An article in October’s issue of The Atlantic details a struggling Staten Island high school that turned itself around by implementing an intensive focus on analytic writing in subjects across the board. How did they accomplish that, and what are the implications for the rest of our nation’s struggling writing students? Host Frank Stasio will discuss the power of writing in education with Peg Tyre, the author of The Atlantic article, "The Writing Revolution" and the book, “The Good School: How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education they Deserve” (Henry Holt & Company/ 2011); Judith C. Hochman, founder of the Windward Teacher Training Institute, consultant for the Center for Educational Leadership at the Baruch College School of Public Affairs in New York City and author of “Teaching Basic Writing Skills” (Sopris West/ 2009); Julie Ellison Justice, assistant professor of literacy education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Michele Diaz, assistant professor of psychology at Duke University and the associate director of the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center; and Dr. Terrence Holt, clinical assistant professor in the department of Geriatric Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, research assistant professor in the department of Social Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill and author of the book “In the Valley of the Kings” (W.W. Norton/ 2009).
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Shawn Wen joined the staff of The State of Things in March 2012 and served as associate producer until February 2014.