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 acti...
Nov 25, 2015•14 min
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.
Nov 19, 2015•13 min
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.
Nov 11, 2015•23 min
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.
Oct 29, 2015•13 min
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.
Oct 22, 2015•20 min
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.
Oct 15, 2015•7 min
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.
Oct 08, 2015•18 min
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.
Oct 01, 2015•11 min
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.
Sep 25, 2015•29 min
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.
Sep 17, 2015•9 min
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.
Sep 10, 2015•53 min
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.
Sep 03, 2015•53 min
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.
Aug 27, 2015•53 min
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.
Aug 20, 2015•53 min
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.
Aug 07, 2015•53 min
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.
Jul 30, 2015•12 min
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.
Jul 23, 2015•7 min
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.
Jul 15, 2015•12 min
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.
Jul 07, 2015•13 min
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.
Jul 02, 2015•12 min
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.
Jun 23, 2015•14 min
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.
Jun 17, 2015•18 min
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?
Jun 11, 2015•15 min
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.
Jun 02, 2015•15 min
Across the world, college students are urging their institutions to “divest” from fossil fuels. This week we ask: is the divestment movement working?
May 28, 2015•13 min
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?
May 20, 2015•14 min
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.
May 12, 2015•34 min
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.
May 06, 2015•13 min
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.
Apr 29, 2015•17 min
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.
Apr 22, 2015•11 min
