Educate: Recent Episodes
APM Reports
Emily Hanford introduces the first episode of her new podcast, Sold a Story.
There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences — children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.
Subscribe: soldastory.org
Producer DJ Cashmere spent seven years teaching Black and brown students at a Noble Street charter high school in Chicago. At the time, Noble followed a popular model called "no excuses." Its schools required strict discipline but promised low-income students a better shot at college. After DJ left the classroom to become a journalist, Noble disavowed its own policies — calling them "assimilationist, patriarchal, white supremacist, and anti-black." In this hour, DJ, who is white, revisits his old school as it tries to reinvent itself as an anti-racist institution. And he seeks out his former students to ask them how they felt about being on the receiving end of all that education reform, and what they think now about the time they spent in his classroom.
Camille Leihulu Slagle is Native Hawaiian. She always knew she wanted to go away for college. Education would help her afford to stay in her homeland. Life in the islands is expensive. Camille wants to give back to her people through science, studying the volcanoes central to Hawaiʻi's landscape and culture.
Audio documentary: Standing in Two Worlds
Native American students are just a tiny fraction of all the college students in the United States. They come with different histories, confronting an education system once used to erase their languages and cultures. In this project, three Indigenous college students tell how they are using higher education to strengthen ties to their Native roots and support their people.
Photos: See portraits of the students in this documentary
Even before the pandemic, campus counselling services were reporting a marked uptick in the number of students with anxiety, clinical depression and other serious psychiatric problems. What is a college’s responsibility for helping students navigate mental health challenges, and how well are colleges rising to the task?
Read more: Inside the college mental health crisis
Colleges and universities in the United States attract more than a million international students a year. Higher education is one of America’s top service exports, generating $42 billion in revenue. But the money spigot is closing. The pandemic, visa restrictions, rising tuition and a perception of poor safety in America have driven new international student enrollment down by a jaw-dropping 72 percent.
Read more: The U.S. may never regain its dominance as a destination for international students. Here's why that matters.
Today, more Black and Hispanic teachers enter the classroom through alternative pathways than through traditional teacher degree programs. The number of teachers of color in the United States has more than doubled since the 1980s in large part due to the growing number of preparation and certification pathways and recruitment efforts from the federal level down. But there's a catch: Many of these teachers won’t stay for long, further undermining efforts to get diversity in the teacher labor force to reflect the diversity of students in the United States.
Learn more: Who wants to be a teacher?
Critics of the rise in alternative and for-profit programs will claim teacher quality, and student learning, suffers when people are fast-tracked into the classroom without comprehensive training. But it’s hard to know for certain whether that’s true. The problem is, despite decades of trying, we haven’t agreed on how to measure teacher quality. There’s a lot of research that shows having a good teacher makes a huge difference in the outcomes of students, but it’s much less clear what makes a teacher good.
Learn more: Who wants to be a teacher?
Beginning in the early 1980s, a lot of states began to open up the pathways to becoming a teacher. People who already had a bachelor’s degree in something else didn’t need to go back to college to get trained in teaching. Policymakers hoped this would solve teacher shortages by getting more people into the profession, but it’s also opened up a whole new business model in educator preparation: Online for-profit teacher training programs have proliferated, and they’re growing fast. One program in Texas has become the single largest educator preparation program in the United States by enrollment, and it’s expanding into other states.
Learn more: Who wants to be a teacher?
Every president since Eisenhower has talked about the need for more teachers, especially in certain rural and urban schools, and in subjects such as math and science. For decades, policies have been made and laws changed in order to recruit and train more and more teachers. But research shows we’ve been looking at the problem wrong, and that these efforts haven’t solved teacher shortages at all, but have created an oversize labor force with less training, less experience and high rates of turnover.
Learn more: Who wants to be a teacher?
Lauren Brown says college was "culture shock." Most of the students at her high school were Black, but most of the students at the University of Missouri were white. And she got to the university in the fall of 2015, when Black students led protests in response to a string of racist incidents. The protests put Mizzou in the national news.
But the news stories didn't match what Lauren saw. They made it seem like racism on campus was an aberration. And they made it seem like Black student organizing was new at Mizzou. What Lauren saw was "Black Mizzou," a thriving campus-within-a-campus that Black students have built over decades to make the university a more welcoming place.
Everyone agrees that the goal of reading instruction is for children to understand what they read. The question is: how does a little kid get there? Emily Hanford explores what reading scientists have figured out about how reading comprehension works and why poverty and race can affect a child’s reading development. Read the full story.
The coronavirus pandemic represents the greatest challenge to American higher education in decades. Some small regional colleges that were already struggling won’t survive. Other schools, large and small, are rethinking how to offer an education while keeping people safe.
This program explores how institutions are handling the crisis, and how students are trying to navigate a major disruption in their college years.
Colleges on the brink The long tradition of students attending small, residential liberal arts colleges around the country was already shaky before the pandemic. Students are choosing less expensive options and more practical degrees. Experts warn that 10 percent of American colleges — about 200 or more institutions — are on the verge of going under. The pandemic is accelerating that trend.
A digital divide The pandemic is making getting through college harder for students on the wrong side of the digital divide. In rural Arizona, when campuses closed, some students couldn’t log on from home, because they had no access to the internet. A local sheriff flew laptops and hotspots to community college students on the Navajo Nation.
Reopening in a virus hotspot Colleges and universities are under pressure to reopen, but bringing students back on campus safely means dealing with dizzying logistics. As the virus surges in Miami, a large commuter campus gets ready.
The coronavirus pandemic has left West Virginia schools particularly hard hit. The Us & Them podcast from West Virginia Public Radio brings us stories of teachers grappling with virtual classes for students who don't have access to the internet and how schools are trying, still, to keep kids fed.
Editor-in-chief of The Hechinger Report, Liz Willen, shares what she's heard from high school seniors who are feeling anxious and overwhelmed as they face pandemic-fueled challenges.
Teachers, students and families talk about how they've adapted while schools and campuses stay closed.
A federal court recently ruled that underfunded schools in Detroit violated students' right to a basic education. Advocates hope the case is the beginning of a trend.
Delece Smith-Barrow of The Hechinger Report shares some hopeful stories about education during the pandemic.
Sarah Garland of The Hechinger Report on how (and whether) education carries on while schools are closed.
A conversation with Hechinger Report higher education editor Jon Marcus on how learning and the college experience are changing, and what's yet to come.
As fewer college students opt to major in history, there's an effort by history departments to prove the practical value of their discipline.
The percentage of Native students graduating from the U of M has doubled in the past decade.
When it was time for me to enroll in a four-year college, I chose North Dakota State, a school that's mostly white, conservative and insular -- everything I wasn't. It was the hardest year of my life.
Unlike protesters at many universities, activists at Harvard seek social justice reforms beyond campus.
After decades of declining enrollment, HBCUs are seeing an uptick in new applicants, especially among Latino and international students.
Most states and districts have adopted science standards that require teaching climate change. Teachers are left to get up to speed and help students understand the impacts.
A first of its kind review finds Lucy Calkins' materials don't align with the science of reading.
Several powerful people and organizations have weighed in on the national conversation prompted by APM Reports' podcast episodes.
Correspondent Emily Hanford talks about the latest NAEP results and what they say about the state of reading instruction in the U.S.
There's a growing movement at colleges and universities to create classrooms where students take the lead.
As administrators navigate issues of inclusion and free speech, students of color have been left to find their own way.
Do administrators have to choose between protecting free speech and creating a civil climate on campus?
Across the country, a gap persists between the number of black and Latino students graduating from state high schools and the number enrolling in state flagship schools.
Paul Dorr is a master of tactics to defeat referendums intended to finance public schools. He believes schools run by government steer kids away from Christianity. His campaigns — most of them in the Midwest — have also created lingering bitterness within communities.
For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't know there's anything wrong with it.
A growing body of research finds that repeatedly uprooted children are more likely to struggle in school and more likely to drop out. But there are ways to help them succeed.
At Georgia State in Atlanta, more students are graduating, and the school credits its use of predictive analytics. But critics worry that the algorithms may be invading students' privacy and reinforcing racial inequities.
A recent survey from the APM Research Lab found most Americans think college is worth the cost.
A survey from the APM Research Lab shows that many people think funding has increased or stayed the same.
A businessman struggling to recruit employees opened the school despite objections from the local school board.
If the Trump administration has its way, Jose would be forced from the U.S. just a few months before graduation.
Colleges nationwide have added more than 40,000 new degree and certificate programs in last six years, but are they better serving students?
Across the country, schools wrestle with how sexual assault is defined and how much proof is needed.
Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don't know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.
You might think apprenticeships are a relic from an earlier era, but a growing number of Americans are using them as a way into the middle class.
Colleges have long offered a pathway to success for just about anyone. But new research shows that with the country growing ever more economically divided, colleges are not doing enough to help students from poor families achieve the American Dream.
A little-known program has been helping the children of migrant farmworkers graduate for more than 50 years.
Dissatisfied with low pay and school funding, teachers in more red states are poised to protest.
Last year, almost a million students who qualified for state financial aid didn't get it.
Other countries offer clues about how effective nationwide school choice would be in the U.S.
Economists dig into the data to understand which schools are doing the most to help revive the American Dream.
Cybersecurity is a growing concern as schools collect an increasing amount of data on students.
Most students with disabilities can make it to and through college, but are hindered by low expectations.
Most American students practice "active shooter" drills in school. Fewer than one in a million of them will need it.
Charter schools cut football to win minds. Now to win hearts, they're bringing it back.
Struggling to juggle school, work and child care, most of them won't make it to graduation.
Despite efforts to require lessons on civil rights, outdated textbooks indicate little has changed.
The doors are locked at this special ed school in Minneapolis so no one runs away. It's a surprising place to find kids doing breathing exercises.
Teachers with DACA serving low-income, immigrant communities could be tough to replace.
When predominantly white cities secede from larger districts, it has a segregating effect.
As small private colleges struggle to survive, we look at one that almost didn't make it.
Public schools are denying children with dyslexia proper treatment and often failing to identify them in the first place.
President Trump is ending DACA, which allowed some 800,000 undocumented young people to stay and work in the United States. For some, that may mean the end of a dream of going to college. This program profiles DACA students and their opponents and examines a key court case and political forces that led to this moment.
Profits from slavery and related industries helped build some of the most prestigious schools in New England. This documentary focuses on three universities -- Harvard, Georgetown and the University of Virginia -- as they grapple with a deeply troubling chapter in their vaunted histories.
There may be nothing more important in the educational life of a child than having effective teachers. But the United States is struggling to attract and keep teachers.
A descendant of slaves sold to save Georgetown University in 1838 will be a member of this year's freshman class — at age 63.
People who lived through the desegregation era see their former schools fall back into segregation.
There are millions of kids in America who the USDA considers "food insecure" -- they live in households without regular access to nutritious food. For them, school feeding programs are essential.
A state law says Maine high school students have to prove they have mastered specific skills to get a diploma.
At a public charter school in Boston, students spend years preparing to go to college. But paying for it is another story.
Thirty-five years ago, four immigrant families won a landmark Supreme Court case that protects the rights of children in the United States to attend public schools, whether they have papers or not.
A new study shows selective colleges could bring in many more talented low-income students. So why don't they?
English learners are the least likely to graduate from high school when compared to other groups of students. There's a new high school in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that's trying to help new immigrant students beat the odds.
A mother and her dyslexic daughter tell their story. It's a preview of an upcoming documentary from APM Reports.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently called HBCUs "real pioneers of school choice." We thought this would be a good time to revisit our documentary, "The Living Legacy: Black Colleges in the 21st Century."
There are proven techniques to help children with learning disabilities, but can affected kids get what they need in public schools?
How much will anti-immigrant rhetoric dissuade foreigners from studying in the United States?
The nominee for secretary of education has a long history of funding school-choice efforts and charter schools in Michigan.
The suit claims Michigan is denying Detroit students their fundamental right to literacy.
An immigration law scholar says colleges have no business declaring their campuses "sanctuaries" for undocumented students.
Why African American teachers are leaving the profession faster than they're entering it.
Since 2012, many undocumented young people have been protected from the threat of deportation. With a new president, that may change.
Donald Trump's win was a surprise to many in the college-educated elite. Should it have been?
Education has hardly been mentioned in the presidential debates. We look at where the candidates stand.
A new study finds that black and Latino students who experience racism have higher levels of cortisol, a hormone linked to stress, and one that is known to impact focus and learning.
Some in education think providing travel opportunities can reduce the gap in how well some groups of students perform in school.
In a flipped classroom, students watch or listen to lectures on their own, then spend class time working on projects.
Strap on your cowboy boots: A new investigation by the Houston Chronicle finds that Texas has denied special education services to thousands of kids in the state.
After an abrupt reversal 20 years ago, some prisons and colleges try to maintain college education for prisoners.
The nation's high school graduation rate is at an all-time high, but high-poverty schools face a stubborn challenge. Schools in Miami and Pasadena are trying to do things differently.
A get-tough attitude prevailed among educators in the 1980s and 1990s, but research shows that zero-tolerance policies don't make schools safer and lead to disproportionate discipline for students of color.
A system meant to give college students a better shot at succeeding is actually getting in the way of many, costing them time and money and taking a particular toll on students of color.
When was the last time you ate? In one survey, 7 percent of college students said they went an entire day without eating.
Students of color are twice as likely to be suspended as white kids. So schools are turning to an alternative called restorative justice.
A student debt crisis in America? We break down the myths and realities of student debt.
The suburbs are no longer just white picket fences and green manicured lawns. They're diversifying. So what does that mean for suburban schools?
A prison education advocate shares his experience in prison and talks about his work spreading college to others.
The South is famous for its bayous, BBQ, and bourbon. It's less well known for its rural education. Our guest tells us why.
Small, rural schools around the country are closing. Our guest says that could actually be a good thing.
What's the role of a school in a rural town? We begin our series on rural schools by looking at a state where the fight has been particularly fierce: Vermont.
Do you understand facts better online or in print? New research has massive implications for teaching in the 21st century.
Theological schools are straining for cash as they suffer from drops in enrollment over the past few years. Our guest tells us how they are dealing with it.
Our guest says the so-called 'invisible tax' on teachers of color leads to burnout at a time when teachers of color are already leaving the profession more quickly than their white colleagues.
Should colleges have men's studies majors or men's resource centers? Our guest this week tells us that male college students would get better grades if they rejected stereotypes of hyper-masculinity.
"Welcome to our world." Educators take an entire school day to shadow a student and walk in their shoes. We find out how it went for one teacher.
Want a job? So does every student ever! Maybe career and technical education classes are the way to go. Shaun Dougherty says you could be more likely to graduate and earn more if you do.
Private tutoring is no longer just for the rich kids. Our guest tells us how the individual attention improves student learning and graduation rates.
In our last episode, Andrew Hacker argued that math courses like algebra are unnecessary for most high schoolers. This week's guest couldn't disagree more.
Politicians and economists say people need advanced math skills to be successful in the highly technical jobs of the 21st century. But the author of a new book says that's just not true.
We're working on a documentary that explores the backlash against harsh school discipline practices across the country. This week we talk about state laws that seek to push back against the "zero tolerance" policies of the past.
A new study shows that what a child knows about science in kindergarten can strongly predict how he or she scores on an eighth-grade science test.
Minnesota has a reputation for having great public education. But if you're Hispanic, black, Asian-American or Native American, your chances of completing high school are worse in Minnesota than in almost any other state.
Research shows suspensions aren't effective at changing kids' behavior. And kids of color are more likely to get kicked out than white kids. This week, we examine the history of harsh discipline in school.
The college application process has come under scrutiny in a new report by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It recommends that schools ask students to demonstrate they're making a civic contribution to their local communities, even if that means taking fewer AP courses.
Nearly two-thirds of all students who enroll in community college are not "college-ready" in math and/or English. This week we hear from a remedial writing teacher who says many of his students have been traumatized by past K-12 educational experiences.
If you want to really learn something before a big test, put your books down. Research shows that the traditional method of "cramming" for an exam by reading the same thing over and over again, doesn't work. (Rerun from Oct. 2014)
School voucher programs are controversial because they allow students to use public funds to pay for private school. A new paper is one of the first to show a school voucher program actually lowering student test scores.
Most teenagers are not learning about personal finance in school, according to an annual survey on financial literacy. Our guest this week says that needs to change.
College was once considered the path of upward mobility in this country, and for many people, it still is. But research shows that the higher education system can actually work against poor and minority students, because they often end up at colleges with few resources and low graduation rates.
What does research say about how students learn best? A group of deans from schools of education around the country has united to make sure future teachers are armed with information about what works in the classroom.
A growing coalition of young people claims that student voices are largely missing from discussions of education reform.
In most modern work places employees are expected to be self-directed and also work collaboratively. But do conventional public schools do enough to encourage creative and critical thinking?
The gender gap in education disproportionately affects poor children. New research looks at siblings to find out why boys born into poverty are less likely to succeed than girls.
Despite what you may have heard about the death of the liberal arts, leaders of one of the nation's top cooking schools, and one of the most prominent military academies say courses in subjects like English, history and philosophy are are key to preparing their students for the professional world.
A few years ago, writer Jessica Lahey started noticing something troubling about many of her students: they were afraid of making mistakes in the classroom. She writes about this in her new book, "The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed."
Policymakers and community leaders have started to question traditional forms of school discipline like detention, suspension and expulsion because research shows that children who are suspended are more likely to drop out of school and end up in jail. And what’s more, children who are racial minorities are more likely to be suspended and expelled than their white classmates.
Some districts are ending out-of-school suspensions all together in favor of policies that consider why children are acting out and help correct misbehavior. But when a school lacks resources it may be hard to replace traditional school discipline with sensible alternatives.
Eli Hagervisited a part of the country that is known for widespread poverty and troubled schools. Mississippi is one of the four states where some schools still use corporal punishment to keep kids in line. Hager recently wrote an article for the Marshall Project is called “When School Feels Like Jail.” For this week’s podcast, he spoke with ARW associate producer Suzanne Pekow.
There’s clearly a gulf of understanding between the Western and Arab worlds. A group called Bridges of Understanding wants to change that by helping middle and high school students in the United States talk with their peers in the Middle East and North Africa through video conferences.
Residents of Lower Price Hill in Cincinnati decided to turn a troubled neighborhood school into a community learning center, in hopes of battling urban poverty and crime. A new documentary follows the first year of the Oyler School transformation.
Can mindfulness reduce children's behavior and emotional challenges in school? That's what one district in Rockland County, N.Y. tried to find out.
Last week on the podcast, we ran a story about “growth mindset,” an incredibly popular educational concept having to do with motivation and self-esteem. But some people believe the craze over mindset is overblown. This week we hear from a critic.
When students are struggling to find an answer in school, it’s tempting for teachers to want to jump in and help them right away. But research shows that a little struggle - or even a little failure - can be good for students to learn how overcome challenges.
Sports have long been an avenue for low-income students to get scholarships to college, but that might not be an option if the cost of after-school sports and activities continues to rise.
Wikipedia has gotten a lot of flak over the years for being inaccurate and untrustworthy. But in 2010, Wikimedia, the global movement behind Wikipedia, began recruiting professors from major U.S. universities to assign the work of editing Wikipedia articles to their students.
Back in the 1960s, the Supreme Court declared it was unconstitutional for public schools to sponsor organized prayer and bible readings, but today there are still groups who say religious lessons belong in public school programs.
In November, a new social studies book about the Black Lives Matter movement will be available for middle school and high school students nationwide. While no one has had a chance to read the book yet, the idea is stirring controversy and curiosity.
This documentary explores the "Expeditionary Learning" approach, traces the history of ideas that led to its inception, and investigates what American schools could learn from its success.
The longest war in American history is drawing to a close. Now, the men and women who served are coming home, and many hope to use higher education to build new, better lives.
Research shows good teaching makes a big difference in how much kids learn. But the United States lacks an effective system for training new teachers or helping them get better once they're on the job.
Before the civil rights movement, African Americans were largely barred from white-dominated institutions of higher education. And so black Americans, and their white supporters, founded their own schools, which came to be known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Head Start got its start 50 years ago. Our documentary, "Early Lessons," by Emily Hanford, profiles the program that inspired the creation of Head Start.
The Obama administration recently declared that it would no longer pursue a college ratings system based on accessibility, affordability and student success. And college presidents everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.
Sweet Briar College was about to close after struggling with dwindling enrollment and other problems. An alumni group raised more than 20 million dollars in pledges to keep the doors open, but the school's survival is still deeply in doubt.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities proliferated throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when many white schools refused to admit African Americans, especially in the South. Our guest this week feels HBCUs still serve a crucial role in higher education.
Over the past year, race relations have dominated the news cycle. This can bring up difficult questions, especially for parents and teachers. Our guest Yolanda Moses says Americans need to find more ways to talk about race in schools.
For years policy makers believed that minorities were overrepresented in special education and that there was inherent bias in the way kids were being identified as disabled. A new study turns this idea on its head.
A lot of parents worry about whether their kids' video game habits are harmful - especially when gaming gets in the way of homework or reading. But writer Greg Toppo says gaming can be a great way to learn.
For more than a century, Americans have been arguing about how to teach children about the birds and the bees in public schools. A new book argues that for all the fuss about sex education in America, students get precious little of it.
Coming up this fall we'll be releasing a documentary about teacher preparation - how people learn to become teachers and how they get better once they're in the classroom. This week: how do Japanese teachers learn to improve on the job?
When Nancie Atwell was growing up, she never thought she’d go to college, let alone become an award-winning teacher. But a few months ago, Atwell received a $1-million-dollar global prize for her decades of teaching English and literacy skills to elementary and middle schoolers.
Across the world, college students are urging their institutions to “divest” from fossil fuels. This week we ask: is the divestment movement working?
Scientists have long thought of the brain as a “control center” for the body – a kind of computer that dictates how we move. But what if how we walk and stand and gesture could actually change how we think?
What if one day a week, school was in the woods? On the podcast, Emily Hanford takes us to Vermont to understand why teachers wanted to take their students into the forest, and what the kids -- and the teachers -- are learning from it.
There are 183 federally-run Bureau of Indian Education schools in the nation, and about a third of these are in poor condition. Some students at BIE schools deal with poorly-insulated classrooms, holes in the roof, rodents, and other issues on a daily basis.
A generation ago, if you walked into an American classroom, you’d likely find a veteran teacher who'd been on the job for 15 years or more. Today you're more likely to find a brand-new teacher – someone who's been the job for a year or less.
Over the past decade many elite colleges have taken great strides to admit low-income students, but there are unanticipated financial and cultural barriers to fitting in on campus that can’t easily be solved by merely giving students a foot in the door. Questions of class differences have spurred a nationwide movement of “first generation” student clubs on college campuses.
In the year following Hurricane Katrina, 30 percent of displaced children were either not enrolled in school or not attending regularly. Today, Louisiana has the nation’s highest rate of young adults who are neither in school nor working. And researchers are starting to ask: could the widespread gaps in schooling after Katrina be the reason?
Last month the board of Sweet Briar College announced that the school will shut its doors at the end of this term, due to financial difficulties. The announcement was made abruptly, sending the campus community into a state of shock... and then activism.
Kevin Carey's book "The End of College" is stirring up debate in higher ed circles. This week, a response to the book by a critic.
When education policy wonk Kevin Carey looks into the future, he sees the end of traditional colleges and universities and he says that's a good thing.
Today older Americans are heading back to school in record numbers. Many have already started a career, but want to gain knowledge or skills that can make them more competitive in the workplace. Colleges and universities are grappling with the needs of a changing population of students.
In her new book,“The Test: Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing–But You Don’t Have to Be,” NPR Education Blogger Anya Kamenetz examines the role testing plays in American public education.
Last week, we talked about growing dissent among adjunct college instructors who claim they’re not getting compensated fairly for the work they do. This week we’ll hear from someone who has dealt with this issue from the administration side.
What would higher education look like without adjunct professors? That’s what a grass-roots group of academics is trying to prove by holding a National Adjunct Walk-out Day on February 25.
Sometime in the next few weeks, Senate Republicans and Democrats will vote to reauthorize The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. On the podcast this week, we talk to two education advocates who differ on how and when we should test our kids.
In June 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school desegregation plans that look at students’ race. This week on the podcast, we’re featuring our 2007 documentary, “An Imperfect Revolution: Voices from the Desegregation Era,"
We talk to a Dallas doctor who thinks HBCUs may be the best pathways for African Americans interested in careers in medicine.
The Minneapolis Public School District created an Office of Black Male Student Achievement earlier this year. One goal of the office is to help young African American men graduate from high school in greater numbers.
President Barack Obama wants to make the first two years of community college free for what he calls “responsible students” who are “willing to work for it.” It’s being called “America’s College Promise.” This week on the podcast we examine the prospect of free community college for all.
Our guest this week has a message for high school seniors and their parents who are poring over the latest college rankings lists: Put ‘em down.
Philanthropic foundations have been giving money to public education for years. But our guest this week argues that philanthropies are increasingly pushing specific educational agendas.
In January 2014 nearly a hundred college presidents gathered at the White House for a summit on the rising cost of college. But data show that those same institutions have been raising their prices fastest for the poorest students than for wealthier ones. This week on the podcast, we talk to a reporter who has been following the rising college cost burden on poor families.
In 2011 the federal government required colleges and universities to publish “net price calculators” on their web sites. These tools are supposed to help families figure out which colleges they can afford. The calculators take into account family income, number of kids in college, state of residency, and other factors. But they’re often hard to use and time-consuming. Our guest this week has made this process simpler and more accessible.
There’s a paradox in today’s job market: even though there are millions of people looking for work, employers say they can’t find enough qualified workers. That’s due to an abundance of what economists call “middle skills” jobs – jobs that require specialized training beyond high school, but not a four-year college degree.
Last month the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released a report that showed evidence of nearly two decades of academic fraud perpetuated by the school’s Afro-American Studies Department. An investigation found certain professors and administrators had an unwritten policy of “propping up” student athletes. This week on the podcast, we look at academic fraud at colleges with high-stakes sports programs.
Humanities professors at colleges and universities are re-thinking what it means to offer a PhD. The old model is proving unsustainable. It takes an average nine years to get a doctorate, but less than 60 percent of PhDs are finding tenure-track teaching jobs. This week, we look at a new report recommending academics view doctoral programs in a new light.
A polling expert finds students less engaged with school as they get older. Brandon Busteed from Gallup Education says if schools taught to strengths instead of weaknesses, more students would be successful in school and in life.
Education correspondent Emily Hanford talks with author Elizabeth Green about her new book, Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone).
Education correspondent Emily Hanford continues her conversation with Dana Goldstein, author of The Teacher Wars.
Education correspondent Emily Hanford talks with bestselling author Dana Goldstein about her new book, The Teacher Wars.
Author James Paul Gee says video games are problems to solve that come with their own tools. He says they're like "an external mind," and teachers should use them in classrooms.
College is worth the investment. College graduates can't find good jobs. Student loan debt keeps rising, and now tops a trillion dollars. What can be done?
Vocational education was once a staple of American schooling, preparing some kids for blue-collar futures while others were put on a path to college. Many experts say it's time to bring back career and technical education.
Just 20 percent of college-goers fit the stereotype of being young, single, full-time students who finish a degree in four years. College students today are more likely to be older, part-time, working, and low-income than they were three decades ago.
The United States is in the midst of a huge education reform. The Common Core State Standards are a new set of expectations for what students should learn each year in school.
Researchers have long been searching for better ways to learn. In recent decades, experts working in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience have opened new windows into how the brain works, and how we can learn to learn better.
Long-predicted demographic changes mean a new kind of student is figuring out where to go to college, and how to pay for it.
A new report looks at why some schools have a lot of money to spend per pupil, while others don't, and what to do about it.
In May Stephen Smith was invited to be on a panel in Minneapolis that focused on the value of higher education. The panel answered questions such as: Who needs college?
A growing number of adjunct faculty at colleges and universities across the country are voting to unionize. Data from the Department of Education show a tremendous move toward using these so-called contingent teachers in all types of post-secondary institutions over the last 40 years.
The government wants to collect data on America's children. And that has parents across the country more than a little nervous.
The second of a series on what's inside the Common Core State Standards. Last week we heard about the English Language Arts and Literacy portion; this week we talk to one of the lead authors of the standards for mathematics.
What do children need to know in school to be prepared for the future? That's the question that drives a new set of national learning standards called the Common Core.This week: inside the standards for English Language Arts/Literacy.
Members of the military and their spouses face more challenges than traditional students when it comes to getting a college degree. Their studies are often interrupted by deployments, transfer among bases, or because they can't attend college full-time. A new network aims to help.
Next fall, dozens of school districts nationwide will offer new computer coding classes. Advocates say computer programming is a fundamental kind of literacy, but critics argue the movement is a power play by tech companies who want schools to invest in their products.
This spring, the Obama administration announced it was joining the effort to hold colleges and universities more accountable for sexual assaults on campus. We talk to a survivor and activist who filed a complaint against Yale when she was an undergraduate there in 2011.
A new report says middle-schoolers who get Bs and Cs are less likely to finish college than their peers who get As. And because more girls get As, girls are more likely than boys not only to go to college, but to graduate.
For decades young people have been told that college is the path to prosperity. And research bears that out. But with the high cost of college tuition and fees, is a degree still worth it?
In 2005, a group of philanthropists decided to fund a scholarship program for public high school graduates in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The idea is that more college graduates would strengthen the economy and the community of this small Midwestern city. Nine years later, is the Kalamazoo Promise working?
Higher education has long been an engine of social mobility in this country. But today's college choices may actually be widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Spring is the time of year when college acceptance letters start landing in the mailboxes - and inboxes - of high school seniors across the country. It's also the time of year when many students will have to figure out how they will be able to pay for college, and as WGBH's Kirk Carapezza reports, that can be a daunting prospect.
A new majority of students going to college are low-income, Hispanic or African-American, and from the southern or western United States. They are also older than so-called traditional students. The recently-formed Yes We Must Coalition aims to shine a light on colleges that have been serving this new majority for a long time.
California schools have an average of 1,000 students for every guidance counselor. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250 students to one. But as public school budgets shrink, counseling programs get cut, and that forces counselors across the country to take on bigger case loads.
A new international survey of 15-year-olds shows students in the United States are pretty good problem solvers. The Organization for […]
A new survey shows online K-12 schools under-performing brick-and-mortar schools. Recommendations include specialized teacher training for virtual instruction and more […]
Neuroscience research says teenagers don’t just like to sleep; they need to sleep. A new CDC study suggests early high […]
A new book says success for low-income college students should be a national priority. There’s no G.I. Bill or Higher […]
The College Board announced last week that it’s going to redesign the SAT exam by spring 2016. Will a new […]
Until the end of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and early ’70s, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) […]
A new paper says teachers shouldn’t be held accountable in a system that fails students. It suggests ways to take […]
Snow days have been plentiful in 2014. What impact do they have on student test scores? Guest: Joshua Goodman, Professor […]
About half of all college students in the United States go to community colleges and only a third of those […]
Teach for America wants to close the achievement gap by sending future leaders to some of the nation’s toughest schools. […]
A new study says Teach for American may be more costly than valuable. Guest: Julian Vasquez Heilig, Professor of Education, […]
Many schools of education are awful, experts say. A new system for accrediting teaching colleges may add rigor and improve […]
Conservative and liberal activists across the country are speaking out against Common Core State Standards. But Michael Petrilli, who works […]
At Quest University in Canada, there are no departments, no majors and no faculty ranks. Classes are co-taught by a […]
Research shows the more words babies hear, the better they do in school. The achievement gap starts early; now so […]
Many educators say the best way to learn is by combining what you learn in school with real-world practice and […]
The cost of college keeps going up. But family earnings are staying the same. This is leading to an unsustainable […]
The results are in from academic tests of 15-year-olds in 65 countries and regions. PISA shows Finland slipping, Vietnam doing […]
At most colleges, a degree is based on “seat time.” But economists argue that the number of college grads is […]
It’s not just Advanced Placement any more. A new trend is for students taking college classes for college credit while […]
A new study finds that the emphasis on accountability since No Child Left Behind may be harming students, not helping […]
Grouping students by ability has become more prevalent since No Child Left Behind. But does academic “sorting” hurt low-performing students? […]
Is academic tracking good for our kids? New research shows gains in test scores when students are sorted by their […]
In November Texas plans to adopt new science textbooks which will be used in classrooms there for the next decade. […]
A new global survey shows that American adults scored below average in literacy and math skills, even though they’ve gone […]
In 1962, James Meredith launched a one-man crusade to integrate the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss. Today, […]
Kids in some other countries learn more at school than American students do. A new book says that’s about what […]
Tight budgets and more emphasis on test scores mean fewer field trips. New research shows how and why field trips […]
The Ivy League isn’t on the radar for most poor students. Travis Reginal defied the odds, and is now a […]
Author of key report says students need both knowledge and know-how; content and the skills to apply it. Guest: Jim […]
Most test-takers hope the GED will lead to a better job or more education. But critics say the GED encourages some students to drop out of school. And research shows the credential is of little value to most people who get one.
Our guest says teachers must meet students where they are, even if that’s 40 different places. Guest: Carol Ann Tomlinson, […]
Kids are naturally curious, but not naturally good thinkers.How personalized learning may help them learn to think. Guest: Daniel Willingham, […]
A supporter-turned-critic of the Common Core says the new standards may hurt more than they help. Guest: Carol Burris, New […]
Learning with a personal tutor is one of the oldest and best ways to learn. Hiring a tutor for every student was never a realistic option. Now, new computer programs can customize education for each child.
The Common Core State Standards will tell educators what to expect of students, but not what or how to teach. […]
Why do students in some states do better than students in others? A new report says the gap in state […]
The Core Knowledge Foundation says the Common Core State Standards will help schools know what to measure, but not necessarily […]
Physical activity is good for learning. Yet many schools cut back on gym class and even cracking down on fidgeting. […]
With tuition rising and debt mounting, author Jeffrey Selingo helps parents and students do the math for college. Guest: Jeffrey […]
A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality says most graduate schools of education don’t prepare teachers for […]
How online tools may change classrooms today and forever. Guest: Heather Staker, Christensen Institute
Students are capable of excellent work. Some schools insist on it. Guest: Ron Berger, chief academic officer at Expeditionary Learning
How family income may cause disparities in school achievement, and what to do about it. Guest: Sean Reardon, professor of […]
A controversial principal with a compelling personal story on why tough love is what students need and teachers’ unions are […]
New research shows how classroom teachers may be able to combat the impact of stereotype threat and help close the […]
How one exemplary school district does professional development despite lean times. Long Beach, Calif. has become a national model by […]
Why college admissions should be colorblind. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the latest affirmative action case. Last […]
Why being colorblind is a fine aspiration and a dangerous policy. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on another […]
A key analyst during the Atlanta cheating scandal tells us what can be done about cheating as Common Core standards […]
Pell Grants have been helping low-income students go to college for 50 years. A new report recommends changing the way […]
A new poll finds that American teachers lead the most satisfied lives, second only to physicians. What’s making our overworked, […]
There’s a talent war for computer engineers in Silicon Valley. That’s why MOOCs are getting in the head hunting game, […]
In January of 2014, the GED exam is going digital, and it’s going to be harder to pass. This adult […]
According to a new survey of employers, American colleges don’t produce enough qualified graduates for today’s workforce. Among the complaints: […]
As the nation braces for cuts to federal programs under sequestration, a top education reporter describes how this new era […]
If students learn about personal finance in grade school, they’ll be more responsible spenders as adults. So goes the thinking […]
A high school English teacher in Michigan says making videos of Shakespeare plays is better for students than memorizing facts […]
We met Tracy Edwards last year during our reporting at the YES Prep charter school network in Houston, Texas. Unlike […]
Most private schools give out aid packages based on merit, often trying to compete for students from wealthy families who […]
Mississippi legislators recently passed legislation that would allow charter schools in the state for the first time. In the Mississippi […]
For much of the 20th century, a Catholic education was often a relatively inexpensive, higher-quality alternative to inner-city public schools. […]
Teacher quality was in the news again last week with a PBS documentary about former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee […]
Veterans who enter the workforce often have a tough time translating their military experience to “resume-ready” skills. But a new […]
Oklahoma is one of the most politically conservative states in the nation and it’s also home to one of the […]
Ever heard of the self-employed college professor? Thanks to the efforts of the for-profit education company Straighter Line, some professors […]
According to the U.S. Department of Education, schools are actually safer than they’ve been in decades – which makes the […]
It turns out being popular in high school could actually be important later in life. New research from the University […]
In the 1960s “white flight” sent many middle-class families from the cities to suburbs out of fear that the quality […]
Since handwriting is becoming less important in modern life, teaching cursive is going out of style in American schools. But […]
For a long time it was assumed that a “digital divide” existed between rich kids and poor kids. But emerging […]
Florida governor Rick Scott is proposing a tiered pricing plan for the state’s colleges and universities that would cut tuition […]
The GED test was created to help returning World War Two veterans who hadn’t graduated from high school have an […]
From the 1960s to the 1980s the educational achievement gap between blacks and whites was shrinking. But around 1990 high […]
The University of Phoenix is closing 115 of its campuses and learning centers and laying off about 800 employees. This […]
When parents borrow money to pay for their children to go to college, they don’t often expect to be repaying […]
The Minerva Project is billing itself as the world’s first “elite” online university. Though still in development, its founder Ben […]