of describing a visual art form on radio. Many years of long nights in the “radio zone” followed, working with tape and a razor blade trying to make stories come alive. Twenty years later, I’m still excited by radio’s possibilities.

How I ended up at CPR:
I met CPR’s News Director Kelley Griffin years ago at a conference and was impressed by her dedication to long-form story telling and willingness to try new approaches. The education beat is very rich and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. My family loves hiking, camping and skiing. So, we packed our bags and headed to the other side of the Rockies from Utah.

  • From time to time, Colorado Matters will check in with our reporters about the big ideas brewing on their beats. CPR’s education reporter Jenny Brundin talks with Ryan Warner about why many new teachers quit the profession early on, which kids think school is too easy, and the increasing number of single-sex classrooms.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Education
    Children write words they want to remember on strips of paper around their neck. The more conversation a child has, with a variety of words, the better equipped he or she is to succeed in school. Low-income children are falling way behind.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Some schools may lose art classes next school year. Students returning to school next month may face some changes: crowded classrooms, no art or field trips – or even a four day school week. Last month, districts finalized their budgets and many had to make cuts, even as state funding is stabilizing.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Jenny Brundin is CPR’s education reporter Back in 1972, advocates of Title IX didn’t know it would have anything to do with sports. Yet the federal law has allowed millions of American girls to play school sports. Jenny Brundin’s been reading up on title IX and its progress and shortcomings over 40 years.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Photo: Metro State College President Stephen Jordan at Wednesday’s special legislative meeting  On Wednesday, state lawmakers grilled officials from Metro State College of Denver over the school’s new tuition rate for undocumented students. The college’s president defended the new policy at a legislative meeting Wednesday.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Education
    Can you learn German or Spanish from a computer as well as you can from a live teacher? Most experts say no. But….school districts are under increasing pressure to cut budgets, and foreign language teachers become a target.  Here’s a transcript of Colorado Public Radio’s education reporter Jenny Brundin’s report.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Education
    Photo: A Beach Court family reacts to the news The principal at a northwest Denver elementary school has been fired after state investigators said he erased thousands of wrong answers on student tests over two years.  Here’s a transcript of Colorado Public Radio’s education reporter Jenny Brundin’s report.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • On a weekend, teenagers might sleep late into the morning, even into early afternoon if you let them. But on school days, they’re peeling themselves out of bed early. Could that affect how well they do in school?
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Education
    As part of our series “Following Trevista” we take a final year-end peek into a pre-school through 8th grade Denver school that’s undergoing a turbulent process called a “turnaround.”  That’s because too many of the students aren’t reading and writing well enough. And that means most of the teachers aren’t coming back.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • When a school is facing failure, district officials can shake things up by launching a process called “Turnaround.” We’ve been talking about what that means for one school – Trevista – in Denver as part of a series following the school’s progress.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • CPR News
    Trevista ECE-8th grade in northwest Denver has struggled for years. It has tried to remake itself, even making some gains. But not fast enough according to state and district officials, so now the school is facing the most radical restructuring in the education arsenal.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • CPR News
    Colorado Public Radio is airing a year-long series on a school called Trevista in Northwest Denver. It’s a place where a few years ago, fights brought cops every week, students didn’t follow rules, learning suffered. Some recent improvements just haven’t been enough.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Education
    This year Colorado Public Radio is following a school in Northwest Denver that is undergoing big changes. Trevista is part of a federal experiment called “Turnaround,” where failing schools get new principals who have the ability to make sweeping changes, including hiring and firing teachers.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • CPR News
    State officials have launched an investigation into possible cheating on standardized tests at two Denver elementary schools.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • From time to time, Colorado Matters will check in with our reporters about the big ideas brewing on their beats.
    By Jenny Brundin
  • Education
    President Barack Obama rallied thousands of students at CU Boulder last night. He spoke about the high cost of college and made a pitch to Congress to keep interest rates on a popular student loan from doubling. Colorado Public Radio’s education reporter Jenny Brundin was there.
    By Jenny Brundin