APM Reports

An instructional program that originated in the 1960s has become one of the most effective and heavily researched in existence.

In the 1960s, an education outsider named Zig Engelmann began challenging conventional thinking about how to teach young children. He went on to create a highly effective and deeply controversial program called Direct Instruction.

In the 1960s, an education outsider named Zig Engelmann begins challenging conventional ideas about what young children can learn.

As an experiment in video, we got @ehanford.bsky.social back in the studio to rerecord Sold a Story's first episode. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ajI...

Let us know what you think with comments on YouTube or by emailing soldastory@apmreports.org.

Companies linked to Sekou Dukuly received $36 million in taxpayer money over the past decade to care for disabled adults in Minnesota group homes — despite multiple residents dying and repeated findings of neglect. www.apmreports.org/story/2026/0...

Dukuly has also misrepresented his finances in Minnesota family courts, and he’s caught up in a lawsuit concerning a business venture overseas. But the state kept sending payments to the group home companies even after he took a job in the Liberian government, more than 5,000 miles away.

Utah officials are shutting down Provo Canyon School’s girls program — one of the state’s most notorious teen treatment programs, which has been plagued by abuse allegations.

At least 50 Minnesota group home clients have died since late 2022. But many penalties amounted to fines of $5,000 or less, and most homes kept their licenses. When Ryan Riggs died in the backyard of his group home, the state’s initial fine was just $1,000.

In Metlakatla, local leaders say their success in sustaining their fishing culture stems from the community’s unusual history.

Group homes help thousands of Minnesotans with physical or mental disabilities live as independently as possible. The industry’s rapid growth in the Twin Cities’ northwestern suburbs has led to problems that leave vulnerable people in danger and local governments struggling with the consequences.

Federal immigration agents waited three minutes to call 911 after one of their officers shot Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis. After a brief medical assessment, they left her bleeding in her car. Agents didn’t give her CPR and turned away the help of a man who said he was a doctor.

For decades, the federal government has surveyed high school students — and repeatedly followed up with them as adults. The goal was to gather data on their educational choices and careers so researchers could draw connections between them.

The Trump administration tried to kill the largest reading experiment ever funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm — just months before the yearslong study was complete. The administration agreed to finish the research only after it was sued.

Its lawyers said it was evaluating 16 other contracts to possibly be reinstated, potentially after adjusting the scope and seeking bids from additional vendors.

The Trump administration tried to kill the largest reading experiment ever funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm — just months before the yearslong study was complete. The administration agreed to finish the research only after it was sued.

In 2017, the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, California, exposed a new threat to public health: Wildfires can contaminate drinking water with toxic chemicals that federally mandated testing is not designed to catch.