APM Reports: Focus on Education

Series produced by American Public Media

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From preschool to the post-secondary years, this series of documentaries explores the question, "What kinds of education are needed for people and communities to thrive in the 21st century?"

From preschool to the post-secondary years, this series of hour-long documentaries explores the question, "What kinds of education are needed for people and communities to thrive in the 21st century?" Stephen Smith and Emily Hanford pursue meaning behind research in how we learn and teach, and what's being done across the country to strengthen our systems of education.


30 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
At a Loss for Words: What's wrong with how schools teach reading
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
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For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeate...

Bought by WHRV


  • Added: Oct 01, 2019
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Students on the Move: Keeping uprooted kids in school
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
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Moving a lot is hard on school kids. And millions of children in the United States have unstable housing. A growing body of research finds that re...

Bought by WUFT


  • Added: Oct 01, 2019
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 1
Under a Watchful Eye: How colleges are tracking students to boost graduation
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
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Colleges are using big data to track students in an effort to boost graduation rates, but it comes at a cos

Bought by WUFT and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Oct 01, 2019
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 2
Hard Words: Why aren't our kids being taught to read?
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
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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 case...

Bought by 'The Sea', WUNC, Interlochen Public Radio, KOSU, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Sep 24, 2018
  • Length: 59:59
  • Purchases: 8
Old Idea, New Economy: Rediscovering Apprenticeships
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
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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. I...

Bought by 'The Sea', Interlochen Public Radio, WOSU, WMUU-LP, WLPR and more


  • Added: Sep 24, 2018
  • Length: 59:59
  • Purchases: 8
Still Rising: First-generation college students a decade later
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
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At 19, Mario Martinez felt fortunate to have escaped his rough neighborhood and enrolled in a community college. But the odds that he would earn hi...

Bought by 'The Sea', WUNC, WMUU-LP, WLPR , WUFT and more


  • Added: Sep 24, 2018
  • Length: 59:59
  • Purchases: 7
Changing Class: Are colleges helping Americans move up?
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
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Colleges have long offered a pathway to success for just about anyone. But new research shows that with the country growing ever more economically ...

Bought by WUNC, WMUU-LP, WLPR , WAER Syracuse, NY, and KMXT


  • Added: Sep 24, 2018
  • Length: 59:57
  • Purchases: 5
Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids With Dyslexia
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Kindergartners in an Ohio classroom learning letters. One in five American kids struggles to read, and many of them have dyslexia. But public schools are failing to identify or treat dyslexia, even though there are proven ways to help kids with dyslexia l, Credit: Emily Hanford
(9/11/17) Public schools are denying children with dyslexia proper treatment and often failing to identify them in the first place.

Bought by WUFT, WMUU-LP, KUER, KCBX, WOSU and more


  • Added: Sep 13, 2017
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 11
Shackled Legacy: Universities and the Slave Trade
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Frank Campbell was a teenager when he was sold to keep Georgetown University afloat. He was one of some 272 enslaved people sold by Jesuits in Maryland to plantations in Louisiana., Credit: Ellender Memorial Library, Nicholls State University
(9/4/2017) As more schools begin to confront their participation in slavery, they also consider how to make amends.

Bought by WWNO, WMUU-LP, WNCU, WUFT, KOSU and more


  • Added: Sep 05, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 13
Keeping Teachers
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Teacher Christopher McFadden is a member of The Fellowship, a group in Philadelphia trying to recruit and retain black male teachers. Only 2 percent of teachers in American public schools are black men., Credit: Emily Hanford
(8/28/2017) There may be nothing more important in the educational life of a child than having effective teachers. But the United States is struggl...

Bought by WMUU-LP, KUER, Georgia Public Broadcasting, KOSU, WRST-FM Oshkosh and more


  • Added: Aug 28, 2017
  • Length: 52:58
  • Purchases: 10
Beyond the Blackboard: Building Character in Public Schools
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: A student at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School in New York conquers a high ropes course., Credit: Stephen Smith
In the 1940s a British headmaster named Kurt Hahn set up a wilderness school called Outward Bound to teach young men the skills they needed to surv...

Bought by WMUU-LP, XRAY.fm, WITF, Vermont Public, WGBH Radio Boston and more


  • Added: Sep 10, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 7
From Boots to Books: Student Veterans and the New GI Bill
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: A student hangs a flag outside the veteran’s center at Pasadena City College., Credit: Stephen Smith
The GI Bill of 1944 revolutionized the lives of millions of young veterans, America’s institutions of higher education, and American society at lar...

Bought by WMUU-LP, KUER, WHRV, KAZU Seaside, Calif., KSFR and more


  • Added: Sep 10, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 6
Teaching Teachers
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Teachers in Chicago doing "lesson study," a teacher improvement practice borrowed from Japan., Credit: Emily Hanford
This documentary what it would take to improve American teaching on a wide scale. We meet researchers who are trying to understand what makes teach...

Bought by WMUU-LP, Prairie Public, and WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass.


  • Added: Sep 10, 2015
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 3
The Living Legacy: Black Colleges in the 21st Century
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Students at Howard University graduation, class of 2015, Credit: Emily Hanford
Graduates of historically black colleges and universities helped launch the civil rights movement and built the black middle class. But after deseg...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WUFT, Georgia Public Broadcasting, WESM 91.3 FM, and WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass.


  • Added: Sep 10, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 5
The Science of Smart
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Students in a Chinese immersion class in Utah., Credit: Photo by Stephen Smith
Schools across the country are trying new ways to teach based on brain science. Teachers say current techniques are failing, but new approaches can...

Bought by WUFT, WMUU-LP, WHRV, KUNM, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass. and more


  • Added: Aug 21, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Ready to Work: Reviving Vocational Ed
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: A student learns welding at a vocational high school in Massachusetts., Credit: Photo by Emily Hanford
Vocational education used to prepare some kids for blue-collar futures while others were put on a path to college. Now advocates say career and tec...

Bought by West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WMUU-LP, WHRV, KUHF, 90.5 WESA and more


  • Added: Sep 11, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Greater Expectations: The Challenge of the Common Core
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Students in Kentucky taking a Common Core math test, Credit: Photo by Emily Hanford
New Common Core education standards are surrounded by controversy. Most teachers actually like the Common Core, but they’re worried about all the s...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WESM 91.3 FM, WNIJ, KPIP-LP, Capital Public Radio and more


  • Added: Aug 28, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
The New Face of College
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: A graduate and her parents celebrate first-generation college students at Amherst College., Credit: Photo by Suzanne Pekow
Today's college students are more likely to be older, working class, and ethnically diverse than in the past. Colleges must figure out how to serve...

Bought by WUFT, WMUU-LP, KQED, WESM 91.3 FM, 90.5 WESA and more


  • Added: Sep 08, 2014
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 17
Second Chance Diploma: Examining the GED
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Studying for the GED at an adult education school in Washington, D.C., Credit: Emily Hanford
Millions of high school dropouts hope their ticket to a better job is getting a GED. But critics say passing a test is not the same as getting a hi...

Bought by WMUU-LP, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, KPIP-LP, WITF, 90.5 WSNC and more


  • Added: Sep 06, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
One Child at a Time: Custom Learning in the Digital Age
From: American Public Media
Series: APM Reports: Focus on Education
Caption: Working a math problem at Mooresville Middle School in North Carolina, where each student gets a laptop., Credit: Stephen Smith
Learning with a personal tutor is one of the best ways to learn. But hiring a tutor for every student was never a realistic option, until now. Can ...

Bought by WMUU-LP, KPIP-LP, KMXT, KOSU, WTIP and more


  • Added: Sep 03, 2013
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 6

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