Private pandemic “pods” are the latest edu-craze to sweep the land. But turns out there’s nothing new about privileged parents fleeing the public school system—or using the threat of departure as leverage. Special guests Jessica Calarco, L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy and Jon Hale help us understand the implications of pods for public education. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Aug 06, 2020•45 min
When the pandemic shuttered schools, it also put grades on hold. But suspending A-F grading also exposed the underlying flaws of a high-stakes system. Historian Ethan Hutt joins us to discuss the origins and often conflicting purposes of grading, and some possible fixes. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast Recommended reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/coronavirus-school-grades.ht...
Jul 23, 2020•49 min
Teach Like a Champion, the best-selling guide to effective teaching by Doug Lemov, has sold millions of copies. But is it racist? Have You Heard hears from teachers and researchers who argue that Lemov’s approach embodies “carceral” pedagogy. And because we have a thing about education history, we trace the concept all the way back to 1895. Special guests: Ilana Horn, Joe Truss and Layla Treuhaft-Ali. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: htt...
Jul 09, 2020•44 min
How exactly did cops end up in US schools in the first place? Our quest for answers takes us to three cities—Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago—and back 60 years to another era wracked by mass social protest: the 1960’s. Special guests: Matt Kautz, Judith Kafka and Louis Mercer. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Jun 18, 2020•35 min
Students flailing without real teachers. Sky-high dropout rates. Aggressive sales pitches. Sound familiar? Have You Heard revisits America’s first great love affair with distance learning, the learn-by-mail craze that swept the nation 100+ years ago. The case for distance learning made by the original (for profit) edu-preneurs was virtually identical to what we’re hearing today. Special guests: education historian Bob Hampel and “Young Jack.” The financial support of listeners like you keeps thi...
Jun 04, 2020•31 min
A looming budget calamity worse than the Great Recession could mean mass teacher layoffs and deep cuts to school spending. Have You Heard previews the bleak budget forecast, how it can be averted, and why the GOP seems intent on forcing states to go broke. Experts Bruce Baker, Sarah Reckhow and Jesse Rothstein weigh in. And in a sign of what’s to come, we meet a teacher whose alternative school is going online and for-profit next year. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podca...
May 21, 2020•35 min
Have You Heard digs into the recent - and surprising - decision by a federal court declaring that there is in fact a constitutional right to education. One catch: the court defined that right very narrowly, as a “basic minimum education.” Jennifer and Jack explore the ruling and its implications with the help of an all star cast, including Noliwe Rooks, author of Cutting School; Michael Rebell, executive director of the Center for Educational Equity; and former Detroit teacher Stephanie Griffin....
May 07, 2020•38 min
The gaps between the Internet haves and have-nots have never been more glaring. Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance helps us understand the origins of our digital divide and how to get to a system of high quality affordable internet for all. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast.
Apr 23, 2020•34 min
Have You Heard opens the proverbial phone lines to hear what listeners want to know about education in a time of pandemic. And an all-star cast of experts steps up to provide the answers. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Apr 09, 2020•31 min
This isn't the first time schools have shuttered in response to a pandemic. Resident education historian Jack Schneider on what we can learn from school closures past. Meanwhile, the absence of schools seems to have awakened even their critics to how key they are. And what of the future? Resident paranoid Jennifer Berkshire says it's never too soon to start fretting over whether schools will ever reopen - especially in states where pols have been feverishly focused on dismantling them. The finan...
Mar 23, 2020•27 min
Blaming teachers for the woes of US public schools and beyond is as old a pastime as public education itself. Historian Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz takes us through 100 years of teacher blaming and the love-hate relationship the US has with its teachers. You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll want to pre-order her book, Blaming Teachers. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Mar 05, 2020•35 min
Have You Heard heads to fast-growing north Texas to listen in on how support for public education is upending the state's politics. Part of our series on education and politics in 2020, this episode captures a trend with major implications for Texas and beyond. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going and enables us to hit the road. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Feb 20, 2020•36 min
The raging debate about whether public money should fund private religious education is a very old one. What's new is the increasingly complex education landscape and the mainstreaming of once radical free market ideas. Education historian Ethan Hutt makes it all make sense. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Feb 06, 2020•39 min
What are students learning about American history in these hyper-polarized times? That’s what New York Times reporter Dana Goldstein wanted to know. And so she set off on an epic reading adventure: 43 middle and high school American history textbooks, 4,800 pages in all. Have You Heard talks to Dana about how our divided nation shows up on the pages of these books on subjects such as immigration, the economy and suburbanization. Also, Jack revisits the great debate in the 1990’s over history sta...
Jan 23, 2020•32 min
Have You Heard heads to rural Wisconsin to investigate a puzzle. Communities in the "reddest" parts of the state keep voting to hike their own taxes to pay for schools, even as they elect and re-elect politicians who enact cuts to school funding. What gives? The answers are complicated and surprising. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Jan 09, 2020•33 min
It’s time to junk the international assessment of 15-year-olds known as the PISA test says scholar Oren Pizmony-Levy. And Have You Heard announces big plans for 2020. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Dec 19, 2019•30 min
For more than a decade, Denver has been a model for a brand of school reform centered on closing low-performing schools, opening charter schools and rewarding teachers for boosting student test scores. But a diverse coalition of opponents says it’s time to put the brakes on that approach and showed its strength at the polls in November by “flipping” the Denver School Board. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Dec 05, 2019•43 min
Why do progressive parents so often act to preserve their own privilege even as they say they're committed to challenging inequality? We talk to Margaret Hagerman, author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America. Recommended reading: White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast alive. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Nov 14, 2019•35 min
The Democratic Party seems to be backing away from its decades-long embrace of charter schools. While pundits cite the influence of teachers unions within the party, our guest Jon Valant says more complicated forces are at play, starting with the unraveling of the unlikely liberal/conservative coalition that brought charters into being. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast alive. Please donate at Patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast
Oct 31, 2019•35 min
Central Harlem in the late 1960's was home to a radical, and little known, experiment in alternative education. Historian Barry Goldenberg, runner up in the Have You Heard Graduate Student Research Contest, tells us the story of Harlem Prep and why it is so relevant today.
Oct 17, 2019•35 min
We talk with Christopher Leonard, author of the new bestseller Kochland, about the Koch family's vision for public education. (Hint: it doesn't involve the word 'public'...)
Oct 03, 2019•35 min
Theater teacher Quinn Strassel has seen first hand the impact that Betsy DeVos has had on Michigan’s public schools. And so he decided to fight back—by writing a musical.
Sep 19, 2019•35 min
School can be a tough, even traumatic place for students and teachers alike. Four teachers tell Have You Heard what they're doing to change that.
Sep 05, 2019•37 min
We delve into a charter school scam so enormous, so audacious that it requires charts and graphs to explain. Special guest: Voice of San Diego’s Will Huntsberry.
Aug 15, 2019•27 min
Economist Marshall Steinbaum talks free college, human capital theory, educationism and why it’s time to disrupt the individualized logic of higher education.
Jul 30, 2019•32 min
What happens when charter schools with progressive missions encounter an education marketplace where test scores and competition reign supreme? Elise Castillo, the winner of the first-ever Have You Heard graduate student research contest, breaks it down for us.
Jul 11, 2019•24 min
Have You Heard heads to Michigan to learn about a lesser-known part of the state’s free market education experiment: inter-district school choice. More than 100,000 Michigan students attend school in a district other than where they live. The outflow of students has pushed urban districts to the brink and spawned a competition for enrollment among rural and suburban districts.
Jun 27, 2019•30 min
White residents are moving into city neighborhoods they’ve long stayed away from. They’re arrival is driving up housing costs and displacing the neighborhoods’ previous residents. But what does it mean for urban schools? Have You Heard talks to Yawu Miller, senior editor of Boston’s African American newspaper, the Bay State Banner.
Jun 14, 2019•30 min
All of those Democratic presidential candidates keep talking about education. But why? Have You Heard goes beyond the headlines to explore why public education may just turn out to be this (endless) campaign season's hottest button issue.
May 30, 2019•29 min
High-end for-profit private schools are a growing segment of the education ‘marketplace.’ Mike Levy, a long-time teacher at Avenues World School in NYC, takes us behind the scenes of a growing network of schools for the global .01% where $60,000 in tuition also buys a healthy dose of free-market ideology.
May 16, 2019•32 min
