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Class of 2025 offers an in-depth exploration of some of the issues that students from Oregon face today, seen through the lens of the students themselves.
Jonathan says he mastered fourth grade; by seventh, your neat theories about bright kids start wobbling.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Two Portland teachers discuss online middle school, election questions, and the classroom work behind civic learning.
Teaching middle school online meant holding a virtual room together while students brought election questions into class. This Class of 2025 episode stays close to Ron Russell Middle School in Portland, where Jamie Robillard, a social studies teacher, and Carly Halligan, a math…
A grounded look at racial discrimination, school discipline, grief, and the adults who helped teenagers imagine another future.
School discipline is framed here as a question of what adults notice in teenagers before punishment takes over. Cameron Field, a 10th-grade student, speaks to recognizing racial discrimination early, while Kevin's story traces how grief, poverty, a school fight, suspension, and…
A compact, human-scale check-in on remote school, lingering disruption, and the Class of 2025's next step.
This short PlayNext installment works as an epilogue to an eight-year reporting project, returning to the Class of 2025 near the end of middle school and looking ahead to high school.
Héctor and Beto dissect Mexican grammar, slang, and news in native-speed Spanish conversations.
Small habit changes meet hands-on AI experiments.
Class Of 2025 turns to Ron Russell Middle School in Portland, where Dave Miller of OPB's Think Out Loud talks with Jamie Robillard and Carly Halligan about teaching eighth graders during comprehensive distance learning.
Elizabeth Miller of Oregon Public Broadcasting hands Class of 2025 to TBH from KALW, where Chosong Tenzin and Hannah Nee frame a teen report on race, education, and punishment.
Dr. Valerie Adams-Bass explains why navigating unwelcoming school spaces can leave Black students mentally exhausted.
Class of 2025 examines why boys such as 13-year-old Jonathan and eighth grader Joel can struggle during middle school.
Josh says he could not find teachers “my kind” at a school where only three of 49 teachers were people of color.
Middle school students share how the pandemic has affected their home life, school, and mental health.
This episode explores how fear of deportation affects immigrant students and whether schools can provide sanctuary.
A long-term project tracking Oregon students from kindergarten to high school, examining obstacles to graduation, with a focus on talented and gifted students.
This episode explores the challenges faced by students experiencing homelessness and poverty, focusing on a boy named Ethan and how schools can help.