Verification Approved for Journalism Contests

By Jeanne Acton, Journalism Director | Wednesday, January 26, 2011 11:16 AM

Next year, journalism coaches are going to see an addition in the Constitution and Contest Rules for our four journalism contests.

For the 2011-12 school year, all journalism contests will have a verification period. The change will read as follows:

• (G)  Unofficial Results. Unofficial results of individuals who appear to have placed first through sixth place should be announced.
• (H) Verification Period. Prior to the announcement of official results, contestants and/or coaches shall be permitted no more than 15 minutes to identify contestants’ papers. Judging decisions and rankings are subjective and shall not be subject to protest. Coaches or contestants not present for the viewing period forfeit their opportunity to identify entries.
• Announcing Official Results. The contest director should announce the name and school of first through sixth place individuals. Official results, once announced, are final.

In the past few years, we have had a few clerical errors that resulted in the wrong student listed as a winner in a particular contest. This is frustrating but also somewhat understandable since we have no verification period. It is not hard to accidentally match the wrong name with the wrong number — especially when under pressure.

So in October, we asked the UIL Legislative Council to approve a mandated verification period for all journalism contests. And it did unanimously.

Under the C&CR, once results are posted, they are final. We cannot change the results for a clerical error.

With verification, we will have unofficial results go to the coaches to review. Once reviewed, the results can become final.

While this change does not go into effect until next school year, we are encouraging districts and regions to hold verification periods for contests this year.

Our expectation for the verification period is simple. We want coaches to double check the list of winners — the unofficial results — to their students’ entries. For example, if #24 won first place, we want to make sure that #24 is identified correctly on the result sheet. The verification period is to ensure 100 percent accuracy with results. It is not a time to question ranking or question judges’ comments.

Here are our suggestions:

• Contest administrators should allocate 15 minutes for verification.
• Contest administrators must communicate with coaches prior to the contest to let coaches know where and at what time verification will take place.
• Verification should be held after the judging for a particular contest has concluded.
• Contest administrators should input the winners into the online system to create the unofficial results for verification. (Then, no clerical inputting errors can occur.)
• For the verification period, contest administrators will need to provide coaches with the list of numbers and students assigned to those numbers.
• Coaches should compare their student’s entry and assigned number to the winner list printed from the online system.
• After verification has concluded and if no changes need to be made, contest administrators can simply hit the certify button in the online system to make the results officials.

This change should have minimum impact on the contest, except to increase accuracy. The change does mean coaches will know who won before the announcement at awards ceremonies, but it doesn’t mean that the coach has to tell the student.