Education Beat

By EdSourceNews Education

Education Beat episodes

January 22From a juvenile facility to a college dorm room
Fausto Lopez was arrested at 16 years old and ordered to spend seven years in a juvenile facility. But before he had even finished half of that time, he finished high school, got an associate degree and applied to attend a four-year college.
How did this young man find the drive and support to propel him to such academic success? Do other incarcerated young people have the same opportunities?
Guests:
Fausto Lopez, Student, Cal State San Bernardino
Betty Márquez Rosales, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: How a young man serving a sentence in juvenile facilities made it out one class at a time
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
18 min
January 15This California Teacher of the Year embraces her dwarfism as a strength
Heather Povinelli, a second grade teacher in Monrovia Unified, was named one of five California Teachers of the Year for 2026. But in college, she almost gave up on her dream of becoming a teacher because she worried that her dwarfism would stop her.
We visited Heather in her Monrovia classroom, where we spoke about how she got back into teaching, how she creates an inclusive classroom, and what she learned conducting research about other teachers with dwarfism.
Guest:
Heather Povinelli, teacher, Bradoaks Elementary Science Academy in Monrovia
Read more from EdSource:
Her dwarfism once scared her away from teaching — now it’s her strength
Education Beat is a weekly podcast. This week's episode was hosted by EdSource’s Emma Gallegos and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
18 min
January 08 The John Fensterwald forecast: What’s coming for California schools in 2026
It’s time for a new calendar, new year’s resolutions and new predictions from John Fensterwald.
John is a veteran reporter, with decades of experience reporting on education. At the turn of the year, we at EdSource turn to John to give us a sense of what we have to look forward to — or dread — in education.
Guest:
John Fensterwald, Editor-at-large, EdSource
Read more from EdSource:
Strikes, cuts, state superintendent race: Our 2026 California education predictions. What are yours?
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
17 min
December 29, 2025How one student got her middle school to change its name (rebroadcast)
This week we are honoring the life of Betty Reid Soskin, who was the nation’s oldest national park ranger and a civil rights icon. She passed away on December 21st at 104 years old.
To honor her, we are rebroadcasting an episode from 2021, about how a California school district came to rename a school after her.
Guests:
Anaya Zenad, Student, West Contra Costa Unified
Ali Tadayon, Reporter, EdSource
Read more EdSource stories on this topic:
East Bay middle school renamed to honor local 100-year-old park ranger and activist
How a California middle school’s history project led to name change
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
0 min
December 18, 2025 How one bilingual educator’s childhood trauma fuels his fight for inclusion
In the bilingual education world, José Medina is a superstar. A former teacher turned principal turned researcher, he spreads his message of respecting students' languages on social media and in schools across the country with a sassy, no-nonsense style, telenovela-level energy and strong research to back it up.
Listen to him tell his own story and how his own experiences in childhood fuel his fight for inclusion.
Guest: José Medina, Biliteracy and dual-language researcher
Read more: Meet the researcher using sass and social media to transform bilingual education
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
21 min
December 11, 2025How a small rural school district is setting an example for school counseling statewide
In California’s Central Valley, a small K–8 school district is getting big results. Livingston Union School District in Merced County was recently recognized by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools for outperforming the state in key areas — reducing chronic absenteeism and suspensions while improving student well-being.
How did the district do this? By investing deeply in school counselors and pushing a comprehensive program that goes above and beyond what most schools offer in both academic and mental health support.
Guests:
Alma Lopez, school counseling coordinator, Livingston Union School District
Vani Sanganeria, reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource:
How school counselors reduced chronic absenteeism and suspensions at a California school district
Central Valley school counselor wins national award for ‘relentless’ work with students
Podcast: What it takes to be an award-winning counselor
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
18 min
December 04, 2025Learning to read while locked up
The vast majority of students who graduated high school while detained in California's juvenile facilities in a five-year span between 2018 and 2023 did not pass a 12th grade reading assessment. In fact, over a fifth of them were reading at lower elementary-school grade levels.
Now California's finally doing something about it. A new literacy intervention program is now being rolled out in San Diego, Alameda, San Mateo and Riverside counties, to help teenagers in juvenile detention grasp the basics of reading.
Guests:
Rosie Leyva, Literacy specialist, Alameda County Court Schools
Betty Márquez Rosales, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource:
New multi-county initiative to tackle literacy gaps among detained high school students
In California's youth justice system, many high schoolers graduate with grade-school reading skills
An island of reading for youth in the California juvenile justice system
Related episodes:
How a library inside juvenile hall aims to break the prison pipeline
Could juvenile detention centers look like college campuses?
How schools can help formerly incarcerated students succeed
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
0 min
November 26, 2025Kids enroll in this school just for the lunch (rebroadcast)
This week many listeners may be in their kitchens preparing a big meal for Thanksgiving, so we're rebroadcasting an episode from 2022, where we visit a kitchen in Davenport, California, a little seaside town, south of San Francisco, not far from Santa Cruz.
The town is home to a tiny district with just one school, nestled between ocean, farmland, and mountains. John Fensterwald is taking us there for lunch, cooked from scratch by the fifth and sixth graders.
Pacific Elementary’s unique Food Lab program is a boon for the district, boosting its enrollment by attracting students from nearby wealthier districts.
Guests:
Emelia Miguel, Food Service Director, Pacific Elementary School
Quinn Schromm, Moses O’Riordan, Shyon Johnson, Logan Franks, and other Student Chefs, Pacific Elementary School
Eric Gross, Principal, Pacific Elementary School
Doña Bumgarner, Parent and Librarian, Pacific Elementary School
John Fensterwald, Editor-at-large, EdSource
Read the EdSource article and watch the video:
Kid cooks and tasty lunches: One elementary school’s recipe for survival
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
17 min
November 20, 2025Some school lunches are getting a makeover. Will federal cuts set them back?
Over the last ten years, San Luis Coastal Unified School District has changed up its menu, replacing packaged pizza and chicken nuggets with freshly baked chicken drumsticks, sweet potato, black bean chimichurri bowls and plates of coconut rice with a red lentil dal.
The district has done that in part through a federal grant program that helps school districts buy ingredients from local farms to make more nutritious school lunches from scratch.
Now, that federal program has been gutted, leaving many districts, especially smaller ones or those just starting out on the journey of making over their menus, without a crucial funding stream.
Guests:
Erin Primer, director of food and nutrition services, San Luis Coastal Unified School District
Mallika Seshadri, reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: Schools, farms grapple with lost funds after federal program is gutted
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
17 min
November 13, 2025A mentorship program fights for survival under the Trump administration
Improve Your Tomorrow provides mentorship services to about 1,000 students at Stockton Unified School District, transforming struggling students into leaders prepared for college.
But funding is uncertain under the second Trump administration. Improve Your Tomorrow, like many mentoring and tutoring programs in K-12 schools, relies partially on federal grants through AmeriCorps — funding that President Donald Trump has proposed entirely eliminating.
Guests:
Nicole Davidson, program manager, Improve Your Tomorrow at Stockton Unified School District
Lasherica Thornton, reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource:
'Fewer children are able to thrive’: California AmeriCorps programs adapt to funding uncertainty
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
Education Beat is a weekly podcast. This week's episode was hosted by EdSource’s Emma Gallegos and produced by Coby McDonald.
18 min

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A podcast that gets to the heart of schools in California and beyond, bringing you the personal stories behind the headlines, from preschool to college. Join the team at EdSource each week to hear the…