Saturdays 5pm to 6pm on KRWG-FM
September 16, 5pm
Shadow Class: College Dreamers in Trump’s America
Public schools in the United States have to treat undocumented students like citizens. But once these students graduate, everything changes. Without papers, they don’t qualify for federal college grants, they can’t legally work to pay for tuition, and they may have to pay out-of-state tuition. Some young immigrants received temporary papers under an Obama administrative program, but now they find themselves on a collision course with newly powerful opponents, including a president who swept into office on a wave of anti-immigrant fear and anger. APM Reports follows immigrant students under the Trump administration.
September 23, 5pm
Keeping Teachers
There may be nothing more important in the educational life of a child than having effective teachers, but U.S. schools are struggling to attract and keep them. The problem is most acute in rural areas, where kids may learn math from a social studies teacher. In urban schools, the teachers most likely to leave are black men, who make up just 2 percent of teachers. This APM Reports documentary tells two separate but connected stories about the teachers these schools desperately need, but can’t hold on to: black men and those willing to work in rural areas. There are surprising similarities in why schools struggle to attract and keep these teachers that are particularly relevant now, when the divides between urban and rural — and white and black — are getting so much attention.
September 30, 5pm
Shackled Legacy: Universities and the Slave Trade
A growing number of colleges and universities in the eastern United States are confronting their historic ties to the slave trade. Profits from slavery and related industries helped build some of the most prestigious schools in New England. In many Southern states, enslaved people built and maintained college campuses. This documentary focuses on three universities — Harvard, Georgetown and the University of Virginia — as they grapple with a deeply troubling chapter in their vaunted histories. At the crux of the story is the question of how these institutions might make amends for the ways they participated in American slavery and the moral, political and practical issues undergriding that question.
October 7, 5pm
Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids
One in five American children has a hard time learning to read. Many of these kids have dyslexia. There are proven ways to help people with dyslexia learn, and a federal law that’s supposed to ensure that schools provide kids with help. But across the country, public schools are denying children proper treatment and often failing to identify them with dyslexia in the first place. This APM Reports documentary investigates why and explores how improving things for dyslexic kids could help all students learn to read better.