Author

Alex Baumhardt

Alex Baumhardt

Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.

Ethan Kemper at desk doing homeschool work on the computer.

Despite return to in-person classes, many who chose homeschooling during pandemic stay home

By: - October 6, 2021

By May 2020, Ethan Kemper had all but given up on school. Banks High School, where he was finishing his freshman year, had gone to a pass/no pass grading system after having in-person school derailed by the coronavirus.  Jacoba Kemper said her son’s classes felt unplanned, communication between the teachers and Ethan lagged and filling […]

Student getting served lunch at Salem school.

Oregon school districts navigating food shortages, supply chain issues

By: - October 6, 2021

Not long before a recent nacho lunch day in the Hillsboro School District, Nate Roedel learned that he wouldn’t receive the 120 cases of tortilla chips he’d need to make more than 13,000 meals. Luckily Roedel, executive director of nutrition services for the district, had gotten good at improvising. The last two months of food […]

Farmland in Oregon

New plan from Global Warming Commission relies on farms, forests to absorb emissions

By: - October 5, 2021

Oregon farmers could be recruited to play a crucial role in the state’s climate change efforts under a new plan from the Oregon Global Warming Commission. The Commission, created by the Oregon Legislature in 2007, lays out more than 30 strategies for upping the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by Oregon lands and waters and […]

A teacher cleans a classroom to prepare it for students

New emergency substitute teaching license attempts to solve statewide shortages

By: - October 5, 2021

Hiring substitute teachers has been difficult in Oregon for a number of years, but the pandemic has made it worse.  Superintendent Dan Goldman, who coordinates the hiring of substitutes for the Northwest Regional Education Service District, had only 65% of the substitute teachers he needed last week to fill classrooms in the 20 school districts […]