EdSource Podcasts

This Week in California Education

Counselors or cops in Pomona Unified; full-day kindergarten in every school

September 20, 2019

This week: We interview Jesus Sanchez, a community organizer and founder of Gente Organizada, and Iris Villalpando, a student leader, about why they fought so hard to change spending priorities in Pomona Unified School District; and we speak with reporter Zaidee Stavely about a bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk that would require every school to offer at least one full-day kindergarten class.

This Week in California Education

Big school bond with reforms, new pitch to presidential candidates

September 14, 2019

This week: We interview Jeff Vincent, of the Center for Cities + Schools at UC Berkeley, about whether the proposed $15 billion bond measure will solve funding inequities; and we interview Laura Schifter, the policy director of a new coalition, ED2020, whose goal is to persuade presidential candidates.

This Week in California Education

Debating the merits of ranking schools; finding funding to repair them

September 7, 2019

This week: We interview Michael Kirst, the former president of the State Board of Education, about why adopting a ranking system for district and charter schools can be arbitrary and unhelpful; and we also discuss the possibility of a state construction bond for K-12 and community college facilities on the March 2020 ballot.

This Week in California Education

Historic deal on charters, contention over more high school math

August 31, 2019

This week: We discuss big changes that could affect the state’s charter school law; and we also interview two key players with opposite perspectives on a controversial proposal by the California State University chancellor’s office to require a fourth year of math.

This Week in California Education

Fixing the college dropout ‘scandal’

August 24, 2019

This week: We interview David Kirp about his new book, The College Dropout Scandal; and we chat with Cal State Long Beach President Jane Conoley about efforts, starting in local high schools with the Long Beach Promise, to build an institutional culture that helps students to pursue and thrive in college.

This Week in California Education

Guidance on resilience, trauma from Paradise and El Paso

August 16, 2019

This week: We interview the new superintendent of Paradise Unified, about how the district is preparing for the emotional needs of students on their return to school; and we also interview Fernando Garcia, from the Border Network for Human Rights, about the existential threat to Latino and immigrant communities that a white supremacist shooter exposed.

This Week in California Education

Physics teachers in high demand; sticker-shock estimates for early ed

July 26, 2019

This week: We interview the president of the California Science Teachers Association to discuss the need for more physics teachers, as California schools move to implement new science standards; and we explore a new report that calculates the true cost of quality early education in California for all kids under 5.

This Week in California Education

How school districts are joining forces to take on Common Core math

July 19, 2019

This week: Two educators involved with a collaboration by 10 California districts to raise achievement under the Common Core math standards share their insights; and we discuss the Gates Foundation’s Networks for School Improvement initiative.

This Week in California Education

Newsom administration seeks compromise in push to reform charter law

July 12, 2019

This week: We discuss the compromises that the Newsom administration proposed on Assembly Bill 1505, and hear testimony from San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten; and we talk with Todd Ziebarth of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, about how events in California fits in with what is happening around the country. 

A weekly podcast that gets to the heart of education issues in California and beyond.