This episode confronts a complexity of the U.S. justice system: education within prisons. What does educational opportunity look like for incarcerated individuals? The sheer scale of incarceration in the United States and devolved, state-by-state control has led to a patchwork system of educational resources that ends up being sometimes at odds with its own rehabilitative goals. Join us for a look at the challenges and systemic failures of correctional schooling and the quiet efforts to address them, which often aim to reduce recidivism and even the bottom line for taxpayers.

00:20 Intro & Announcements

00:00 The Scale of Incarceration in the U.S.

03:30 Federal vs. State Prison Education: Repeatable Process or Patchwork Promises?

12:00 Policy Levers for Improvement & States that Excel (Ohio, California)

18:30 Pell Grant Access

25:00 Incentives, Recidivism, and Privatization

31:00 Teaching in Prison: Qualifications and Challenges

37:00 What We Learned (Mariel Boatlift)

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

Education & Career Pathways in U.S. Correctional Facilities

Did your high school experience feel a little like a relic from another era? Beneath the daily routines of bells and benchmarks is a history of deliberate choices (made by a small number of voices), evolving philosophies, and healthy controversy that evolved through a period of rapid social change. This week, the hosts examine the origins of the American high school system as we know it, prompting critical inquiries into the emergence and evolution of the course and assessment structure that dictates the rhythms of adolescence in the United States. We review the landmark report of the Committee of Ten, an 1892 working group of National Education Association of the United States Committee on Secondary School Studies, which was convened in order to create a framework of educational standards to bring order to the patchwork chaos of secondary schooling in the U.S. left in the wake of the Civil War. We discuss the initial goals of the secondary school system and to what extent original intentions are still serving our students today. The episode also interrogates the notion of a singular “best” teaching or assessment method.

00:15 Intro & Recap of Holocaust Education Museum Exhibit (Cincinnati) and Guided Virtual Tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau

06:50 An Academic Conference with Enormous Power Over American High Schools

10:15 The Report of the Committee of Ten: The Most Important Education Document Ever Issued?

12:00 The Formalizing of Education as a Profession 

14:50 The National Education Association: Convener of Educational Change

16:00 Horace Mann, Common Schooling, & the Evolution of Standards 

19:30 Who Decides What is “Best”? And Better Questions

25:50 Ten After Ten: Retrospective Look & Influence of the Report

30:20 The End of Differentiation & Discussion Questions

40:00 What We Learned

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

 

Sources & Further Reading:

Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies : with the reports of the conferences arranged by the Committee [https://archive.org/details/reportofcommitte00natiuoft]

United States. Bureau of Education. Report of the Commissioner of Education Made to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year ... With Accompanying Papers. Washington: G.P.O., 18701928. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005318186&seq=2]

Education Reform in Antebellum America | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History [https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/education-reform-antebellum-america]

The History of NEA [https://www.nea.org/about-nea/mission-vision-values/history-nea]

Ten Years' Influence of the Report of the Committee of Ten [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/434806]

Episode 60 - Where No Mann Has Gone Before - 16:1 - An Education Podcast [https://sixteentoone.com/2022/06/09/episode-60-where-no-mann-has-gone-before/]

Episode 40 - A More Perfect Union? - 16:1 - An Education Podcast [https://sixteentoone.com/2021/08/05/episode-40-a-more-perfect-union/]

NEA Leadership on Teach for America [https://web.archive.org/web/20090802140546/https://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-29-teach-for-america_N.htm]

Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education [https://ia801609.us.archive.org/19/items/cardinalprincipl00natiuoft/cardinalprincipl00natiuoft.pdf]

Take Ten

We’re pleased to welcome guest Dr. Maggie Marcus to the podcast. Dr. Marcus joins us for a conversation on bilingual learners, two-way immersion programs, and navigating the needs of English learners from a policy level at a time of increased scrutiny on language learning in relation to civic identity. Dr. Marcus is the Executive Director of the Sullivan Family Charitable Foundation, which is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for English Learners. 

02:30 The Joy of Teaching Aligned to Talent: Dual Language Learning

10:30 Professional Pathways for Language Learners

16:30 Two-Way Immersion Programming: Research & Praxis

22:00 Century Foundation Report: Community Demand for Bilingual Educational Opportunity

27:30 English Learners & Pandemic Recovery Trends 

31:00 What We Learned

Sources & Further Reading:

Is Your Child Classified as an English Learner? - PIQE [https://www.piqe.org/is-your-child-classified-as-an-english-learner/]

What Families Want: New Data on Public Demand for Bilingual Education [https://tcf.org/content/report/what-families-want-new-data-on-public-demand-for-bilingual-education/]

Pandemic Response to Pandemic Recovery: Helping English Learners Succeed This Fall and Beyond [https://tcf.org/content/report/pandemic-response-pandemic-recovery-helping-english-learners-succeed-fall-beyond/]

Quadrinity Check-In | Hoffman Institute [https://www.hoffmaninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Practices-QuadrinityCheckIn.pdf]

Sullivan Family Charitable Foundation [https://sullivanfamilycharitablefoundation.org/]

Music by John Williams | GRAMMY® Award Winner | Disney+ [https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-d8dbdfd3-4943-439f-b05c-9762e4fdbdea]

Mayor Mamdani Declares Local State of Emergency, Snow Day for NYC Public Schools to Keep New Yorkers Safe [https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/02/mayor-mamdani-declares-local-state-of-emergency--snow-day-for-ny]

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

Dual‑Language Learning: Practice, Policy, & Philanthropy

Learn about the remarkable partnerships that produced more than 2,500 Carnegie‑funded libraries across the United States and the complex, negotiated process that made these institutions enduring pillars of public knowledge. Drawing on contemporary scholarship, the conversation illuminates how local communities, librarians, and decision makers harnessed Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic energy to shape America’s public library system.

00:30 Intro

03:00 Andrew Carnegie: Immigrant to Titan of American Industry

11:30 Carnegie Libraries Spread Across the Country

24:40 Library Design and Enduring Legacy

30:00 Carnegie’s Vision of Citizenship & the Gospel of Wealth

39:45 What We Learned This Week

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

Palaces and Partnerships: The Carnegie Library

Writing the Textbook for Emergency Care

What does it look like when a community builds critical infrastructure before established institutions recognize the need? In this episode, we examine a short-lived but transformative ambulance program that helped define modern emergency medical response at a time when most U.S. emergency calls were handled by minimally trained personnel. At the intersection of medical research, workforce development, and community trust, this effort, known as the Freedom House Ambulance Service, reframed first responders as field clinicians and demonstrated how on-the-job education can function as public health infrastructure. Learn about the researchers and educators who helped shape early resuscitation science, the culture of embedded learning that accelerated community care, and the institutional shifts that rippled across the country in the wake of the program’s success.

00:30 Intro + Ohio’s changing kindergarten enrollment cutoffs; school & family impact

06:00 Freedom House Ambulance Service: Community-driven transformation in Pittsburgh’s Hill District

13:20 Learning under fire: education and training in the field

17:05 Writing the textbook for emergency medical care

18:30 Building effective learning community in a crisis context

23:20 Rules, restrictions, and mavericks; pushing boundaries to further medical research

25:50 Education as public infrastructure, not credentialing pipeline; the relative value of expertise

27:00 The structure of schools & workplaces for community empowerment

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

Sources & Further Reading:

Freedom House Ambulance Service - Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_House_Ambulance_Service]

Nancy Caroline - Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Caroline]

Peter Safar - Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Safar]

Emergency Medical Services - Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_medical_services]

America's First Paramedics Were Black. Their Achievements Were Overlooked for Decades [https://healthforce.ucsf.edu/news/americas-first-paramedics-were-black-their-achievements-were-overlooked-decades]

Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders | America's First EMT Service [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pGFo0OmfwY]

How to see Dublin’s secret painting | The Doyle Collection [https://www.doylecollection.com/blog/dublins-secret-painting]

Freedom House Ambulance Service – EMS Museum [https://emsmuseum.org/collections/archives/service/freedomhousepa/]

About Us - Freedom House Doc [https://freedomhousedoc.com/about.html]

These Trailblazing Black Paramedics Are the Reason You Don't Have to Ride a Hearse or a Police Van to the Hospital [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/these-trailblazing-black-paramedics-are-the-reason-you-dont-have-to-ride-a-hearse-or-a-police-van-to-the-hospital-180986662/]

Send Freedom House! | Pitt Med | University of Pittsburgh [https://www.pittmed.health.pitt.edu/story/send-freedom-house]

Nancy Caroline Award | Safar Center for Resuscitation Research [https://www.safar.pitt.edu/safar-symposium/nancy-caroline-award/]

The Jewish Woman who Revolutionized Emergency Medicine | Aish [https://aish.com/the-jewish-woman-who-revolutionized-emergency-medicine/]

Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs by Frederic William Burton | National Gallery of Ireland [https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/highlights-collection/hellelil-and-hildebrand-meeting-turret-stairs-frederic]

Writing the Textbook for Emergency Care

We’re back to kick off our “third” season (and sixth year!) with learning strategist, National Board certified science educator, and special education teacher Tina Heineke-Kurtz. Tina is a delightful and adventurous human being with a strong passion for inclusive education, and her career in teaching and advocacy has touched the lives of countless students. We spoke with Tina about life in Oconomowoc, co-teaching in an inclusive classroom, and the challenges of meeting the needs of all learners. Welcome back, listeners, and enjoy the chaos of a gaggle of Midwesterners.

00:00 Ice Fishing with the Stomach Bomb

08:40 Teaching Journey and Career Path

13:20 Middle School and Mentorship

21:00 Co-Teaching In Inclusive Classrooms

27:40 COVID and Social/Emotional Displacement

34:40 Making Chicken Soup

37:20 Inclusive Practices and Stakeholder Perspectives

47:00 Professional Development and Personal Growth

49:20 MARBLES, MARBLES, MARBLES!

56:50 The One Who Cared

1:00:00 What We Learned

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

Voice in Teaching: Tina Heinecke-Kurtz

In the final episode of this season of 16:1, special guest Dr. Brandi De La Cruz, 2025–2026 Tennessee Teacher of the Year, joins us for an honest, grounded look at the teaching profession. Dr. De La Cruz’s nonlinear path into mathematics education has become a core part of her teaching identity, and she speaks candidly about trying new things, building community, and deepening connections between classroom learning and community impact. We also discuss graduation pressures, funding incentives, local workforce expectations, teacher retention, professional development, and the evolving realities of AI in the high school classroom.

16:1 returns January 2026 with a new season. Happy holidays!

00:30 Wrap up thoughts on teaching 1984

06:40 Dr. Brandi De La Cruz: An indirect path to the math classroom

11:20 Learning to connect with students through lived experience

20:00 Local industry and applied learning connections

24:00 Why teaching is worth choosing

27:30 Metrics, misaligned incentives, and honest accountability

36:30 Finding your people in your school

43:15 What makes for meaningful professional development?

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

Voices in Teaching: Dr. Brandi De La Cruz, TN Teacher of the Year 2025-26

This week, we’re looking through our history to ground ourselves in a turbulent present. Tune in for our discussion of Septima Poinsette Clark, the Charleston-born educator and activist Martin Luther King Jr. once called “the mother of the movement.” Her story bridges the segregated classrooms of the early 20th century and the civil rights movement’s front lines. Through the establishment of hundreds of citizenship schools across the U.S., she helped thousands of Black Americans gain the literacy skills necessary to vote, transforming communities. We also consider her complex legacy as a woman who challenged not only racism but also sexism within social movements that she helped to shape.


02:24 Septima Poinsette Clark: Family History & Educational Empowerment

06:00 Teaching in segregated South Carolina and the fight for equal pay

09:00 Adult Literacy & Citizenship

12:20 Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, and the Politics of Reconstruction

14:00 Workshops at the Highlander Folk School

16:00 Citizenship Schools and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

21:40 Septima Poinsette’s Civil Rights Activism: Legacy and Lessons

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

Mother of the Movement

Two English teachers and a technologist come together for a lively discussion on George Orwell’s 1984 and teaching the text to high school students in the U.S. in 2025. Tackles complex topics (propaganda, surveillance, freedom of expression). Good for educators who are thinking of teaching the novel in their classrooms.

02:00 Framing & historical context, George Orwell

06:50 Making sense of Winston Smith

10:00 Misogyny and modernity 

13:00 Memory, individuality, and the alteration of history

18:55 What is war in Oceania?

24:45 Newspeak, language, and narrative control

33:00 Art and entertainment in totalitarian Oceania

40:45 Student engagement with 1984

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

'84 in '25

This week, we’re covering one of the most explosive education controversies in American history, the 1974 Kanawha County, WV “Textbook Wars.” What began as a school board vote over new reading materials in West Virginia eventually escalated into boycotts, firebombings, and a national debate over who decides what children learn. From the cultural divides rooted in West Virginia’s founding to echoes of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial and the rise of outside agitators, this episode traces how faith and identity can collide in America’s public school classrooms.

02:10 Setting the stage: The Civil War and West Virginia’s history of division

04:15 The Scopes trial: How America’s first classroom media circus reshaped public discourse

08:44 Labor and identity: Kanawha County’s legacy of protest and class tension

09:40 Alice Moore & the textbook controversy

23:30 Outside influence: How extremist groups amplified local outrage

25:55 Aftermath & legacy: What this fight tells us about freedom, pluralism, and fear in public education

For a full list of episode sources and resources, visit our website. [https://sixteentoone.com/archives]

When Books Are Battlegrounds

16:1 is a biweekly podcast about education, teaching, and learning. Join Kate and Chelsea as they discuss all things edifying, from issues impacting public schools and private institutions, to education technology, to corporate influences in education, and beyond. We'll explore educational theory and praxis, issues impacting teachers and students today, and the history, myths, and legends surrounding both formal and informal education.

Chelsea Adams

Shows