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Schools in the Recession: TucsonSchools in the Recession: Tucson

Schools are certainly feeling the pinch in these tough economic times. How are two different types of schools in Arizona dealing with the cuts? [MORE]

Race to the Top: Making HistoryRace to the Top: Making History

Race to the Top is unlike any education reform effort in U.S. history. This program looks back at the last 40 years of school reforms. [MORE]

Holding the LineHolding the Line

The stimulus money has gone out, but what's it done for school districts? Rochester, NY got $30 million...how are they using the money? [MORE]

A Brand New BallgameA Brand New Ballgame

Watch how young people learn and play all summer long at Harlem RBI, a summer day camp that combines baseball and academics. [MORE]

Stop. Think. Act.: Social & Emotional LearningStop. Think. Act.

The goal of school is often to prepare students for college. And while academics matter, success is also built on healthy relationships. [MORE]

The Stimulus GapStop. Think. Act.

What do we do with failing schools? Christina Kishimoto, director of a re-designed school in Hartford, Ct, grapples with that question everyday. [MORE]

When School is HomeStop. Think. Act.

Schools seem to be stepping in to fill the role of home. In Green Bay, WI the number of homeless students—504—is at an all-time high. Can schools do it all? [MORE]

Arne Duncan: A Profilearne duncan

President Obama's new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has a $160 billion budget--and of that, he can spend $5 billion any way he pleases. With over 200 special interest groups and countless superintendents clamoring for his attention, Duncan has a lot of options. How will he disburse the money? [MORE]

Recession Affects Public Schoolshigher ed, higher costs student debt

President Obama's stimulus package had offered hope to schools. But the Senate's version made $40 billion in cuts. Just how much is at stake for public schools? We visited Peekskill Public School district in New York to find out. [MORE]

Higher Ed, Higher Costs higher ed, higher costs student debt

Since the early 80s, college tuition and fees have grown 375%. This two-part series examines how the nation's public universities and its students are faring amid the economic downturn rising costs of higher ed. DVD includes 2 programs and four podcasts. [MORE]

Pay for Grades

Is paying students for grades a good idea? More and more cities are launching "pay for grades" pilot programs in an effort to increase student motivation and improve performance. But is it working? DVD includes bonus story of one student's experience with the pay for grades program. [MORE]

Leadership: A Challenging Course - Year 1 (2007 school year)

This ongoing series follows two new superintendents through their first year on the job in deeply troubled school districts.

Watch as Michelle Rhee attempts aggressive reform in Washington, D.C. and Paul Vallas tries to rebuild the ravaged Recovery School District in New Orleans.

Purchase the D.C. or New Orleans series' separately for $8.95 or the full series (10 episodes) for $14.95. [MORE]




Leadership: A Challenging Course - Year 2 (2008 school year)

The second year following Michelle Rhee in Washington, DC and Paul Vallas in New Orleans during the 2008 school year.

Purchase Episode 1 of Year 2 for $8.95/each. [MORE]



No Child Left Behind: A Closer Look

This series of hree special reports focuses on the federal law known as No Child Left Behind. DVD includes three segments and ten podcasts with extended interviews. [MORE]

Lessons of War

How does having a parent in a war zone influence what students ask at school and how they learn? And what should a teacher say when a child asks, "Will my Daddy die?" or "Will Mom come back safe?" [MORE]

Gifted Education

Gifted students - there are about 3 million in the US - are not getting what they need from the public education system. Programs for the gifted are disappearing in districts across the country because of budget cuts, shifting priorities and, some allege, because of the federal "No Child Left Behind" act. [MORE]

Chicago International Television Awards Winner

Teaching Entrepreneurship

Meet inner city high school students as they attempt to secure financing critical to launching their dream of an all-natural soda company, and hear why some say entrepreneurship education is the biggest civil rights issue facing America today. [MORE]

Critical Condition: America's Nursing Shortage

America's nursing shortage is bad now and getting worse. Community Colleges are the solutions, or they could be,
if only ... [MORE]

Making the Grade

A seven part award winning series that follows a group of first year teachers struggling to learn the ropes in one of the worst schools in New York City. A primer for Teaching Fellows. [MORE]

Chattanooga

When a list of the worst elementary schools in Tennessee came out in 2000, Chattanooga was stunned to find that nine of its schools were in the bottom 20. Embarrassed, the community decided it had to act. [MORE]

Stricken Schools, PARTS 1 - 4

When Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, many in the education community saw an opportunity to reform the notoriously corrupt and failing New Orleans public schools. "Stricken Schools," a 4-part report on the efforts to rebuild the district, aired on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS in 2005-2007.[MORE]

School Spirit

Visit Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, today, and you might think that Hurricane Katrina struck last week, not more than seven months ago. We report on what life is like at Second Street Elementary School. [MORE]

Is Excellence Enough?

A close look at some of the complications and contradictions of Washington's effort to improve local schools. [MORE]



Turnaround Specialist Pt. 1 - 4

Parke Land is a "Turnaround Specialist", one of about a dozen public school principals hand-picked by the state of Virginia to rebuild schools stuck at the bottom. [MORE]

School Reform in New York City

It was just over three years ago that Mayor Michael Bloomberg took over the nation's largest public school system and appointed Joel Klein as the schools chancellor. How is Klein doing in what President Bush once called 'the toughest job in America'? [MORE]

Academic Squeeze: Community Colleges

Nearly half of all undergraduates in the US attend community colleges. These 2-year institutions, which have long been seen as higher education's poor cousin, play several critical roles: They train much of the labor force, provide remedial help for students who want to go on to 4-year colleges and universities and provide the opportunity for many of America's newest citizens. [MORE]

Women in Science

Women hold less than 25% of all science and engineering jobs in the government and private sectors. In academia, the gender gap is even wider - among the top 50 university science and engineering departments, on average only 15% of all tenure and tenure-track professors are women. [MORE]

Free Tutoring

The President's "No Child Left Behind Act" provides up to 2 billion dollars for after-school tutoring. Millions of students in chronically failing schools can now attend programs offered by education companies like Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Sylvan Learning Centers. [MORE]

Society of Students

Nearly forty gangs claim the Boyle Heights neighborhood in East LA as home turf. Beginning in elementary school, students who work hard are ridiculed by their peers and labeled a 'school girl' or a 'school boy'. Can one more gang, this one started by a teacher, counteract the negative influences? [MORE]

Disappearing Dropouts

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans enroll in "adult education" classes to earn their GED, the high school equivalency diploma. The GED was created after World War II to help returning veterans continue their education and, since then, students in the program have traditionally been adults in their 20's and 30's. Today, there's a new trend: GED classes are increasingly filled with teenagers. [MORE]

  • Emmy Nominated
  • Chicago International Television Awards Winner

  • High School Recruiting

    Last year, the U.S. government spent almost 4 billion dollars recruiting soldiers for our nation's all volunteer military forces. A portion of this budget was allocated to recruit thousands of high school students across the country - a practice which has been facilitated by the No Child Left Behind act. [MORE]

  • Chicago International Television Awards Winner

  • Achievement Gap

    By 2019, when this year’s fourth graders turn 24, whites will be two times as likely as blacks and three times as likely as Hispanics to have a college degree. In schools across the nation, white and Asian students outperform their black and Hispanic peers in every subject. This disparity in education is known as the "achievement gap," and it's been the subject of countless task forces and research studies. [MORE]

  • Chicago International Television Awards Winner

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    Turning Around St. Louis Schools

    What should a public school district do if only 5% of its high school students can read at a proficient level even though it was spending $11,000 per pupil? This was the case in St. Louis last year. [MORE]

    The Best and the Brightest

    Amherst College, one of the country's most prestigious institutions, competes with Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other universities for the nation's brightest and most talented students. This year, 5,400 high school seniors applied to Amherst, hoping to snag one of just 423 spots in the freshman class. So how do highly selective colleges and universities decide who gets in and who does not? [MORE]

    Gifted Education

    Gifted students - there are about 3 million in the US - are not getting what they need from the public education system. Programs for the gifted are disappearing in districts across the country because of budget cuts, shifting priorities and, some allege, because of the federal "No Child Left Behind" act. [MORE]

  • Chicago International Television Awards Winner

  • Testing Matthew

    The Bush administration's No Child Left Behind law requires more standardized testing with far tougher tests for America's 7 million students in "special education". Depending on how you look at it, the new testing requirements are either a disaster in the making or the most exciting opportunity in decades for students with disabilities. [MORE]

  • Chicago International Television Awards Winner

  • Saving Black Colleges

    More than 270,000 students attend the nation's 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The majority of these institutions were founded by former slaves following the Civil War to provide educational opportunities for blacks when there were none. [MORE]

    Report Card: Reading First

    Why would one school district turn its back on $265,000 in federal money, while a neighboring district was jumping at the chance to get $330,000? The answer lies in the details of the new federal program, "Reading First." [MORE]

  • International Reading Association's Broadcast Media Award for Television Winner

  • Separate Classrooms

    This report is on single sex education in public schools. It's banned by Title IX regulations but encouraged by "No Child Left Behind". Some say separating children by gender allows both boys and girls to learn more and that it's no different than separating children by age. Others, however, say it's the equivalent of racial segregation and is therefore unconstitutional. [MORE]

    High Hopes

    John Merrow talks with Joel Klein, the newly-appointed chancellor of the New York City public school system. [MORE]