Have You Heard

Suddenly education is THE hot topic. But where there’s heat, light doesn’t necessarily follow. Jennifer and Jack discuss what’s missing from the coverage of the backlash against Critical Race Theory, as well as some stories that should be getting more attention, including the Biden Administration’s missing education policy and the quiet collapse of Obama-era education reform.

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Recommended readings:

Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider, “What’s Joe Biden’s Plan for Education?” https://www.thenation.com/article/society/biden-education-policy-poverty/

Jennifer Berkshire, “Culture War in the K-12 Classroom” https://www.thenation.com/article/society/culture-war-classroom-teachers/

Community colleges get a bad rap. But recent graduates of Maryland’s Frederick Community College say that stigma is undeserved. These new and soon-to-be-teachers make a powerful case for learning - and teaching - close to home. Warning: this episode may upend preexisting notions about the relationship between education and place, not to mention how we define “smart.”

Special guests: Professor Sarah Bigham, Frederick Community College and an all-star cast of FCC grads.

The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast or donate on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/haveyouheardpodcast

The public school culture wars are raging more intensely than at any time since the Reagan era. Fueled by intense political polarization and the continued fallout from pandemic school closures, the culture wars now threaten public education. Special guests: four teachers who are on the front lines of the battle over what gets taught.

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Inefficient. Ineffective. Outdated. Outmoded. Unrepresentative. Sure, local school boards are deserving of all of these criticisms (and more), but they are also seedbeds of local democracy at a time when democracy is under attack. Special guests: school board member and scholar Rachel White, and school committee member Roberto Jimenez Rivera.

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Two decades ago, the Free State Project announced an audacious plan to make New Hampshire a utopia for libertarians. Now one of their central goals - privatizing education - appears within reach. Have You Heard heads to the Granite State to explore New Hampshire’s shifting political terrain and why what began as a fringe political movement is no laughing matter. Guests: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, author, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear.

The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast or donate on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/haveyouheardpodcast

Jack and Jennifer’s book, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, is out and available wherever you buy books: https://www.wolfattheschoolhousedoor.com/

The pandemic gave the education technology industry the opportunity to FINALLY deliver on the bold promises it has been making for decades. What happened instead was just another failure to disrupt, says MIT's Justin Reich.

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Students from Boston tell Have You Heard what they've lost during this year of pandemic learning. Spoiler: what you'll hear bears little resemblance to the discussion of "learning loss" that's atop the agenda of policy makers right now. Special guest Boston teacher Neema Avashia helps us make sense of the gap between how students are feeling and how adults with power are talking.

The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast or donate on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/haveyouheardpodcast

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is creating a network of tuition-free Montessori-inspired preschools for low-income students. But his vision of schools that nurture the autonomy and creativity of kids is on a collision course with the Amazon workplaces Bezos has engineered for adults. Special guest: Mira Debs, author of Diverse Families, Desirable Schools: Public Montessori in the Era of School Choice.

The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast or donate on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/haveyouheardpodcast

Jennifer and Jack’s book, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, is out and available wherever you buy books!

The idea that more education is the way to help workers get ahead is a cherished American principle. In fact, this "human capital" view of education dates all the way back to another period of roaring inequality in the US: the Gilded Age. Historian Cristina Groeger joins us to discuss the origins of the "education fix," and why the idea of educating our way out of inequality has always been doomed to fail.

The brutal pessimism of school rankings and ratings, starring Akil Bello, Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement at FairTest.

The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast or donate on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/haveyouheardpodcast