All Of The Above Podcast

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 against the teaching of truthful history in schools, and the weaponization of the institution of school against kids, educators, and communities alike. Manuel and Jeff rant, and discuss the implications. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our

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 plunder is revealed. Of course, a group of his descendants, and some colonizer alumni are decrying “cancel culture” while fighting the change, and suing the state for a preposterous $1.7B. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our latest conten

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, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our latest content! Website: https://AOTAshow.com Stream all of our content at: linktr.ee/AOTA Watch at: YouTube.com/AlloftheAbove Listen at: apple.co/38QV7Bd and anchor.fm/AOTA Follow us at: Facebook.com/AOTAshow and Twitter.com/AOTAsho

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 “freedom” and “digital citizenship” in the classroom? Could be great, could be Ron Desantis’s Florida. Manuel and Jeff discuss. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our latest content! Website: https://AOTAshow.com Stream all of our content a

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 Department of Education, joins the show to help us explore this topic! But first, Jeff and Manuel take a look at recent headlines in education including a new study about the harmful educational impact of polluted air and a look at what comes next after California screens more and more students for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). → Get your Teach the Truth T-Shirt here! → View this episode on YouTube! AGENDA 0:00 - Welcome! 9:35 - Polluted Air Causing Kids to Fall Behind 22:10 - What Happens After ACEs Screenings? 35:37 - Federal Spending w/ Dr. Abdul-Khaliq! 1:17:05 - El Busesito Preschool on Wheels! DO-NOW

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 employee is now trying to get credentialed to be a substitute teacher, after having taught Spanish at a local parochial school.  As it turns out, Yanez’s application was initially denied because, well, we don’t want racist murderers to teach.  But, administrative law judge Susan Segal is requiring the state board which oversees credentialing to reconsider his application with a more narrow interpretation of its criteria for “immoral character and conduct.” Yep, this is America. Manuel and Jeff discuss. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attac

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 impact the early stages of the education pipeline? And with growing attention being paid to diversifying the teaching force, how do matters of diversity and inclusion impact early childhood educators? Tayo Enna, a 17-year kindergarten vet and Oak Grove School District's 2021 Teacher of the Year, joins the show to help us explore these issues! But first, Jeff and Manuel take a look at recent headlines in education including a teaching model that puts over 100 students in a class and a predictable failure of one state’s CRT witchhunt tipline. → Get your Teach the Truth T-Shirt here! → View this episode on YouTube! AGENDA

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 CA which will build “affordable” housing for educators, as well as the passage of an exciting statewide ballot measure to hire thousands of arts teachers and guarantee arts education in every CA school.  Also, the right wing attacks against student debt forgiveness continue as a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas puts banks ahead of people. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a

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 schools. Emily is an award-winning teacher who currently serves as the Community School Coordinator and sponsor of the GSA at Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School in Los Angeles. She joins the show to help us explore the ins and outs of community schools. But first, Jeff and Manuel take a look at recent headlines in education including a university removing all of its student teachers from a district that banned CRT and a new study exploring whether remote learning was a primary driver of decreased test scores. → Get your Teach the Truth T-Shirt here! → View this episode on YouTube! AGENDA 0:00 - Welcome! 10:11 - S

This Week: From the cradle of American racism, aka Great Britain, comes a story about schools getting their wrists slapped for having policies that ostracize and exclude Black students for wearing natural hairstyles.  Also, did you know about World Afro Day?  Well now you do :).  Manuel and Jeff also discuss the release of NAEP scores this week and the ongoing learning loss narrative. Plus the guys get into the intricacies of the best Halloween candy, which is undoubtedly these bad boys right here. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our latest content! Website: https://AOTAshow.com Stream all of our content at: linktr

At a time of heightened attacks on curriculum and increased efforts to obscure and whitewash the past, our teaching of history and the social sciences is as important as ever. Perhaps no era in American history is as critical to understanding our present challenges as the Reconstruction Era, so how well of a job are our state history standards doing in teaching the truth about this time period? This week we’re joined by the co-author of Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle, Mimi Eisen! Mimi is a historian and program manager for the Zinn Education Project, which promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. But first, Jeff and Manuel take a look at recent headlines in education including alarming new data about false abuse reports and predictable alarm about declining ACT scores. → Get your Teach the Truth T-Shirt here! → View this episode on YouTube! AGENDA 0:00 - Welcome! 9:20 - False Alarms in Mandated Abuse Reporting 23:55 - ACT Scores Drop

This Week: Equality California Institute released a new report card for the state this week detailing how districts who responded to their statewide survey are, and are not, instituting policies and systems that provide a healthy, humanizing school context for LGBTQ+ youth.  While the data shows the extent of some of the progress that has been made in recent decades, it is also quite sobering.  Only 19 of 181 districts who responded to the survey earned praise as “spotlight” districts, which have in place more extensive policies to foster a safe and inclusive environment. Manuel and Jeff react and discuss implications. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscr

This Week: The LAUSD School Board approved a resolution recently aiming to have every school in the district have at least 30% green spce by 2035. For the nation’s second largest district, this is no small task, but in a city where school is regularly compromised by triple digit temps and asphalt play yards that can be dangerously hot, this could revolutionize the physical ground at schools, and be a model for what creating huamizing spaces in urban districts could look like.  Also, UCLA releases a report on teacher perceptions on their work, retention and recruitment, and the results are sobering, to say the least. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to m

This Week: In a totally-normal-definitely-not-dystopian move, Texas officials approve a “1836 Project” pamphlet to be distributed at their DMVs to educate everyone about the history of how Texas became exceptional. In a separate but equally normal and not-dystopian story, several universities have been found to use a surveillance tool to monitor campus protests. Manuel and Jeff get into it and talk about the potential impact of “patriotic” education and invasive tech tools in our education system. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our latest content! Website: https://AOTAshow.com Stream all of our content at: linktr.ee/AOTA Watch a

This Week: The learning loss hawks got some new red meat this week in the form of some fascinating comparative data from the NAEP, and LAUSD, the nation’s 2nd largest school system, releasing its state test scores from June.  The data is interesting, and we are precariously on the edge of seeing it misused and abused across the board. DOuble blocks and ELA and Math, rampant test prep, cuts to art and music? Please no. Manuel and Jeff get into it, and talk about what the data means, doesn’t mean, and what we should do in response. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to make sure you don't miss our latest content! Website: https://AOTAshow.com Stream all of

This Week: Last week we took the under on the likelihood that there would be significant student loan relief coming from Joe Biden.  This week we admit we were wrong… sort of.  We discuss the latest policy from the White House. Also, you’ve probably heard that the Minneapolis Public Schools are firing white teachers because they’re white, in a shocking act of mass reverse racism. And that’s because the media coverage has been utterly irresponsible regurgitation of right wing talking points.  Manuel and Jeff discuss a more sensible perspective, and get to the truth of what is and isn’t happening in Minneapolis. Check out Pablo Miralles’ film Can We All Get Along at a local screening in SoCal and on PBS in early September! Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a cha

This Week: New survey data from the National Association of Secondary School Principals shows a potential looming exodus of school leaders from the nation’s schools, citing stress, threats, and inadequate resources to feel effective in the role. And, as the end of the pause on federal student loan payments draws closer, Manuel and Jeff debate how, or whether, the Biden administration will act in the interests of the people. Also, a wild story out of CA involving a Latino school custodian doing overtime to prepare his school for the start of the year, overzealous police showing up guns blazing, and “nosy white neighbors.” Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflect, and discuss powerful stories in between our full episodes. Watch, listen and subscribe to m

Description This Week: We knew that the attacks on truthful teaching of history, on inclusive curriculum, and on discussion of so-called “controversial” topics would have a direct impact on the classroom, and now we’ve got the data to prove it. A new survey by the RAND Corporation shows that 1 in 4 teachers have been told to limit class talk on hot-button issues, even in cases where there are no laws being violated. The “chilling effect” is in full effect, and Manuel and Jeff get into it. Meanwhile in California, families can now access college savings accounts created in their children’s names. Is this free cash for college a sign that CA has gone full socialist, or are there some Wall St. shenanigans at play? Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the classroom, we got you covered. https://all-of-the-above-store.creator-spring.com Passing Period is an AOTA podcast extra that gives us a chance to check-in, reflec

For fifty years (and counting) Title IX has served as a pivotal tool in the pursuit of gender equity in education. Despite being among the most discussed pieces of federal legislation, there is still a lot of misunderstanding with regards to what Title IX is and how it works. In fact, some district administrators aren’t even aware that they are the Title IX Coordinator for their school district! To help us explore the impact of Title IX and what work still needs to be done in the pursuit of gender equity in our schools, we’re joined by super-dope equity champion Kim Turner! Kim serves as the Director of the Gender Equity Initiative at Positive Coaching Alliance, advancing sports-based gender equity for girls, coaches, schools, youth sports stakeholders, and community programs. But first, Jeff and Manuel take a look at recent headlines in education including the sentencing of a once-celebrated champion of charter schools and a new international study that seems to suggest printed text does more to boost readin

This Week: What do Florida, Arizona, and Texas have in common? Well in this case it’s unusual, if tragic, “solutions” to the national teacher shortage. In Florida, good old Ron Desantis and company have decided that veterans should be able to teach with no credential. In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey and friends have decided that military service is not necessary, and folks who are simply enrolled in college should be enough. And not to be left behind, the teacher shortage has so heavily impacted rural districts in Texas that many of them are now turning to making their vacancies more attractive by offering a 4 day school week.  Notably, none of these ideas involves substantially raising pay, or any serious examination of making the job more sustainable and less stressful, but at least the folks in Texas are moving in that direction. Sort of. Manuel and Jeff get into it. Get your All of the Above swag, including your own “Teach the Truth” shirt! In this moment of relentless attacks on teaching truth in the cl