APM Reports

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Investigations and documentaries from American Public Media. apmreports.org

At least 50 Minnesotans who live in group homes have died unexpectedly since 2022. The Department of Health investigated 32 of the deaths. The Department of Human Services investigated the other 18. Investigators found neglect by the group homes or their employees in 19 cases. Fines for substantiated maltreatment were $1,000 or $5,000.
A map of Annette Island in Alaska, home of Metlakatla. A fishing boundary is drawn 3,000 feet off the shore.
Group homes are concentrated in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis. Most parts of the Twin Cities haven’t seen the rapid growth in group homes that Brooklyn Park and other nearby suburbs have experienced.
The Senior Editor, Investigations, will be a leader in our nationally renowned investigative, podcast, and documentary journalism unit, APM Reports, and the award-winning newsroom at MPR News. In addition to top-flight narrative audio chops, the ideal candidate will have the flexibility to shape stories across a variety of channels, including digital long-reads, data visualizations, social media and video. In this role, the ability to work collaboratively with leaders and teams from other departments and other news organizations is essential. The Senior Editor will work on future seasons of our hit podcast Sold a Story and another investigative podcast currently in development, as well as collaborations with MPR News and other public media organizations. There will also be opportunities for them to act as a player/coach with the teams they lead.
A New Yorker article that says, in part: "Calkins eventually added phonics to Units of Study, partly in response to Hanford’s reporting. Nevertheless, in 2023, New York City began phasing out the curriculum, which it had used for years. The city recently released test results showing that the number of students meeting the bar for proficiency has risen by seven percentage points. (Columbia’s Teachers College moved away from Units of Study, too.) "Anne Wicks, an education and economics specialist at the George W. Bush Presidential Center, told me that Hanford’s podcast helped transform what had been a relatively obscure academic debate into an approachable subject for laypeople."
Myth 1: If kids get phonics instruction, they’ll become good readers. Not necessarily. Sounding words out is essential, but it’s not a magic bullet. Kids need vocabulary, background knowledge, and lots of practice. Myth 2: Schools taught reading better in the “good old days.” But there was no golden age. Things were actually worse back in the 1970s. That's what the data shows. Myth 3: Doctors are better at following research than teachers. But putting research into practice is a challenge in lots of professions. Even medicine. Doctors used to believe stomach ulcers were caused by stress. Then researchers showed they were mostly caused by bacteria. But it took decades for doctors to change. Myth 4: We don’t need any more research on reading. I’m hearing this one a lot these days. Especially from people who are fans of the federal cuts to education. But the science that is helping many schools teach reading better – it was made possible by the federal government.
The Deputy Managing Editor (DME) guides the APM Reports team within MPR News. This is a national award-winning, ambitious, enterprising unit of investigative and documentary reporters, producers, and editors. The DME is responsible for the team’s complex and consequential works of original revelatory journalism on all channels. We are looking for an experienced investigative editor committed to creating essential and engaging journalism that serves the public interest. The editor will be an inspiring and insightful leader and mentor, upholding standards of journalism excellence, and setting the team’s vision in collaboration with their supervisor. Exceptional communication, expertise in investigative and data reporting, as well as partnership development are all critical for the candidate’s success. The DME will be responsible for working with each team member to set their coverage plans, goals, and deliverables. In addition, this role works to foster a collaborative team culture within MPR News, as APM Reports leads enterprise and investigative reporting across Minnesota, the region, and the nation. The editor will be in charge of juggling stories in various stages of completion, from long-term investigations to quick-breaking scoops often requiring close coordination with various stakeholders, teams, and departments, with air-tight attention to detail and accuracy in every story. The DME will work directly with other news and community partners on local investigative journalism projects and may be required to assist in grant reporting, monitoring, and foundation relations. Currently APM Reports continues its extraordinary education reporting, soldastory.org, and is focusing on mental health, as well as leading enterprise work of relevance in Minnesota and the upper Midwest region.
APM Reports strives to raise awareness, trigger debate and prompt positive change via non-partisan, independent investigative and documentary journalism. We are located in St. Paul, Minnesota, as part of American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio.
Hey, Sold a Story fans. We have something new. When the podcast came out, people said they wanted a way to talk about what they heard. So we made discussion guides. They’re full of questions and prompts and suggestions for things to read. And now we’ve got new discussion guides to go with our latest episodes. Teachers have used these on professional development days, for study groups and happy hours. Think of them like a book club, but for a podcast. You can download them, print them and share them for free. Go to soldastory.org/discuss/
A map of the United States shows states that have enacted laws in the past three years. They are colored three shades of blue to represent the year of the legislation.
A treemap identifies terminated contracts. They are sized by dollar value and shaded colors based on whether they have been reinstated.
The Trump administration is talking about reading. But what they don’t mention is that a lot of science was funded by the federal government. The Institute of Education Sciences was established by Congress more than 20 years ago. It funds research about what works in education and collects data on how students are doing. It was hit hard by the Trump cuts. It used to have 200 employees. Now it has about 20. And almost all the research contracts were canceled. Reporters rely on this essential data to measure student progress, but the experts who collect it have been fired.
A screenshot from a document showed scheduled NAEP tests. With red Xes and slash lines, canceled tests have been noted.
An illustration depicts workers leaving the Department of Education after losing their jobs.
A map of the continental United States with colored dots representing nursing home locations.
Children learning to read are interviewed about their favorite words.
We contacted hundreds of Minnesota cities and asked whether they have a rental ordinance and inspect rental properties. Sixty percent of the cities that responded do not have a rental inspection program. This map of the state locates the cities that responded and identifies whether they inspect rental properties.
Nancy and Bob were betting that if you put a bunch of effective educational practices together, the result would be a successful school. A school that would make a difference for kids. But Bob and Nancy didn’t know if their program would work. It was kind of like they were making a soup. They knew the ingredients were good. But what about the soup? Would the soup taste good? Would the recipe actually work?
"Consider an old story about a little town that decided to build a gorgeous playground on some land that it had. The problem, however, was that this beautiful land was at the edge of a cliff. And it occurred to the town fathers that there was a danger that children might fall off the cliff. So the local playground board had huge debates. Should we build a fence at the top of the cliff? Or should we put an ambulance at the bottom?" -Bob Slavin
A chart shows blue dots representing saturated buffer designs. They are clustered on the left, mostly below a red line marking a 2017-20 standard for system drainage capacity.
A map of the United States shows where new laws have passed regarding reading instruction. Two colors of blue are used, for laws passed in 2023 and 2024. The podcast Sold a Story came out in late 2022. Some additional states had laws or policies on the books prior to the podcast.