| BUY ON DVD
Schools 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 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 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 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 Learning
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 Gap
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 Home
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 Profile
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 Schools
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 
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
|
BUY ON VHS
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]
|
