Stirling Silliphant makes a U-turn in this episode, which has nothing to do with the series' police-procedural format in favor of what amounts to an audition for star Jim Franciscus' upcoming best career role "Mr. Novak". Nominally, he's going undercover as a junior high teacher to investigate the death of a teacher, but he delivers a full-fledged "crusading teach" performance straight out of "Blackboard Jungle".
It's a drama mixing idealism and realism, but the climax is about as corny as SS could get. Ultimately it has nothing to do with a police show, as Jim is pure educator throughout, his being undercover never relevant.
Another aspect of Audition is the strong central performance of Robert Morris as Flip, the juvenile delinquent who faces off confrontationally with Jim throughout. Sillliphant later cast him in the lead role for "Route 66", but he died before the series came on the air, replaced by Martin Milner. He seems like your standard James Dean imitator here, right down to Dean's tortured soul histrionics, closer to Maharis than Milner, and I was surprised to see that his career began with an extra role in "East of Eden".