OPB's Class Of 2025 project has been documenting the growth of 27 students who started school together in Southeast Portland for 8 years.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
For Rayshawn and Josh, two students in the Class Of 2025 who are Black, their parents say they’re doing better learning at home than they were in school.
Some of the reasons are similar to what we’ve heard already in the podcast, like fewer distractions, or the freedom to relax, by sitting in a comfortable chair, or laying down in bed.
But there’s also something else that students don’t have to deal with at home — the systemic racism and bias that tends to show up at school, sometimes explicitly, but most often, implicitly.
This episode, we hear what things were like for Rayshawn and Josh at school, how they’re doing now, plus get some insight from two University of Virginia professors.
“Class Of 2025” is a six-episode podcast from Oregon Public Broadcasting. The podcast is hosted and produced by OPB’s Elizabeth Miller with editing and producing by Rob Manning and Elyssa Dudley. Episodes are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR One app, and at opb.org.
The Class Of 2025 podcast was made possible with support from the Education Writers’ Association Reporting Fellowship.