Download the KQED Education Annual Report: 2025-2026 School Year
Despite a tough year for public media, it is clear that the service we provide is as valued and impactful as it ever has been. We’ve seen this through the increased number of classrooms submitting student-created media to our Youth Media Challenge Showcase (26% growth!), where we received nearly 4,000 submissions. We saw this through the more than 7,600 educators who attended a professional development workshop or received a KQED Teach course certificate. And we saw this through student impact data, such as the significant growth in student civic learning through our Podcasting Democracy pilot program.
I am so proud of the work the KQED education team has done this year alongside our internal and external partners to elevate student voice and to be a trusted resource for educators. I can’t wait for you to read this report!
You’ll find:
- The number of students and educators we’re reaching (pg 3)
- How we’re helping students develop narrative agency to prepare them to engage with technology critically, creatively and with a strong sense of who they are (pg 4-5)
- How we’re helping educators explore the role AI will play in their classrooms (pg 6)
- A summary of our new civic media curriculum, Podcasting Democracy, that helps students learn about our country’s foundational documents and explore how our rights and responsibilities as Americans have changed over time, then create a podcast that connects those principles to current issues they care about (pg 7-8)
- Information about our exciting work with colleagues at KQED to bring students’ Podcasting Democracy projects and other media projects to KQED’s audiences (pg 7, 10)
- The significant impact of the Podcasting Democracy curriculum on student outcomes (pg 8)
- Plus, you’ll learn about collaborations with our partners at other public media stations and education nonprofits, and the list of organizations and funders we are grateful to partner with (pg 8, 9, 11)
What are you waiting for? Happy reading!
Michelle Parker
Executive Director, Education
P.S. Want to share your thoughts? Email me at [email protected]. Want to partner with us? Reach out to our Partnership Director Almetria Vaba or our Director of Philanthropic Partnerships Danielle Horcabas.
Explore all of KQED Education
Download our annual report to learn more about all the different ways we are successfully serving our community, check out our free media literacy resources and training for educators and youth media projects for middle and high school students, and sign up for our educator newsletter.
About KQED
KQED is a not-for-profit public media station and NPR and PBS member station in the San Francisco Bay Area. KQED makes award-winning digital, radio, and TV programming and has a track record in education spanning more than 70 years.
The KQED Education Department’s north star is to elevate diverse youth voices. We are uniquely positioned to combine award-winning media literacy and media making resources with the power of public media. Our staff includes teachers, media makers, and journalists who create free, ready-to-use, media literacy curriculum that deeply engages students and hands-on professional development for teachers. Through our suite of programs, we train teachers to meaningfully incorporate media literacy into K-12 classrooms and develop students’ critical thinking skills about real-world issues, which are core to a healthy democracy, and promote civic engagement across generations.