All of the Above Podcast

California’s high school class of 2030 will be the first statewide cohort in the nation required to pass an ethnic studies course in order to graduate. Although this groundbreaking step stands in sharp contrast to the banning and censorship efforts taking place in states like Florida, California’s ethnic studies mandate is not without its critics and detractors. This week we sit with Dr. Theresa M...

This Week : The notion that “throwing more money at schools” isn’t a serious policy solution has dominated the policy landscape for decades, thanks in significant part to one Eric Hanushek.  His work has been cited in court cases, and public discourse since the 80s to suppress efforts at more just and equitable funding for schools. Well, turns out that even Hanushek's own research now supports...

This Week : we got a bunch of hood stuff to get into today! Manuel’s students present their ethnic studies genius, AOTA listener Mike chimes in on last week’s episode on teacher pay with an interesting debate, a MN school district buys bulletproof whiteboards for kids to fend of school shooters, and one person files more than 7k civil rights complaints to the US Dept of Ed all by themselves last y...

This Week : The 2022 NAEP 8th grade civics scores are out, and the clickbait headlines are flowing. But what does the data really mean, and how should we feel about the lack of progress?  Also, Manuel and Jeff weigh in on an age-old debate - should teachers who work in hard to staff schools, or schools serving marginalized communities, be paid more? Is the opposition from unions just entrenched po...

This Week: It’s a growing annual tradition, schools celebrating college decision day with fanfare, pomp and circumstance. With that backdrop in mind, Manuel and Jeff explore a record setting senior who was admitted to 125+ colleges and earned more than $9M in scholarships, and students in CA who got into their dream school, got max financial aid awards, and s till can’t afford to go . Plus, the Co...

It’s an age-old question: Why aren’t my students as excited about this super-awesome lesson plan as I am?? Of course, it would be wonderful if every student arrived to class with deep, passionate motivation to learn each day. Seeing as how that’s not quite the reality in our schools, this week we explore what role teachers play in creating the conditions for students to develop an intrinsic motiva...

This Week : Manuel heads to Sacramento to hang out with all the most brilliant educators in CA working on teacher diversity, and a new piece in The 74 cites federal data showing, surprisingly, a bump in enrollment in teacher prep programs throughout much of the country. Could this mean the beginning of the end of the teacher shortage crisis? Or is this just a blip on an otherwise downward trending...

This Week: College enrollment overall has been on the decline for several years now, but with enrollment down nearly 40% in the nation’s community colleges, big questions arise - where are the students going? Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? What’s not working in our 2 year schools that needs fixing? What should we do about it? Manuel and Jeff dig into the complex issues driving students away...

Those of us educators and advocates outside of the state of Florida have been looking at the repressive and dangerous actions of the state government in shock. As the Republican leadership in Florida passes bills fundamentally altering the landscape of education, how are educators and the communities they serve being impacted? This week we’re joined by Florida-based author, educator, and super-dop...

This Week: After a three day strike, with SEUI and UTLA joining forces to demand sharp raises in pay and benefits for LAUSD’s lowest paid workers, an agreement was announced with a historic 30% raise, guarantees of better working hours, and an expansion of health care coverage for employees and their dependants. Meanwhile, Texas continues the march towards right wing dystopia with a fanatical bill...

Equity gaps in education aren’t limited to the confines of the traditional school day. Out-of-school and extracurricular enrichment experiences deliver thousands more hours of learning to kids from wealthier backgrounds than children living in marginalized communities. How might this be addressed, and where does this issue fit in the larger context of educational equity? Dr. Charli Kemp joins us t...

This Week : Three years ago the educational world came to a virtual standstill as COVID 19 would close school house doors, and reshape the experience of a generation. And, a story from NBC News profiling families of LGBTQ students who are choosing to opt out of attending college in states with new repressive, anti LGBTQ laws on the books. What will this mean for the landscape of college applicatio...

This Week: Jeff interrupts his tropical galavanting to check in with the All of the Above family across a 15-hour time difference. That’s dedication! Amid a backdrop of tropical waves, he and Manuel take a look at a new piece by Anya Kamenentz about a promising approach that some schools are taking to address the teen mental health crisis. In the face of a very real shortage of mental health provi...

This Week: Sometimes you just gotta trust the youth. Hundreds of kids at a Tuscaloosa, AL high school walk out in protest after their school administration allegedly told them to not include any content from before 1970 in their Black History Month program. The College Board gets in on the fun with a flimsy response to the Florida DOE that does nothing to dispute that they capitulated to right win...

Here at All of the Above we loooove teachers, especially super-dope ones. We’re also, perhaps, a tad bit partial to California. That being the case, it should come as no surprise to our AOTA Family that we’d bring on yet another super-dope teacher from California–Jason Torres-Rangel!! Jason is a California State Teacher of the Year and a California nominee for the National Teacher of the Year comp...

This Week : We weren’t expecting much, but the College Board’s insulting capitulation to white supremacist fascism this week with their release of the newly white washed AP African American Studies curriculum on Feb 1st - just in time for Black History Month - raises big questions, to say the least.  In what can only be seen as siding with the most dangerous political elements in our country,...

This Week: Just a week after sending a letter to the College Board declaring the AP African American History curriculum to “significantly lack educational value” the brief, but deeply racist and psychologically violent message from Governor Ron Desantis’ Florida Board of Education has hit the headlines . And it’s as much of a hot mess as it seems. It’s the latest escalation of the right wing war a...

This Week: A fascinating new paper from NBER analyzing the correlation between the rise of teen suicides and school being in session gives us an important moment of cognitive dissonance, and a chance to rethink the impact schools have on students. And, we say deuces to one Serranus Hastings -- the formerly named “UC Hastings” Law School dumps it’s colonizer namesake after his history of rape and p...

This Week: It’s the first episode of 2023, and only fitting that we take a moment to reflect, and share a few challenges we have for ourselves, and for the ensure AOTA family, as we  move into the final half of the 22-23 school year.  Speaking truth, humanizing education , remembering that relationships are the currency of school, and more.  Join us! Get your All of the Above swag,...

This Week: New Jersey, the Garden State, hits the headlines with a new effort to ensure media literacy is in the curriculum for grades K-12. At least 14 states have some effort to address media literacy in the curriculum , but Jersey aims to move towards the front of the pack with this effort. But, as with most policies, the devil is in the details. What really does it mean to focus on things like...

Making sense of school funding formulas can be tricky, especially when considering the multiple categories of spending that have been set up to try to address social inequities. This week we take a look at federal education spending and the legacy of marginalization that has left so many communities of color behind. Dr. Malik Abdul-Khaliq, a Federal Program Monitoring team leader at the California...

This Week: This one didn’t get much attention in the national headlines, but it should have. Jeronimo Yanez, the racist, murdering, hateful cop who murdered Philando Castile in cold blood, for no reason, in front of his partner and young chid, is trying to become a teacher .   W T F.  That’s right, the guy who couldn’t help but murder St. Paul (MN) Public Schools’ beloved food service em...

Our show may or may not be guilty of spending way too little time on issues related to early childhood education. Well, that ends today! Super-dope kindergarten teacher and education advocate Tayo Enna joins the show this week to help us explore the ins and outs of the fight for educational justice in today’s kindergarten classrooms. Should kindergarten be mandated? How does the growth of T-K impa...

This Week: We’re sure you heard about the election last week, and we’re sure you didn’t hear much about the many ways in which this election had big implications for the nation’s schools and school systems.  Manuel and Jeff discuss the mixed results of the right wing attempts to take over school boards, including here in “liberal” California , the likely passage of bond measures up and down C...

Among the litany of education buzzwords that aren’t always understood is the increasingly popular term “community school.” When folks say that their site is a community school or that they’ve received funding to create a community school, what exactly do they mean? This week we’re joined by super-dope educator and advocate Emily Grijalva to unpack the meaning, purpose, and promise of community sch...