Podcasts by EWA Radio

For Rural Black Students, a College Conundrum from 2023-12-05T21:00

What keeps rural Black students from pursuing college or thriving when they get there? J. Brian Charles of The Chronicle of Higher Education went to Sussex County, Virginia to get a Listen

Can Public Education Survive School Choice? from 2023-11-28T21:00

Few education policies have become more divisive – or politicized – than school choice. Chalkbeat editor and author Cara Fitzpatrick discusses her new book, “The Death of Public School...

When Skills, Not Seat Time Earn College Degrees from 2023-11-07T21:00

What if you could earn a college degree by demonstrating your mastery of a specific set of skills, rather than completing a minimum number of hours instructional seat time? 

Listen

Migrant Children in Public Schools from 2023-10-17T20:00

After years of downward enrollment trends, Chicago Public Schools is seeing an influx of newcomer students, many of whom are new to the United States. 

Nereida Moreno of WBEZ Chicago is c...

Want Schools Open in a Pandemic? Give Them Cleaner Air. from 2023-10-03T20:00

Few things were as fraught with controversy amid the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic as the decision to close many schools while others stayed open. 

Apoorva Man...

The K-12 Stories You Need in Your Notebook from 2023-09-19T20:00

The new academic year is underway, and challenges – and opportunities – lay ahead for school communities. 

Kalyn Belsha, newly named senior reporter for national educa...

The Best Colleges You’ve (Probably) Never Heard of from 2023-09-05T20:00

Do you know Elizabeth City State University, a historically Black college, in North Carolina? What about SUNY-Geneseo in New York’s Finger Lakes region? Both schools were top performers in the W...

Higher Ed Stories to Steal from 2023-08-29T20:00

The new academic year is underway, and Inside Higher Ed Co-founder Scott Jaschik shares story ideas for enterprising journalists. Among his top picks: Legacy admissions in the wake of the Suprem...

Best on the Beat: Mike Hixenbaugh of NBC News from 2023-08-15T20:00

Mike Hixenbaugh of NBC News won the Ronald Moskowitz Prize for Outstanding Beat Reporting Listen

The Heavy Price of Policing Students from 2023-07-26T20:00

Reporters Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards share the backstory to their Listen

Passing the Public Editor Torch from 2023-07-11T20:00

As Emily Richmond returns, Kavitha Cardoza sh...

Protecting Education Journalists’ Mental Health from 2023-06-13T20:00

Education journalism has changed considerably over the years. In what used to be a relatively calm beat, reporters now deal with school shootings, contentious board meetings and angry residents ...

Getting to School Can Mean Life or Death When Trains Block Crossings from 2023-05-09T20:00

When trains block crossings, sometimes for days, communities across the country face challenges. Even if the blocked intersection is just four streets away from a location, first respo...

Covering Early Childhood Education from 2023-05-03T21:00

Early childhood is a critical time for a child's physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. 

Nurturing care is critical for brain growth, meaning a child's...

9 Things I Learned Covering HBCUs from 2023-04-26T20:00

For a while, Mirtha Donastorg was the only reporter covering Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) full time in the country. As a journalist at The Plug (a now defunct online publ...

America's After-School Afterthought from 2023-04-12T20:50

Millions of families struggle with after-school care – the hours after the school day ends but before the workday finishes. 

Rachel Cohen of Vox Media found the after-...

Tracking Student-Athletes Menstrual History from 2023-04-04T20:30

Katherine “Kati” Kokal, an education reporter at The Palm Beach Post, received a tip that prompted her to investigate why schools in the Florida district she covers were asking student...

Student Data Privacy as a Civil Rights Issue from 2023-03-28T20:00

Schools collect vast amounts of information from and about students – through cameras, computers, and their social media posts. Many children and parents aren’t aware the data may be s...

Introducing Kathy Chow, EWA’s New Executive Director from 2023-03-14T20:00

After an extensive national search, the Education Writers Association is pleased to introduce our new executive director, Kathy Chow. She will begin on April 3. 

Chow ...

Critical Race Theory in Higher Education from 2023-02-28T21:00

Critical race theory has gotten a lot of attention in the K-12 space, but how do debates about systemic racism play out in higher education?

Listen

Student Press Freedom from 2023-02-14T21:00

Marcus Pennell and other high school student journalists in Nebraska decided to celebrate Pride Month last year, with some articles in their school newspaper. 

They wr...

Tutoring as a Student Catch-up Strategy from 2023-02-07T21:00

The federal government is pushing school districts to spend 20% of the $122 billion in relief funds to “catch children up” academically. Many are turning to tutoring as a way to help s...

Top Issues to Watch in Higher Education for 2023 from 2023-01-31T22:30

One of the most eagerly anticipated sessions at EWA’s Higher Education Seminar is Scott Jaschik's look ahead into the world of higher education. He's one of three...

Literacy Efforts in Prison from 2023-01-17T21:00

About 70% or more incarcerated Americans can't read at the fourth-grade...

Producing an Education Documentary from 2023-01-10T21:00

COVID-19 caused an unprecedented disruption in children’s learning. Even though schools reopened, we are still dealing with the effects, such as academic gaps, me...

Why Climate Change Is an Education Story from 2022-12-20T21:00

Several states saw Listen

‘Unlevel Playing Fields’ for Girls’ Sports from 2022-05-03T20:30

Title IX prohibits gender-based discrimination in school programs that receive federal funding – but how fairly is the law being applied, especially when it comes to girls’ high school sports? A...

The Revolving Door to the Superintendent’s Office from 2022-04-12T20:27:38

Good superintendents can be hard to find, and even harder to keep. That’s proving to be the case In Boston. Brenda Cassellius is stepping down this summer after less than three years at the helm...

The Hopes and Fears of Teenagers from 2022-03-29T20:00

“People can't tell me what they're going to college for. But they put themselves in thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of debt—that doesn't sound like it makes any sense. That's li...

What’s Next for School Police? from 2022-03-15T20:00

In the early months of the pandemic, many districts were rethinking their policies and practices around campus safety. Now, with buildings reopened and some educators reporting a rise in bad beh...

When Public Schools Require Ethnic Studies from 2022-03-01T22:00

In a handful of states, students are learning about race and racism, and how it impacts their lives, their learning, and their future opportunities through ethnic studies courses. The class, mos...

Inside a Critical Race Theory Class from 2022-02-15T21:30

Conservatives around the country are protesting what they claim is the teaching of a formerly obscure legal theory - Critical Race Theory - to America’s schoolchildren and undergraduates....

Schools Are Open. But Where Are the Students? from 2022-02-08T23:00

Most school districts have returned to in-person learning, but enrollment numbers have taken a hit – and so have daily attendance rates. Chronic absenteeism – typically defined as missing at lea...

Miguel Cardona’s First Year from 2022-02-01T21:00

President Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, is marking his first year in office. And what a year it has been – not just for the federal agency but for schools, educators, students, an...

P-12 Education’s Big Stories to Follow in 2022 from 2022-01-11T21:00

How many days of instruction have students really lost amid the pandemic, and what's the impact? How are districts tracking and reporting COVID-19 infection rates among students and staff? Who’s...

New Year, New Higher Ed Stories from 2022-01-04T21:00

This will be a momentous year for higher education - as colleges attempt to recover from COVID shutdowns, student loan bills come due again, and big changes come to admissions offices. What will...

The Nation’s Reading Problem from 2021-12-14T21:00

When it comes to reading, America’s students are struggling. And the pandemic has only made a tough situation harder for those kids who were already most at risk of falling behind. Jill Barshay ...

$100K in Debt for a $50K Job from 2021-11-30T22:00

The Wall Street Journal’s investigations team is tackling the student loan debt crisis from multiple angles, including Listen

School Librarian Stories Are Overdue from 2021-11-16T21:00

In districts from Boston to Seattle, school librarians are wearing multiple hats these days, from helping teachers with the tech side of remote learning to working with high-need students who lo...

What Happened to $190 Billion in School COVID-19 Funds? from 2021-11-02T20:00

Congress allocated nearly $200 billion to help schools mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have until 2024 to spend all the funds. But Listen

When School Board Meetings Become Battlegrounds from 2021-10-19T20:00

Across the nation, school boards find themselves on the front lines for debates over COVID-19 mask mandates and teaching about racism. Heated exchanges during public comment periods have expande...

The Real Story Behind Teacher Shortages from 2021-10-05T20:00

Across the country, school districts are grappling with staffing shortages that are making it tough to recover from the disruptions of the COVD-19 pandemic. Matt Barnum, a national reporter at C...

How Rural Schools Get Left Behind from 2021-09-21T20:00

Writing for The New York Times Magazine, veteran education journalist Casey Parks takes readers Listen

Home Ec’s 'Secret History' from 2021-08-24T20:00

Often overlooked and misunderstood, home economics is about far more than learning to bake cakes or sew lopsided oven mitts, argues education journalist Danielle Dreilinger. She discusses her ne...

Student Pays High Price for Reporting Teacher's Misconduct from 2021-07-13T20:00

For Madisyn Slater, a senior at Blake High School in Tampa, Florida, there was little question that popular biology teacher Tiffany Johnson crossed the line with students. Slater’s decision to r...

What Is Critical Race Theory? from 2021-07-07T16:04:15

The Tulsa Race Massacre’s centennial has recently drawn headlines nationwide, but most Americans – including many educated in Oklahoma public schools – never previously learned about the tragic ...

What You Need to Know About HBCUs from 2021-06-29T20:35:58

While only 3 percent of the nation’s undergraduates attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), they produce almost 20 percent of the nation’s Black college graduates. And they ...

Rethinking ‘Town&Gown’ from 2021-06-22T20:00

As both municipal and higher education leaders tried to fend of COVID-19, the two camps sometimes found themselves at cross-purposes when it came to fiscal and public health challenges, reports ...

Lessons From the Educational Equity Beat from 2021-06-15T20:00

From an inside look at a 12-year-old struggling with remote learning to revealing that districts had wrongly forced parents to sign away their children’s rights to special education services, Th...

Teaching the Tulsa Race Massacre from 2021-06-07T20:49:39

The Tulsa Race Massacre’s centennial has recently drawn headlines nationwide, but most Americans – including many educated in Oklahoma public schools – never previously learned about the tragic ...

The Billion-Dollar School Safety Boondoggle from 2021-05-25T20:00

America’s gun violence crisis is leaving its mark on multiple generations of young people, who don’t need to be victims or even direct witnesses to shootings to suffer lasting harm. That’...

Racism at VMI from 2021-05-18T20:00

The impact of reporter Ian Shapira’s Listen

How Kids Think from 2021-05-11T20:00

How do adolescents learn to make healthy choices? When does the desire for status and respect most influence the teenage brain? The answers are evolving as neuroscientists learn more about what ...

No School, No Work, No Chance from 2021-04-27T20:00

The only federal program intended to help disconnected young adults find meaningful job training has turned into a $1.7 billion boondoggle. That’s the big takeaway from Listen

Children, Schools and Guns from 2021-04-20T20:00

America’s gun violence crisis is leaving its mark on multiple generations of young people, who don’t need to be victims or even direct witnesses to shootings to suffer lasting harm. That’s the b...

The Billions of Dollars in Hidden Student Loan Debt from 2021-04-13T20:30

The impact of America’s $1.5 trillion in student loan debt makes a lot of headlines. But one team of reporters dug into a little-known corner of the student debt market and discovered a pattern ...

Let’s Talk About Teachers’ Unions from 2021-03-30T22:00

The growing clout of teachers’ unions is becoming one of the nation’s most attention-getting education stories. Before the pandemic, successful “Red for Ed” unionized teacher strikes and demonst...

When the Child Care Gap Is a Chasm from 2021-03-09T21:00

In many communities, the demand for reliable, affordable child care has long outstripped the number of available spots. The coronavirus pandemic has only worsened the shortage, and many mothers ...

A Busing Program's Troubled Legacy from 2021-03-02T21:13:37

Can busing Black students to schools outside of their immediate neighborhoods make public education more equitable? How can reporters better cover the history of such desegregation efforts, and ...

Oregon’s ‘Class of 2025:’ Meet the Middle Schoolers from 2021-02-16T21:00

Imagine keeping tabs on the same group of students and families for nearly a decade -- Oregon Public Broadcasting Listen

Why More Men are Missing Out on College from 2021-02-09T21:00

COVID-19 is remaking the college landscape, especially when it comes to who’s pursuing - and who’s pausing - on higher education. New data shows the decline in enrollment is seven times as large...

Who’s Tracking Student Learning Loss? from 2021-01-26T21:00

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, states are largely leaving it up to individual districts to decide how to track how much -- or little -- of the standard school curriculum are K-12 students learning ...

Who Is Miguel Cardona? from 2021-01-19T21:00

Connecticut education commissioner Miguel Cardona has surged into the national spotlight as President-elect Joe Biden's nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Education. Connecticut Mirror educa...

New Year, New Education Stories to Watch from 2021-01-05T21:00

Student absenteeism, budgetary struggles, and sharp drops in college enrollment are likely to be some of the big stories on the K-12 and higher education beats as the pandemic continues in 2021....

‘Targeted:’ Sheriff Secretly Used School Records to Profile Students from 2020-12-15T21:00

In Pasco County, Florida, the sheriff’s department used students’ school records, including their grades and information about their family lives, Listen

Learning to Read on Zoom from 2020-12-08T21:00

How do you capture both the experience of a young student learning to read remotely, and the challenges for their teacher on the other side of the screen? Education reporter Perry Stein masterfu...

When Schools Get Hacked from 2020-12-01T21:00

Across the country, increasingly aggressive hackers are breaking into school computer systems and holding sensitive student information for ransom. Education leaders often quietly pay big bucks ...

No Sports. No Band. No Fun. (And Less Learning?) from 2020-11-17T21:00

From basketball to band, debate club to dance teams, the coronavirus pandemic has curtailed extracurricular activities for many of the nation’s K-12 students. That could have a long-term impact ...

Science! (in Education Reporting) from 2020-11-10T21:00

How can education reporters do a better job of incorporating science into their coverage of students and schools, especially as the evolving research around COVID-19 dominates discussions about ...

COVID-19 College from 2020-11-03T17:15

Who takes a cross-country reporting road trip in the midst of a pandemic? NPR’s Elissa...

Biden v. Trump: Their Education Plans from 2020-10-26T14:47:39

What would a second term for President Donald Trump mean for K-12 and postsecondary education? And conversely, what might change if Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the election? Listen

Battling for ‘The Souls of Black Girls’ from 2020-10-20T20:00

When it comes to school discipline, Black girls often receive harsher treatment than whites, including referrals to enforcement. That’s the conclusion from a Listen

On the Road With NPR's Higher Ed Reporter from 2020-10-13T20:00

Who takes a cross-country reporting road trip in the midst of a pandemic? NPR’s Elissa Nadworny Listen

‘Left Behind’ By Remote Learning from 2020-10-06T20:00

Was the decision to close schools and send students home for remote learning influenced more by politics than the science of what would keep kids safe? That’s the central argument made by ProPub...

A Different Kind of College Rankings from 2020-09-22T20:00

When choosing a college, students and families often turn to popular rankings to help inform their decisions. Rather than focus on test scores and how difficult it is to gain entry, The Washingt...

Who’s Watching the Kids? from 2020-09-15T20:00

The coronavirus pandemic has forced most child care centers to close in an upstate New York community where affordable options for families were already in short supply. That’s having a ripple e...

In This Baltimore Teacher of the Year’s Classroom, Race and Equity Matter. from 2020-09-08T20:00

In her new book, education writer Melinda D. ...

Can Schools Close ‘The Knowledge Gap?’ from 2020-09-01T22:00

Much attention is focused on how schools will deliver instruction this fall, whether remotely or in schools with COVID-19 health and safety precautions in place. But what students are t...

Back-to-School: The Coronavirus Edition from 2020-08-25T22:00

It’s a new academic year like no other on the K-12 and higher education beats. A pair of veteran education journalists share tips and insights for what’s ahead this fall and beyond. Listen

‘Too Young To Die’ in Montgomery, Alabama from 2020-08-18T22:00

In Alabama's capital city, an epidemic of violence has shadowed the class of 2020 throughout their high school careers. Nearly a dozen of their classmates were killed before making it to graduat...

The Future of School Police from 2020-07-29T15:42:22

The tension over having armed police on public schools campuses isn’t new, but it’s moved back into the spotlight in recent months. In early June, the school board in Minneapolis -- where George...

At These Christian Schools Getting Public Dollars, LGBTQ Students Pushed Into Conversion Therapy from 2020-06-23T22:00

In a new investigation, The Huffington Post’s Rebecca Klein found disturbing examples of Christian schools that receive taxpayer dollars -- through tax credit scholarship and voucher programs --...

Protest Stories Are Education Stories from 2020-06-09T22:00

For education reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez of KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, life has been "an emotional roller coaster" Listen

What’s New With ‘Varsity Blues' from 2020-06-02T22:00

With more celebrity defendants pleading...