Education

APM Reports has a long history of covering education and reading issues in the United States, dating back to the days of American RadioWorks, which produced several hour-long audio documentaries. Since 2022, the majority of the education reporting has been related to the investigative podcast Sold a Story, hosted by Emily Hanford.

August 28, 2017

A fellowship of the few: Black male teachers in America's classrooms are in short supply

Only 2 percent of the nation's teachers are black men. Increasing their numbers would benefit students of all backgrounds. In Philadelphia, a group forms to double the number by 2025.

August 28, 2017

Why are there so few black male teachers?

Only 2 percent of teachers in American public schools are black men. Why so few? Here's what the data show.

August 28, 2017

Black men and teachers in rural areas are in especially short supply

There may be nothing more important in the educational life of a child than having effective teachers. But the United States is struggling to attract and keep teachers.

August 21, 2017

A Supreme Court case 35 years ago yields a supply of emboldened DACA students today

Four immigrant families sued the Tyler, Texas school district in 1977 after their children were kicked out and required to pay for a public education. Five years later the court ruled in favor of the families, citing equal protection. It allowed generations of undocumented children to learn next to American-born peers and have a fair chance in life, say experts. And their journeys contributed to a presidential order in 2012 that protected undocumented immigrants from deportation and allowed them to work.

April 10, 2017

Undocumented students learning lessons from civil rights era

The federal government sets immigration policy, but states decide how much access undocumented immigrants have to their public colleges and universities. Georgia has some of the strictest policies in the country.

September 8, 2016

Higher education behind the bars of San Quentin

California's San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco is one of few prisons in the nation to offer a college education to inmates. Here's a look at the Prison University Project behind the prison walls.

September 8, 2016

Prison history assignment yields surprise, passion for research

When inmates at Indiana Women's Prison got an assignment to write the institution's history, the project dug up unknown details and instilled a love of research in inmates.

September 8, 2016

College behind bars: Keeping an idea alive

After an abrupt reversal 20 years ago, some prisons and colleges try to maintain college education for prisoners.

September 1, 2016

Two high-poverty schools chase better graduation rates

The nation's high school graduation rate is at an all-time high, but high-poverty schools face a stubborn challenge. Schools in Miami and Pasadena are trying to do things differently.

August 25, 2016

Restorative justice: A new approach to discipline

Schools facing dilemmas over disparities in discipline policies are turning to an approach known as restorative practices, focusing on how to repair harm done.

August 25, 2016

St. Paul: New discipline policy sows dissatisfaction

In St. Paul, administrators dealt with disparities in discipline by reducing suspensions and expulsions. In the end, the superintendent was fired and few were happy with the result.

August 25, 2016

Using new approach, Denver cuts suspensions by half

In 2008, Denver schools abandoned their zero-tolerance approach to discipline and opted for other ways to deal with school behavior. Suspensions and expulsions are way down and the racial gap in discipline has narrowed.

August 25, 2016

Two centuries of school discipline

How to discipline students has been debated in American schools since the country was founded.

August 25, 2016

What exactly should school cops do?

Police officers have been in schools for years, initially brought in as a means of student protection. But some say they have become too involved in school discipline.

August 25, 2016

Amid evidence zero tolerance doesn't work, schools reverse themselves

A get-tough attitude prevailed among educators in the 1980s and 1990s, but research shows that zero-tolerance policies don't make schools safer and lead to disproportionate discipline for students of color.

August 18, 2016

States attack college readiness in high school

Using a solution as obvious as it is rare, a few states have begun designing remediation course work while students are still in high school.

August 18, 2016

College students increasingly caught in remedial education trap

A system meant to give college students a better shot at succeeding is actually getting in the way of many, costing them time and money and taking a particular toll on students of color.

September 10, 2015

A vision for a new kind of public school in America

In 1987 an educator frustrated with American school reform challenged Outward Bound to get more involved in the debate about the direction of public education. He thought American schools could learn from Outward Bound's focus on experiential learning and on teaching skills like resilience and collaboration.

September 10, 2015

Into the woods: Two principals explain what students learn by getting out of the classroom

One of the features of education at many Expeditionary Learning schools is an Outward Bound trip. See photos of one of these trips and read an interview with two principals about why they send their students outside and how it relates to what they’re trying to do in the classroom.

September 10, 2015

Kurt Hahn and the roots of Expeditionary Learning

Early in his life, Kurt Hahn had a vision of the kind of school he wanted to create, and it was nothing like the school he went to. It would be a school designed to help kids discover their interests and passions, not just prepare them for tests. And it would be a school devoted to character development.

September 10, 2015

Inside Expeditionary Learning at the Springfield Renaissance School

There's a lot of talk these days about the importance of traits like grit, curiosity, and self-discipline — so-called "non-cognitive skills." How can schools teach those skills? Correspondent Emily Hanford explores the approach to character development at one school in Massachusetts.

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

The history of the GI Bill

A staggering 16 million soldiers returned home from World War II, and millions of them went to school. Because GI Bill benefits were generous enough to pay for any college in the country, veterans flooded all types of institutions, from elite schools like Harvard to large state schools, to vocational schools. By 1947, half of all college students in America were veterans.

September 3, 2015

The GI Bill: One of the last great economic ladders?

The Post-9/11 GI Bill was supposed to change where veterans could go to college by giving them more money, and, therefore, more options. But since the new bill went into effect in 2009, the percentage of veterans enrolling at four-year public and private nonprofit schools has barely budged.

September 3, 2015

The front lines of the long journey home

Colleges and universities have become the front lines of one of the great challenges posed by war: how to reintegrate the people who've served.

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