Jill Tucker's series on Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corp) and Nanette Asimov's features on California's special education program have won top honors in the 2006 John Swett Award for Media Excellence, which is the California Teachers Association's highest honor for media professionals.

Tucker's stories (here are some of the stories we found) followed the Board of Education's vote to do away with the JROTC, outlined their reasoning (encapsulated in one teacher's quote that, "We need to teach a curriculum of peace"), spotlighted some of the affected students, and finally, in the end, got Mayor Gavin's less-than-thrilled reaction to the successful vote, which will phase the program out over two years.

A pretty good sampling of Asimov's stories can be found here.

Other reporters were cited as well -- congratulations to the Chronicle for placing so well in the competitive metro (100,000+ daily circulation) division. Kudos!