The teaching profession is in the worst shape of the past 50 years. That’s according to researchers Melissa Arnold Lyon and Matthew Kraft, who crunched a half century’s worth of data on such indicators as whether students are interested in going into teaching, the prestige of the profession, and the satisfaction of teachers themselves. What emerged were some striking historical patterns and a clear warning about the state of the teaching profession.

Young people had a major impact in the midterm elections, including students who aren’t even old enough to vote. In this episode, we meet some high school activists who are making their power felt, both in and out of schools, fighting against an array of policies driven by what they see as adult fear. And they’re just getting started. Next up: a campaign to lower the voting age for school board elections in Michigan to 16. Special guests: Syd Olthoff, Hafiza Khalique and Julia Cuneo of Detroit Area Youth Uniting Michigan.

Supposed exposes about schools-gone-bad are a staple of US education discourse. But the COVID era and the waning of school accountability have given the “rhetoric of reveal” new life and potency. Special guest Mark Hlavacik breaks down the politics of the big reveal at a time of real danger for public education.

The story of college success in the US often conflates distance with quality, and separation from family and community as a rite of passage. But when Corinne Kentor, the runner up in our 2022 Grad Student Research Contest, observed students who’ve grown up in families with mixed immigration status, she saw something very different: a view of college as a collective project. Her research raises big questions about how we view college and “success” in a time of deepening education polarization.

What should schools do about climate change? To get some perspective on this big, even existential, question, Have You Heard is joined summons an all-star cast. Oren Pizmony-Levy, the director of the Center for Sustainable Futures at Teachers College, Columbia University, breaks down the big debates regarding schools and climate change. Investigative journalist Katie Worth, author of Miseducation, reports from her deep dive into climate change education around the country. And Elissa Levy, who teaches physics and computer science at the High School for Climate Justice in East Harlem, NH, tells us about the first public school in the nation with “climate” in its name.

Thirty years after the start of the great charter experiment, the question of just how public these schools are remains unresolved. We’re joined by former DC public school teacher, Wagma Mommandi, and Kevin Welner, head of the National Education Policy Center at University Colorado Boulder, to talk about their new book, School’s Choice: How Charter Schools Control Access and Shape Enrollment. Mommandi and Welner argue that make the case that charter advocates and policy makers have consistently tilted the rules that govern charter schools towards privateness. That has major implications for equity as we move towards a system where schools choose students.