This is required listening for primary teachers! Thank you Emily Hanford!

Life-changing journalism. So heartbroken the new CEO is dissolving it and laying off excellent reporters.

When we started at a charter school nine years ago in nyc we were encouraged to get engaged in the debate over how schools operate so some of this material is familiar. We have been fortunate to attend Success Academy which has tackled many of the issues plaguing other schools. It’s still a work in progress but they are trying everyday with luxury of being a small and focused operation. This year we start with a city school that promises to be better than average. Fingers crossed. Also enjoyed the international student episode. They hinted at a looming college for colleges on the horizon. Looking forward to report on the coming drought of students

The findings are validating but not shocking. When I graduated in 2011, I was one of the only graduates to find a teaching job—most of my friends had to do clerical work and food service. At my first interview, I was told there had been 600 applications, and they selected ten of us to interview—I didn’t get the job. Ultimately, I applied to 265 teaching jobs. I only got interviews with 8 of them. I only advanced to the second round of interviews with 2 of those. After that, I received 1 offer. Ten years later, you have 265 districts vying for 8 candidates.

Emily Hanford’s reports are excellent.

Love this podcast. Great reporting and if a great quality. I’d love to hear episodes on the military education system (DODEA), as well as a few episodes about HBCUs!

I’m loving what I’m hearing, the reporting is well done, the content is compelling and thought provoking. I found this podcast via my interest in the science of reading and dyslexia. I’ve listened through the series on teacher shortages and I feel my perspective has been broadened and I want to find out more! You won’t be disappointed in spending a listen here!

Really hope this pod returns. Seems like a missed opportunity in this year of all years. Very good research and reporting. I particularly enjoyed the series on the science of early reading.

The episode covering the reading wars is sponsored by a phonics program.

Hi there! I’m impressed with how your group is getting the word out and sharing about all things safety at schools. I’m a Retired Fire Captain who owns a business called ICS4Schools. We have been working with school districts in California for the last 13 years. If you accept guest speakers, I would love to share in the narrative of school safety. Thank you!

Dear Emily Hanford, You’ve become a hero to countless families and educators like me. Thank you for shedding light on the tragic results of the three cuing system taught to beginning and struggling readers. All of your podcasts are excellent! Well researched and well told!

Wow, what a great documentary! The Reading Wars make clear why we were not taught Phonics in our educational college courses. You adressed misconceptions, and data from Science of Reading and the 2000 NRP Report. Its incredible how reading is so important to determining the success someone has.I am recently leading a PLC and we are targetting reading. We are adressing why we only have 50% of our students reading at grade level. This article, shed so much light on why, we need to teach Phonics. Thank you for this piece!

Hello! I’ve enjoyed this listening to this podcast! The past few episodes have mentioned Seattle Schools as refusing yo teach online for equity reasons. Although initially this was the case, as a Seattle teacher we have been online teaching since April 6th. I am a first grade teacher and parent of three Seattle Public Schools students. It was rocky, but after negotiations with our union, we did online start online teaching. Thanks!

This podcast is great for those who want to learn about the school system. It’s one of those podcasts where there are so many great-sounding episodes you don’t know which one to play first.

This podcast is a fantastic, comprehensive overview on where we stand when teaching young children how to read. There are so many conflicting studies and tons of money to be made by companies at the expense of children.

Your reporting on reading is extraordinarily biased. You need to read the latest PISA scores and discuss what occurs beyond this basic level of reading, which, while important, is not the whole story. You ignore the fact that we have been inundated with skill-based reading interventions for almost two decades. Why don’t you do a podcast on critical literacy in order to offer more of the story? If you are interested in this topic, there is scientific research on the need for critical responses to texts and the ability to create new texts (write ). Your tone is dismissive and it’s so frustrating to hear this portrayal of the terrain of literacy research. It’s not either/or. I’ve taught 20 years in grades 4-12, and then 5 years in higher education.

I made the decision to become an educator a couple of years ago. I’m an English major that has a passion for reading and heart for the children that are left behind. This podcast has been further proof that I’m doing something so necessary for our future generations.

After listening to just my first episode of “Educate” I’m already blown away by the highly informative reporting on education issues that we’re facing. Can’t wait to listen to more.

I have 30 years as an educator- teacher, literacy coach and librarian. I have always struggled with trying to understand why some kids are successful readers and some aren’t. In grades 5+ pictures disappear and many students get lost.

I got up at 4:45am to listen to this report because I was so excited to listen and it didn’t disappoint. I am a recovering classroom teacher that was never taught how to teach children to read. When I left the classroom I was trained in Orton-Gillingham and it was life changing for myself, my students, and my own children. With all my knowledge I try and educate teachers and parents but sometimes it feels like an uphill battle, especially when you live in Teacher College Land. Thank you so much for doing this documentary. I share it with everyone!!! Please do more on this topic. I live in CT and the good news is we now have dyslexia laws that gives us some hope and rights!!! Find me on Facebook under Kate Pearce Educational Services.

Can't wait to see what you've been working on.

This podcast has made me think of going to grad school for education administration or public policy. Great reporting and well produced. Also, I appreciate that short topics are kept short. Too many podcast stretch everything to an hourlong episode to insert more advertisements (or no apparent reason at all).

Wow, I just stumbled on these podcasts as I search for as much information as I can on Dyslexia. I have an 11 year old daughter who is profoundly dyslexic and cannot read well yet due to the failure of proper remediation. After listening to these podcasts I realized 2 things. 1) dyslexia and reading disabilities are so grossly misrepresented in our society and 2) there are actually scientific programs that can help ALL children to read better - most schools just don’t use them. Thank you for these.

I listened to “Why Aren’t Our Kids Being Taught How to Read,” and it stirred me to take action and write a review. The piece did a wonderful job of presenting all sides while still taking a stand for our youth, and it’s an important question to answer: why ARENT they being taught to read? This episode was an illuminating view of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on between schools and teachers, and it highlighted the adult world’s fear of change. A must listen for anyone remotely interested in education or the general future of our country.

I look forward to every new episode and have learned so much by listening-I recommend Educate for every educator and everyone who is concerned about education.

Absolutely, hands down, a great resource for anyone who either teaches children ( or young adults or adults) or works with kids learning to read. Homeschool, private or public teaching, librarians or tutoring...wonderful insight backed up with data and references. I was impressed. Only thing that would be a bit helpful is links to some of the resources mentioned- but I believe I can go to main site to find it. Well done APM!

Gut wrenching and inspiring. The science behind how to teach children to read. I highly suggest listening to this podcast.

Good content on education

This was a really good summary about what dyslexia is and several anecdotal accounts of people that have been dealing with the teaching of reading in public schools related to dyslexia.

This podcast is a gem. Sadly, the way that radio has devolved over the last decade, programming like this has become the exception, rather than the norm. Highly highly highly recommend.

Wow! Emily Hanford captured what a parent and child go through while searching for an answer for Reading struggles in the public schools. Fortunately for Mia, she was able to go to a private school that uses effective reading instruction for students with dyslexia! We need to bring this effective instruction to all public schools so every child has an opportunity to learn to read and reach their potential!

Fascinating and skillfully produced shows on a wide variety of topics in education done by a journalist with high professional standards. Not just for parents, students or teachers; these podcasts are at the cutting edge of issues in education which effect us all.

I love this show. Its really informative and interesting.

Listening to this podcast brought all the emotions of a mother wanting to save her toddler who just slipped into a raging river. The toddler never anticipated what would happen to them as she or he naively walked toward the river and fell in with no way to save themself. I have worked with 14 to 17 year old sex trafficed victims and they never never enjoyed the giving of their bodies to strangers or being raped by ther pimps. This podcast does a great job of showing that it is not really a choice for these people. They are tricked, coersed and forced into this. Thanks for airing this.

Finally, a consistently great podcast about education in the US! I’ve been waiting for you :)

The best reporting on education out there.

Could be better if they had some sort of narrative that presented the interviews. Subject matter is presented as though your supposed to be interested in other peoples problems. To generate interest you have to tell people why they should care, why does this affect us? Listen to 60 minutes and this American life and then take another wack at it, or not. The titles make it seem like it will be interesting, but I never finish an episode.

American Radioworks is the best of the best. The stories-- some are hard to hear---give people who cannot speak for themselves---Voice. Thoughtfully constructed, edited with sensitivity--the stories are truly, "the rest of the story", the part that we did not know about as the story was unfolding. We hear the story from another side we would not otherwise know. This is the American story "channeled". If you listen to no other, listen to Oh Freedom Over Me. The background music, the on-the-scene reporting, the sensitivity of the presentation of Freedom Summer. Thank you Freedom Workers for your courage, you will live forever in the American story, these podcasts prove it. Bookmark the link, share it with anyone interested in American history and culture. These segements are the very reason why you bought an iPod. Bless you American Radio Works, you "take us there", you give Them voice.

I must confess that it took me two listening sessions to finish What Killed Sergeant Gray, the most recent podcast on this shelf (as of time of this writing) and the first one I listened to on American Public Media. This is only because my commute to work is very short, otherwise I would've finished it in one go. I cannot stress enough the quality of journalism and high technical standards of this recording. Many thanks to its creators! - Oct., 2008.

These are great full-length podcasts, but I want to point out that the program titled "Battles of Belief in WWII" has only one story, repeated twice, rather than two stories as indicated in the introduction.

Does anyone know why this podcast hasn't been updated in so long? I love this podcast!

Well researched programs on tier 1 issues, great listen great download. I suggest those saying its not worth it to rewind the tape because they certainly missed the bus

First and foremost, thank you to American RadioWorks for making such items free. Second, and more importantly, I thought they were riveting. They seemed to ride right on the line between educational and personal/emotional, giving it a vastly richer listening experience than some of the other programs. Yes, including This American Life. There. I said it. The race pieces seemed to have this history meets present feeling that didn't throw it in my face.

I have listened to most of what is available here, especially when commuting from work by bus, or even at work. I find each story completely engrossing, to the point where I'll be making copies and listening so intently that a person walking by will really startle me, as I'm so "inside" these pieces. Each one, from the story on adoption, life after prison, WWII etc. has been a very interesting, human and essential piece of my own personal, informal education. These stories are both entertaining and educational. Thanks for this excellent program!

Thank you for now putting current documentaries up here. I only aski that you take the ones being charged for in the store and make them free. I support NPR with membership on the belief that Public radio is important and should be a free service. Thank you.

These are simply great programs and full of information. You will want to listen more than once to catch it all. ~ LRM ~

This is one of the most poignant and well-crafted podcasts I've come across. If you like stories about everyday people and also insights into extraordinary events and figures, you can't do much better than this. I'd say it's at the forefront of the growing revolution hapenning in documentary radio. Not to be missed...

As of September 2006, these are now full length. One hopes the previous documentaries will soon follow, as these are excellent audio programs. Keep up the good work!

This is the "Frontline" of public radio... uncompromising, vivid stories about the real America we've all heard rumors about. The 'casts are about fifteen minutes long -- self-contained, "broadcast"-length versions of the hour-long documentaries. They're satisfying pieces of journalism, and if you want to hear the longer, more detailed version, it's easy and free to listen to the whole thing on the American Radioworks web site. What's not to like?

I agree, not worth it.