Learning Matters

Learning Matters, an independent, non-profit production company focused on education, produces reports for PBS NewsHour as well as documentaries for PBS. Veteran correspondent John Merrow founded Learning Matters in 1995 after an extensive career as a teacher and broadcaster with NPR and PBS.

Our work has taken us everywhere–from community colleges in Illinois and California to kindergarten classrooms in New Orleans; from the front lines of teacher protests to policy debates on Capitol Hill; from state-of-the-art schools with climbing walls and wireless laptops to dilapidated classrooms with 30-year-old textbooks; and from state-supported pre-schools in France to basement ‘mom-and-pop’ operations where toddlers do nothing but watch TV all day.

We believe that, while problems and injustices are common, solutions do exist. Our television programs, podcasts and publications spotlight problems and celebrate their solutions.

The quality of our work has been recognized by our peers: two George Foster Peabody Awards, the George Polk Award, three Emmy nominations, four Ciné Golden Eagles, four Hugo awards, and dozens of prizes from the Education Writers Association.

We also train youth in our chosen field, through Listen Up!, which Learning Matters created in 1998. This international youth media network gives young people an authentic voice, expressed in ways that meet the highest broadcast standards. Listen Up! works with youth in more than 160 sites around the globe.

Learning Matters and Listen Up! have been supported by most of the nation’s leading foundations, including Annenberg, Hewlett, Wallace, Ford, Broad, Gates, Kellogg, and Carnegie Corporation of New York.

To learn more about our work, watch this 6-minute video.