American Graduate

Series produced by WUNC

Caption: PRX default Series image
PRX default Series image 

WUNC's American Graduate Project is part of a nationwide public media conversation about the dropout crisis.

WUNC's American Graduate Project is part of a nationwide public media conversation about the dropout crisis. We'll explore the issue through news reports, call-in programs and a forum produced with UNC-TV. Also as a part of this project we've partnered with the Durham Nativity School and YO: Durham to found the WUNC Youth Radio Club. American Graduate programming is funded in part with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Project Funders:

GlaxoSmithKline
The Goodnight Educational Foundation
Joseph M. Bryan Foundation


42 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Piece image
After steady, if slight, growth in teaching positions through 2009, the number of positions has taken steps backward in the following seven years. ...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: 03:11
Caption: PRX default Piece image
The Department of Homeland Security will proceed with an Obama Administration grant program to counter violent extremism, but UNC-Chapel Hill is a...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: :50
Piece image
UNC-Chapel Hill is waiting for the federal government to release money awarded by the Obama Administration. Nobody is sure if it will ever come.

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: 03:31
Piece image
Low end-of-grade test scores can have consequences for administrators and teachers. Districts can fire personnel at persistently low-scoring school...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: 04:08
Caption: Fifth-graders at Mariam Boyd Elementary in Warrenton, North Carolina, use Chromebooks to answer questions about a story they’re reading. Their teacher, Charis Shattuck, says the technology allows her to review her students’ work in real-time and give them
North Carolina lawmakers are banking on the benefits of digital learning. Four years ago they passed legislation requiring that state funding for t...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: 03:29
Piece image
State Superintendent Mark Johnson's first months leading North Carolina Public Schools has been marked by a legal battle over just how much power h...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: 03:59
Piece image
Weekly piano lessons over the course of seven years could have cost Joshua’s family anywhere between $15,000 and $30,000. With help from Chapel Hil...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: 03:53
Piece image
Jess Clark reports on the effects of state-mandated class-size reduction in kindergarten through third grade.

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: 03:24
Piece image
Governor Pat McCrory has made the rise of teacher pay a centerpiece of his bid for reelection.

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: :52
Caption: The map from the DPI report shows the highest and lowest 3-year suspension rates by district.
A Department of Public Instruction report shows after seven years of progress in reducing high school dropouts, last school-year the state's dropou...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2017
  • Length: :35
Piece image
The Trump administration wants to cut $1 billion in federal education funding for after-school programs. Many of these programs provide low-cost or...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 03:51
Caption: PRX default Piece image
The Miles of Smiles mobile dental clinic is operated by the New Hanover and Brunswick county health departments, it stops at 19 schools a year to s...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 03:58
Piece image
Corporal punishment is still a legal practice in North Carolina schools. But today there are just two districts in the state where educators still ...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 07:02
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Governor Morehead School is North Carolina’s only state residential school for the blind.

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 04:15
Piece image
Last school year, Thompson enrolled her three kids in North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA)—one of the state’s two virtual charter schools. Both ha...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 04:04
Piece image
One of the lesser known provisions of the sweeping 2013 voter ID law ended voter preregistration for 16 and 17-year-olds. Now that the Fourth Circu...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 03:50
Piece image
Homeschooling is becoming more common, and studies suggest that military parents are more likely to homeschool their kids.

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 03:58
Piece image
GLOW Academy is the state's first all-girls charter school. It opened its doors in Wilmington this school year and is part of a national network of...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 03:52
Piece image
The elementary school hallway of Magellan Charter School. Magellan has one of the highest school performance grades in the state, but it also has a...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: 03:52
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Newly hired teachers and staff at a 2015 orientation for Wake County Public Schools. Small rural districts find it difficult to compete with Wake C...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2017
  • Length: :35