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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May 20, 2015

Can how you move change how you think?

Scientists have long thought of the brain as a “control center” for the body – a kind of computer that dictates how we move. But what if how we walk and stand and gesture could actually change how we think?

May 12, 2015

Forest Schools

What if one day a week, school was in the woods? On the podcast, Emily Hanford takes us to Vermont to understand why teachers wanted to take their students into the forest, and what the kids -- and the teachers -- are learning from it.

May 6, 2015

Exposing Conditions at Native Schools

There are 183 federally-run Bureau of Indian Education schools in the nation, and about a third of these are in poor condition. Some students at BIE schools deal with poorly-insulated classrooms, holes in the roof, rodents, and other issues on a daily basis.

April 29, 2015

Green Teachers

A generation ago, if you walked into an American classroom, you’d likely find a veteran teacher who'd been on the job for 15 years or more. Today you're more likely to find a brand-new teacher – someone who's been the job for a year or less.

April 22, 2015

The First Gen Movement

Over the past decade many elite colleges have taken great strides to admit low-income students, but there are unanticipated financial and cultural barriers to fitting in on campus that can’t easily be solved by merely giving students a foot in the door. Questions of class differences have spurred a nationwide movement of “first generation” student clubs on college campuses.

April 15, 2015

The Lost Children of Katrina

In the year following Hurricane Katrina, 30 percent of displaced children were either not enrolled in school or not attending regularly. Today, Louisiana has the nation’s highest rate of young adults who are neither in school nor working. And researchers are starting to ask: could the widespread gaps in schooling after Katrina be the reason?

April 8, 2015

Saving a Women’s College from Closure

Last month the board of Sweet Briar College announced that the school will shut its doors at the end of this term, due to financial difficulties. The announcement was made abruptly, sending the campus community into a state of shock... and then activism.

March 31, 2015

The Future of College

Kevin Carey's book "The End of College" is stirring up debate in higher ed circles. This week, a response to the book by a critic.

March 25, 2015

The End of College or the University of Everywhere

When education policy wonk Kevin Carey looks into the future, he sees the end of traditional colleges and universities and he says that's a good thing.

March 18, 2015

UnRetirement

Today older Americans are heading back to school in record numbers. Many have already started a career, but want to gain knowledge or skills that can make them more competitive in the workplace. Colleges and universities are grappling with the needs of a changing population of students.

March 11, 2015

The Test

In her new book,“The Test: Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing–But You Don’t Have to Be,” NPR Education Blogger Anya Kamenetz examines the role testing plays in American public education.

March 4, 2015

An Administrator Responds to Adjunct Protests

Last week, we talked about growing dissent among adjunct college instructors who claim they’re not getting compensated fairly for the work they do. This week we’ll hear from someone who has dealt with this issue from the administration side.

February 25, 2015

Adjuncts Unite

What would higher education look like without adjunct professors? That’s what a grass-roots group of academics is trying to prove by holding a National Adjunct Walk-out Day on February 25.

February 19, 2015

To Test or Not to Test?

Sometime in the next few weeks, Senate Republicans and Democrats will vote to reauthorize The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. On the podcast this week, we talk to two education advocates who differ on how and when we should test our kids.

February 11, 2015

Looking back: An Imperfect Revolution

In June 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school desegregation plans that look at students’ race. This week on the podcast, we’re featuring our 2007 documentary, “An Imperfect Revolution: Voices from the Desegregation Era,"

February 4, 2015

Are HBCUs the Key to Producing More African American Physicians?

We talk to a Dallas doctor who thinks HBCUs may be the best pathways for African Americans interested in careers in medicine.

January 28, 2015

Boosting Black Male Student Achievement

The Minneapolis Public School District created an Office of Black Male Student Achievement earlier this year. One goal of the office is to help young African American men graduate from high school in greater numbers.

January 22, 2015

Free Community College for All

President Barack Obama wants to make the first two years of community college free for what he calls “responsible students” who are “willing to work for it.” It’s being called “America’s College Promise.” This week on the podcast we examine the prospect of free community college for all.

January 14, 2015

What’s in a number?

Our guest this week has a message for high school seniors and their parents who are poring over the latest college rankings lists: Put ‘em down.

January 5, 2015

Following the Money in Education Philanthropy

Philanthropic foundations have been giving money to public education for years. But our guest this week argues that philanthropies are increasingly pushing specific educational agendas.

December 15, 2014

Rising prices on the poorest

In January 2014 nearly a hundred college presidents gathered at the White House for a summit on the rising cost of college. But data show that those same institutions have been raising their prices fastest for the poorest students than for wealthier ones. This week on the podcast, we talk to a reporter who has been following the rising college cost burden on poor families.

December 8, 2014

How Much Will College Cost My Family?

In 2011 the federal government required colleges and universities to publish “net price calculators” on their web sites. These tools are supposed to help families figure out which colleges they can afford. The calculators take into account family income, number of kids in college, state of residency, and other factors. But they’re often hard to use and time-consuming. Our guest this week has made this process simpler and more accessible.

December 1, 2014

Bridging the “Middle Skills” Gap

There’s a paradox in today’s job market: even though there are millions of people looking for work, employers say they can’t find enough qualified workers. That’s due to an abundance of what economists call “middle skills” jobs – jobs that require specialized training beyond high school, but not a four-year college degree.

November 24, 2014

Academic Fraud and College Athletics

Last month the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released a report that showed evidence of nearly two decades of academic fraud perpetuated by the school’s Afro-American Studies Department. An investigation found certain professors and administrators had an unwritten policy of “propping up” student athletes. This week on the podcast, we look at academic fraud at colleges with high-stakes sports programs.

November 17, 2014

The Utility of a PhD

Humanities professors at colleges and universities are re-thinking what it means to offer a PhD. The old model is proving unsustainable. It takes an average nine years to get a doctorate, but less than 60 percent of PhDs are finding tenure-track teaching jobs. This week, we look at a new report recommending academics view doctoral programs in a new light.

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