Millennials in the U.S. are more politically divided than they have ever been in the past, according to a newly released study from the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Views on the President

Numbers show that the overall approval rate of Mr. Obama for 18 - 29 year-olds hasn’t changed much in the past year. But according to the study, the gap between Democrats and Republicans who approve of the President has widened.

Eighty-five percent of 18 - 29 year-old Democrats approve of Obama’s job performance, while only 11 percent of young Republicans approve -- a difference of 74 percentage points. A year ago, this gap was ten percentage points smaller.

Graph below from Harvard Institute of Politics.

Views On Guns and Gun Control

The study also released new findings about Millennial views on recent hot-button issues like gun violence and gun control. The numbers show that the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut did not change Millennial views on gun control, although the partisan gap on this issue has widened since 2010. The percentage of young Democrats who favor stricter gun control laws has increased by eight percent since 2010, while the percentage of young Republicans who are opposed to stricter gun control laws has increased by six percent.

However, the majority of Millennials (56 %) disapprove of the way the Mr. Obama's handling "gun violence," according to the study.

As for their views of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the biggest gap is racial: forty-nine percent of white Millennials expressed a favorable opinion of the NRA, while 48 percent of black Millennials expressed a net unfavorable opinion. 

Almost one-in-five Millennials owns a gun, according to the press release, and 39 percent of Millennials say they have an immediate family member who owns a gun. 

What do you think that will that mean for our country in twenty years? Tweet us @youthradio.

By Lauren Benichou

More than 200 young people from all over the country converged online this week to talk about youth access to jobs, or the lack thereof.

In the US, teen employment is near historic lows, yet companies report jobs going unfilled because they can’t find qualified workers.

Thursday’s live chat was hosted by the New Options Project Youth Advisers and joined by career counselors and administrators from youth programs, responding to many thoughtful questions and comments from concerned youths on a range of topics from the college-career pathway to dream jobs to the challenges faced by young people in trying to enter the professional world. Here’s a sampling of some of the topics they explored:

By Chaz Hubbard, Denise Tejada and Jenny Bolario

What's the path to that dream job? How does one job lead to another? Youth Radio finds out in our series Jobstacles.

Joel Melero has always been into automobiles, from detailing to fixing engines, but even he was surprised that his passion for cars led him to a career on the assembly line at one of the nation's leading electric car manufacturers, Tesla Motors. Melero says that it took him 10 years to figure out what he wanted to do. “If you want a house, you want a car, you gotta go somewhere," says Melero, "You've got to push yourself.” For Melero, that meant enrolling in trade school and studying to be an electrician. Watch the video to find out how he found his way to Tesla.

Graphics by Teresa Chin

School suspensions during freshman year seem to have a lasting effect on students' high school careers -- but not in the way they are intended. According to a new series of reports released from the UCLA Civil Rights Project, a student suspended even once in ninth grade is less likely to graduate from high school compared to his or her peers who never got in trouble. And suspensions aren't distributed equally among students, according to one of the reports from Johns Hopkins University. Check out our infographic below.

This week on the Youth Radio podcast, a study from Johns Hopkins University may show that a common method for reforming students is really holding them back. Youth Radio reporter Robyn Gee discusses that study, and her profile of a teacher who did everything she could to keep her elementary school students from being kicked out.

The Following aired on KQED-FM.

By. Christina So

“I’m going to pick on you a lot.” That was the first thing my supervisor Kurt said to me when I joined the App Lab. It’s a department at Youth Radio that teaches young people how to write computer code.

Kurt explained that as a female who was interested in programming, I would be treated as a unique specimen in the male-dominated world of tech. He said he not only wanted me to be able to handle the pressure, but to be better than the competition.

I joined the App Lab mostly because of the word App - short for application. My favorite apps were games, and I played them a lot. Back then, my 4th generation iPod touch was a major part of my life. I spent at least 3 hours a day staring at that little miracle producing screen. But over time my interest changed from playing games, to learning how to create them.

I started with the most fundamental computer language: HTML. It was simple, easy, and straightforward, but the end product was bland and bare. That’s where CSS came in. It makes up for HTML’s lack of finesse. Then I moved on to Python. It’s an even more complicated language that constricted me like an actual python.

By Sunday Simon

For more on this story, tune into my feature about Snapchat on NPR's All Things Considered.

Want to know what kind of pictures young people are really sharing on Snapchat? Just ask them.

Join Live Chat - Connecting Youth To Job Pathways
It's happening right here, on Thursday, April 25th at 7-8pm Eastern/6pm Central/4pm Pacific

Teen employment in the U.S. is near historic lows, yet companies report jobs going unfilled because they can’t find qualified workers. So how do we solve the problem?

Policymakers, employers and academics all say this issue is key to addressing America’s economic future. The New Options Project Youth Advisers are hosting a series of live chats, inviting young people to join conversations about how best to prepare youth for the jobs of tomorrow.

Have ideas? Join us as we talk about the problem, and possible solutions.

By Wesley Pepper

I once spent a week in a special ed classroom as a student. I loved it because I was finally in a class with my best friend (who had been labeled special ed because his English wasn’t perfect yet.)

Even he said, “You don’t belong here.” He was right. It was a clerical error, and administrators soon realized they needed to move me, and before I knew it I was back in classes full of students I had been around for my whole academic career. Nap time was over.

But my friend didn’t belong in special ed either. He wasn’t fluent in English yet, but he was fluent in Spanish because of the neighborhood where he lived for the past three years. He was fluent in French because he lived in France a year as a refugee, fleeing his war torn home of Eritrea. And of course, he spoke Arabic.

How did somebody who could learn this fast get labeled special ed? Even though there are many who benefit from this label because it means extra-support, and having a special ed designation can be a positive thing, at my school the label just meant classes led by apathetic teachers who felt like their students couldn’t learn.

The label tracked my friend for life.

Almost two decades later, I was standing in front of my own classroom. Last year I taught English to eighth graders, and some of them had labels that they couldn’t shake off.

I had a student in the class that I taught who had been labeled a “behavior problem.”

The following aired on KCBS.

By: Joshua Clayton

Before my older brother gets out of jail, I have a few things I need to get done.

Whenever my brother calls me from jail he asks me, ‘How are you doing? Are you still working? How is the family doing?’ I wish I could tell him we’re all okay and show him we still have his back.

I’ve got a year to make something happen and have things ready for my brother’s arrival. When he shows up I don't want to be on a tight budget or living at my grandma’s house. I have faith I can make it in the music scene, but in the meantime I’m trying to find a full-time job. I hope to have my music go far while I continue to work and save to get my own place. That way if my brother needs anything, he doesn’t have to do anything illegal for it.

When he gets home I want him to see that I can take care of myself. I want him to see that I’ve grown. My brother taught me a lot, and this is my way of showing him I was listening.