Education Beat

By EdSourceNews Education

Education Beat episodes

November 06, 2025California gears up for a big shift in how we teach kids to read
As a kindergarten teacher, a big part of Violet Nye’s job is teaching kids how to read. But the way she teaches her students is very different from how she learned as a kid. She remembers being taught to memorize whole words.
Now, she's steeped in the practice of teaching kids how to sound out words, while also building up their vocabulary and helping them lift words off the page to imagine whole new worlds from stories.
A new law aims to get more California teachers to teach reading the way Violet does. It comes after years of advocacy and debate and required a significant amount of compromise.
Guests:
Violet Nye, Kindergarten teacher, San Juan Unified School District
Diana Lambert, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: New law changes how California kids learn to read
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
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18 min
October 30, 2025Hot classrooms, leaky roofs — one student’s fight for better school facilities
Miliani Rodriguez is a senior at Coachella Valley High School. The school buildings are old, she says, and they show it. The air conditioning often breaks in over 100-degree heat. When it rains, the ceilings leak. The sinks in her ceramics classroom broke and flooded the classroom.
Miliani thought these kinds of things were normal, after attending school in the Coachella Valley Unified School District since kindergarten. But last year she visited her cousin’s high school, just a couple of miles away from her, and found modern buildings, spacious athletic fields, and working air conditioning.
Now, she is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit, Miliani R. v. State of California, which claims the way the state subsidizes school renovations perpetuates vast inequalities for students, sending more money to districts that already have more property wealth, and locking out poor districts from accessing funding.
Guests:
Miliani Rodriguez, Lead plaintiff, Miliani R. v. State of California
John Fensterwald, Editor-at-large, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: California sued over bond program that sends more money to fix facilities in wealthy school districts
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
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19 min
October 23, 2025Trump’s cuts to Hispanic-Serving Institutions hit community college student programs hard
When Sarahi Sanchez Soto joined a dual-enrollment program at her high school in Dinuba, it allowed her to enroll in college-level computer science classes and jump-started her college career.
But that program is now in peril, after the Trump administration announced it’s eliminating grant programs for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, colleges where at least 25% of students are Latino, because they claim they are discriminatory.
These cuts hit California's community colleges hard, where the grants provided services meant to help all students get past early hurdles in their college journeys.
Guests:
Sarahi Sanchez Soto, Student, Reedley College,
Michael Burke, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource:
Student support programs in peril after federal cuts at Hispanic-serving community colleges
Trump administration to end grant funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, affecting many California colleges
California colleges worry about lawsuit challenging funding for campuses with many Hispanic students
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
14 min
October 09, 2025After a classmate is deported
For Chelsea Duran, returning to Maywood Academy High School this fall for her senior year means feeling like she has to be on high alert, watching over her shoulder for immigration enforcement agents.
Summer break started with the news that Chelsea's friend Johanna had been detained by immigration authorities. News of her arrest sent shock waves through the school. In the days that followed, the neighborhood around the school was thrust into the center of intense immigration enforcement activity, leaving students and teachers on edge.
Guests:
Chelsea Duran, Student, Maywood Academy High School
Betty Márquez Rosales, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: A student deported and a summer of raids leave a school reeling
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
20 min
October 02, 2025How one student became a powerful voice for others with disabilities
Saran Tugsjargal grew up with multiple disabilities. At school she received speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and help with learning to understand social cues. But the support often felt isolating.
Making things even more difficult was the designation Saran received because of some of her behavioral challenges: emotional disturbance. She says it felt stigmatizing.
Saran found herself wondering who would stand up for students like her. Little did she know that she would become that person.
Guests:
Saran Tugsjargal, student commissioner, California's Advisory Commission on Special Education
Emma Gallegos, reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: How this teen pushed California to change special education policy
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
0 min
September 25, 2025Rural schools lose a lifeline to mental health support after Trump cut funding
Schools across California could lose hundreds of social workers, school counselors, mental health clinicians, wellness coaches and graduate student interns, after the Trump administration cut federal grants for mental health support.
In rural areas like Humboldt County, school districts have relied almost entirely on these federal grants to provide mental health workers for students, who are struggling with high rates of poverty, drug addiction, and suicide, and difficulty accessing care.
Guests:
Jane Huang, Wellness coach, Eureka High School
Cassandra Garcia-Gonzalez, Peer counselor, Eureka High School
Vani Sanganeria, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: After federal cuts, California schools could lose hundreds of mental health clinicians
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
0 min
September 18, 2025California high schoolers get a crash course in finance
All high schools in California will be required to offer a semester of financial literacy to all students, beginning in the 2027-28 school year. The course will be required for graduation beginning with the class of 2031.
Some high schools are already offering the course.
Meet Allison Saiki, named teacher of the year from Sweetwater Union High School District, where she teaches students how to manage money, pay rent and open retirement accounts, all with a classroom currency she calls "Saiki Cents."
Guests:
Allison Saiki, Teacher, Olympian High School, Chula Vista
Mallika Seshadri, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: Districts gear up for personal finance graduation requirement
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
15 min
September 11, 2025How a charter school serving adults became embroiled in scandal and sparked calls for reform
Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools opened in Sacramento in 2014 with high ideals — to help adult students, many formerly incarcerated or new immigrants, to earn a diploma, improve English language skills, or learn a trade. Now, the school is an example lawmakers and advocates point to as a reason for increasing charter school oversight.
A state audit found the charter received millions of dollars in funding for which it was not eligible, assigned teachers to classes they were not credentialed to teach, and avoided standardized testing, in addition to spending on non-education-related items such as a trip to Paris and leasing a semi-professional ballpark.
Guests:
Jacob Walker, Co-founder, Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools
Diana Lambert, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource:
How a Sacramento charter school misused $180 million and became a poster child for reform
Former Sacramento superintendent takes charge at troubled charter school
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
0 min
September 04, 2025School leaders grapple with Supreme Court decision on religious rights
This June, the U.S. Supreme Court granted public school parents the right to withdraw their children from materials and discussions on LGBTQ issues and other subjects that conflict with their "sincerely held religious beliefs."
The Mahmoud v. Taylor case involved storybooks with LGBTQ themes, but legal experts say that the case has much broader implications that could affect subjects like literature, history and science. Now school leaders are wrestling with how to comply with this ruling.
Guests:
Troy Flint, spokesperson, California School Boards Association
Brenda Lebsack, school board member, Santa Ana Unified School District
Jorge Reyes Salinas, spokesperson, Equality California
Thomas Peele, Investigative reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: California schools brace for fallout from U.S. Supreme Court decision on religious rights
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
19 min
August 28, 2025Play and potty training: The realities of California’s TK rollout
With the expansion of transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds, California schools need smaller toilets, smaller sinks and a whole new understanding of the importance of play in the classroom. Think Play-Doh, finger painting, make-believe and dress-up. Some 4-year-olds also need help going to the bathroom and wiping afterward.
But teachers — and principals — are not always educated about these aspects of early education, making the rollout of TK somewhat bumpy. In this episode, a TK teacher and our reporters discuss some of the challenges to making sure every California school is offering a high-quality early education tailored to 4-year-olds' developmental needs.
Guests:
Elyse Doerflinger, TK Teacher, Woodlake Unified School District
Lasherica Thornton, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource: Play, potties, preschool: TK for all
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube
19 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…