This Week: As the school year begins across many parts of America, we welcome back our long time friend of the show and middle school literacy coach extraordinaire Genevieve DeBose. With some fascinating new survey data out from the Rand Corp. showing modest improvements in teachers' plans to remain in the profession, but persistent job related stress, we talk about how wily vets are staying motivated, engaged, and continuing to find joy in the work. Plus, with so much swirling around schools -- from fears of ICE and LAUSD making strong efforts to keep kids and families safe, livestreamed genocide on kids phones, and the constant authoritarian creep dominating the headlines -- we discuss how to talk about the world with students today. Manuel, Jeff, and Genevieve discuss!  

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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This Week: Despite deep “blue” California being poised to implement the first-in-the-nation, state-wide ethnic studies graduation requirement, the insidious efforts from within to undermine, co-opt, and whitewash the curriculum are still afoot. Earlier this year a coalition of state legislators tried passing AB 1468 as a naked attempt to gut ethnic studies. Now, they’re back with AB 715, complete  with Trumpian style rhetoric around “preventing antisemitism” while it violates 1st amendment rights, destroys academic freedom, conflates critique of zionism and the state of Israel with antisemitism, and opens the flood gates to weaponize the official complaint process against all attempts at the teaching of truthful history, and everything labeled “DEI.” Thankfully the CA Teachers Association is leading the way to oppose this unnecessary, and harmful bill. And as the realities of genocide in Palestine are now being acknowledged in the mainstream media, the coalition of voices opposing this sort of dystopian legislation is growing, and the political tides may be swinging. Also, in our round up of fascist nonsense in American education we got continued attacks on higher ed with hundreds of millions being taken from Columbia and UCLA. And facing mounting pressure from all sides, Trump and Linda release billions allocated for public education, including almost $1B for California. Manuel and Jeff discuss!

Take Action To Save Ethnic Studies in CA: contact your state rep and make clear your opposition to AB 715. Also consider signing on to organized efforts to oppose this harmful bill. 

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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This Week: Sometimes research tells us something new, and sometimes it confirms what we thought we already knew. A new study from the Fordham Institute does both, showing that contrary to some popular lines of thinking, experienced teachers do in fact continue to improve their practice well into their 2nd decade of teaching. We also dive into a fascinating story about a teacher in Michigan who is teaching Adulting 101 and 102 to her students. The popular electives take on everything from personal budget and taxes, to tying a tie, to personal relationships and conflict. And this week we try to contain the updates on fascist policy violence coming out of DC to a Fascist Five: Trump withholds $6.2B in K-12 education funding, including more than $800M from CA, Trump moves to ban undocumented students from attending Head Start preschool programs, and Trump takes a temporary L as a federal judge puts a restraining order on the attempt to end birthright citizenship. Manuel and Jeff discuss. 

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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This Week: Holy shit. Normally we don’t curse around these parts, but damn. It’s an abject mess of theocracy, authoritarianism, and outright attacks on rights, freedoms, and the nation’s public schools this week. On Friday the Court handed down the last of its rulings from the 2024 term, and there are several major implications for public education… all terrible. In Mahmoud v. Taylor they ruled that schools have to allow families to opt out of content about LGBTQ+ people for religious reasons, enshrining a chilling effect in the nation’s curricula and effectively empowering right wing religious folks to dictate what does, and doesn’t, get included. In Trump v. CASA they held that lower courts can no longer issue nationwide injunctions against Trump’s unconstitutional actions, effectively paving the way for continued terrorism over immigrant communities, and the undoing of birthright citizenship guaranteed in the 14th Amendment. Black and Brown folks, watch your 6. And in a case nobody’s talking about - FDA v. RJ Reynolds - they’re paving the way for tobacco companies to expand vaping products, which plague our young people, and make it dramatically easier for corporate interests to challenge any government regulation. Manuel and Jeff discuss. 

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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Data from both the US and UK shows that reading for pleasure is on the decline for kids of all ages, and adults too. For the youngest children, time reading with a loving adult is also on the decline, at the same time as screen time is rising sharply. In a world where a generation who grew up on screens themselves is now having children, is this just the way of the future, or are we losing something fundamental that should concern us?  And, for this week in American fascism in education, we shed light on the happenings beyond just Donny and Linda. Here in LA many parents are forced to miss their child’s graduation out of fears of ICE raids and kidnapping. A fake news (really) organization “catches” Western Carolina University administrator claiming the school continues DEI efforts (watch what you say people!). Republicans in Tennessee decide to cut key summer meal funding for low income families, leaving hundreds of thousands of hungry kids with no food for the summer. And lastly, as student loan repayments resume this month, Forbes shares an analysis showing the disproportionate impacts of loan default by race, including on Black women who borrow the most for college, despite the burden of both racial and gender wage gaps. Manuel and Jeff discuss!

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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This Week: A fascinating piece in Chalkbeat breaks down some of the pros and cons of states adopting varied graduation pathways to a HS diploma. In a world where AI can do your homework, where it seems like we have no idea what the economic future will look like, and all but 6 states have dropped their HS exit exam requirements, what is - or should be - the purpose of a high school education? But first, this week in American fascism in education was a doozy. Yikes. We got the Labor Dept shutting down Job Corps, Donny and Linda bringing back racist indigenous HS mascots in NY State, Trump attempting to cut tribal college funding by 90%, child acute malnutrition in Gaza triples amid US taxpayer funded genocide, and ICE agents start arresting high school students across the country, like in Mass, NYC, and Detroit.  Manuel and Jeff discuss!

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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This Week: The College Board casts its lot with the most regressive, racist actors in our society by stripping race from consideration in its National Recognition Program. The likely outcome of this decision will be a reduction in scholarship funds for Black, Latino, and Native American students, and a shifting of those funds to overrepresented Asian and white students. Here we go again. Plus, in “This Week in American Fascism in Education” the Supreme Court lets stand a lower court ruling upholding schools’ right to stop students from wearing  “only two genders” t-shirts, and Trump threatens to strip CA of billions in federal education funding over trans athletes. Manuel and Jeff discuss!

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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This Week: Coming out of the pandemic, schools across the country implemented versions of more equitable grading practices. Today, as the immediate effects of the pandemic are behind us, new questions are coming up about whether the pendulum swung too far, and we should return to more traditional, and punitive grading practices. A piece out of Chalkbeat Chicago this week sums up the debate nicely in their high schools. Also, we talk through “This Week in American Fascism in Education” where Donny, Linda, and Kristi took a couple Ls (for now) when they tried to kick all the international students out of Harvard, and pave the way for public funding of religious charter schools. Manuel and Jeff discuss!

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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. 

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This Week: Whew, it’s been a doozy of a week in American education. Today we do a bit of a news round up with analysis of the stories that resonated most for us.  We’ve got Linda McMahon out here dropping the ball on student loan repayment plan applications, with 96% going unprocessed, sometimes for over a year! Class warfare and attempts to gut higher ed are in full swing. Gov. Gavin Newsom showing his conservative true colors as he blocks funding the CA’s ethnic studies HS graduation requirement. At the same time the CA ethnic legislative caucuses join forces to switch tactics in their attempt to crush ethnic studies. They push a truly Trumpian bill, ostensibly targeting antisemitism. A Harvard student asks, is it even worth it to go to class anymore? And, Louisiana confederates join forces with Trump admin and the courts to bring an official end to school desegregation in the south. Manuel and Jeff discuss!

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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 

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This Week: Everywhere you turn nowadays we are bombarded within AI.  From commercials to websites, to our smartphones, you can’t escape it. And neither can the nation’s college students. A bombshell piece in NY Magazine’s Intelligencer this week profiles the extent to which AI use to cheat is endemic in colleges, and the growing concerns around the ethics and potential harm to humans of AI use (also try here).  From students doing virtually no writing and relying entirely on AI, to those who use AI to outline their work and tell them how to construct their thinking, to those who actively use it to undermine efforts to prevent cheating, this is deeply concerning. Questions and concerns are being confirmed by early studies showing negative impacts on students’ ability to do critical thinking, solve problems, and perform tasks more complex than simply using tools like ChatGPT to complete tasks. Manuel and Jeff discuss!

WAYS TO HELP WITH THE EATON FIRE IN ALTADENA/PASADENA -- Please consider giving what you can! Here are links to GoFundMe pages set up by Altadena families, links to GoFundMe pages supporting Black families devastated by the Eaton fire, and the Pasadena Educational Foundation’s page set up to benefit Manuel’s school community, which has been devastated by the fire. Thanks for your support!

MAXIMUM WOKENESS ALERT -- 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  

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Follow us at: Facebook.com/AOTAshow and Twitter.com/AOTAshow