The Educate Podcast

The Educate podcast is all about education. We care about equity and opportunity and how people learn. We dig deep into education research. We're curious about how research translates into policy — or not. We think good teaching is hard. We think history has a lot to tell us about why things are the way they are. We believe in vivid storytelling.

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November 25, 2015

Inside school discipline in Mississippi

Some school districts are ending out-of-school suspensions in favor of policies that consider why children are acting out and help correct misbehavior. But when a school lacks resources it may be hard to replace traditional school discipline with sensible alternatives.

November 19, 2015

Building bridges between the Western and Arab worlds

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.

November 11, 2015

Inside Oyler: a conversation with Amy Scott

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.

October 29, 2015

Learning to breathe

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.

October 22, 2015

Is the growth mindset craze overblown?

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.

October 15, 2015

Helping students adopt a ‘growth mindset’

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.

October 8, 2015

The rising cost of extracurriculars

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.

October 1, 2015

Wikipedia’s bum rap

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.

September 25, 2015

A visit from the Church Lady

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.

September 16, 2015

Teaching black lives matter

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.

September 10, 2015

Beyond the Blackboard: Building Character in Public Schools

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.

September 3, 2015

From Boots to Books: Student Veterans and the New GI Bill

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.

August 27, 2015

Teaching Teachers

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.

August 20, 2015

The Living Legacy: Black Colleges in the 21st Century

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.

August 7, 2015

From the Archives: Early Lessons

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.

July 30, 2015

Goodbye, College Ratings (For Now)

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.

July 23, 2015

Sweet Briar Returns

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.

July 15, 2015

The Future of Historically Black Colleges

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.

July 7, 2015

Talking About Race in Schools

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.

July 2, 2015

Minorities and Special Ed

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.

June 23, 2015

Learning from Video Games

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.

June 17, 2015

Teaching the Birds and the Bees

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.

June 11, 2015

What can Japan teach us about teaching?

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?

June 2, 2015

Million-Dollar Teacher

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.

May 28, 2015

Divestment on Campus

Across the world, college students are urging their institutions to “divest” from fossil fuels. This week we ask: is the divestment movement working?

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