Foster students face unique challenges in and out of the classroom and they deserve more of our attention. Leading education scholars Tyrone Howard, Joseph Bishop, and Angela James discuss the intersections of foster care with poverty, systemic racism, homelessness, punitive discipline, and the carceral system. Who is responsible for the well-being of foster youth? How can schools more equitably support students, no matter their circumstances?

Host: Geneva Sum, Communications Director, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Roundtable:

• Tyrone C. Howard, Pritzker Family Professor of Education to Strengthen Children & Families, UCLA School of Education & Information Studies; Faculty Co-Director, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools
• Joseph P. Bishop, Executive Director, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools
• Angela James, Senior Research Scientist, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host, Creative Director and this episode’s interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Follow CTS or share your thoughts with us at ctschools@ucla.edu.

Show Notes:

• Our Children Can’t Wait by Joseph Bishop
• Lost Instruction Time in California Schools: The Disparate Harm from Post-Pandemic Punitive Suspensions. The UCLA Civil Rights Project.
• Child Welfare, Public Health and Domestic Violence. The UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families.
• The California Community Schools Partnership Program
• UCLA CTS foster youth studies
• CA SB 307 – Fostering Futures: Increasing access and improving college affordability for foster youth

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Among Us from UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools uplifts the experiences of students furthest from opportunity, and explores how systems and structures both in and out-of-school are either creating barriers or opportunities for young people.

This season, we are going on a journey together through the foster care system. UCLA researchers unpack the foster system through conversations with young people, practitioners, scholars, advocates and philanthropy to better understand how youth and families are facing barriers to thrive–and what we all can do about it.

Join us every Wednesday starting August 7th.

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In our final episode this season, we continue the shift from speaking with scholars across the country to speaking with young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen.

Dr. Joe Bishop discusses the importance of diversifying college campuses with Kashish Bastola, a public education, racial and equity advocate and undergraduate student at Harvard University.

Kashish sees school as a place for students to dream about their future. However, many students don’t have the privilege to dream about attending college or an Ivy League school like Harvard. His lived experiences in rural Texas ignited his passion for education justice and he has been actively advocating for change since his early high school years. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on race-based admissions policies has fueled new conversations around college access and charged activists like Kashish with a new mission to ensure universities don’t further cement existing inequities.

Special Guest: Kashish Bastola is a sophomore at Harvard University and is originally from Texas. This year, Time Magazine published his opinion essay, Harvard's Diversity Problem Goes Deeper than Race. He is an advocate for public education and climate justice in the Gulf South. His work has included marching 400 miles from New Orleans to Houston to call on the federal government to act on the climate crisis, as well as testifying before the Texas Senate Committee on Education in support of student voice in school board governance. He also worked to create the first ethnic studies courses in his school district in Frisco, Texas. Coming from generations of Nepali freedom fighters, Kashish is passionate about democracy and community. On campus, he is involved in CIVICS, the Radcliffe Institute, the Asian American Dance Troupe, the Affirmative Action Working Group, the Harvard Undergraduate Law Review, and many more campus organizations. Check out his Instagram and Twitter @kashishbastola and his LinkedIn.

Our Children Can't Wait is a podcast by the Center for the Transformation of Schools in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Joe Bishop is the host. Elizabeth Windom is the Producer. Julia Windom is the Associate Producer. Geneva Sum is the Creative Director, and Senior Producer is Jay Woodward. Our Children Can't Wait is a companion to the book of the same name, Our Children Can't Wait. Available now from Teachers College Press and Amazon. Our Children Can't Wait is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

Join the CTS mailing list: new research, events, tools & resources, straight to your inbox.

Support the work of CTS with a financial gift here.

Follow CTS on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and share your thoughts with us by emailing ctschools@ucla.edu.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we continue the shift from speaking to scholars across the country to speaking to young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen.

Dr. Joe Bishop explores restorative justice approaches with high school senior Alima Kassim and her experiences after a mass shooting close to home at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nashville native Alima and her sisters have been working for years on a restorative justice model to address the root causes of school conflicts. Instead of suspending a student, a practice that excludes students from their peers, their proposed strategies focus on strengthening the relationships between and the social connections within communities.

Is it possible to change “school safety” into a positive phrase? How would widespread student-led restorative justice committees impact students’ overall safety? Alima and Bishop answer these questions and discuss how a school safety agenda that centers on trust and belonging could radically change how we think about the topic.

Special Guest: Alima Kassim is a student at the University School of Nashville in Tennessee, starting her senior year of high school. She enjoys running track and spending time with her friends. She’s been instrumental in getting a restorative justice project off the ground at her school, has served on with the Mayor’s Youth Council in Nashville and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. She hopes to spread love and make sure everyone feels comfortable in their environment.

Our Children Can't Wait is a podcast by the Center for the Transformation of Schools in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Joe Bishop is the host. Elizabeth Windom is the Producer. Julia Windom is the Associate Producer. Geneva Sum is the Creative Director, and Senior Producer is Jay Woodward. Our Children Can't Wait is a companion to the book of the same name, Our Children Can't Wait. Available now from Teachers College Press and Amazon. Our Children Can't Wait is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

Join the CTS mailing list: new research, events, tools & resources, straight to your inbox.

Support the work of CTS with a financial gift here.

Follow CTS on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and share your thoughts with us by emailing ctschools@ucla.edu.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we continue the shift from speaking to scholars across the country to speaking to young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen.

Dr. Joe Bishop unpacks with Shiva Rajbhandari his decision to run for his district’s school board in Boise, Idaho and his passion for raising awareness about the climate crisis.

Road trips after graduation are a rite of passage for many young people. However, Shiva and his friends give it new meaning by using it as an opportunity to educate others about climate change and the impact it has had on his home state of Idaho. He has decided that his age will not limit his ability to advocate for climate justice. He won’t sit idly by when there is work that needs to be done to make our country a better place.

Why are we afraid to see young people as policy shapers? How can we actively make room for age-diverse leadership in policy spaces?

Special Guest: Shiva Rajbhandari was elected to his district’s school board in September 2022 as a student at Boise High. He is currently an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shiva has been a community organizer since 9th grade, working on climate change, gun violence, and voting rights issues. As the first student to ever serve on the Board, he is passionate about mental health, supporting teachers, and sustainability approaches in schools.

Shiva is a member of the Idaho Climate Literacy Education Engagement and Research executive committee at Boise State University. He volunteers for BABE VOTE, Youth Salmon Protectors, Reclaim Idaho, and the Idaho Climate Justice League. Before his election to the Board, he served on the Boise Schools Sustainability Committee and on the Boise High Student Council. Shiva works as the Youth Engagement Coordinator at the Idaho Conservation League. In his spare time, Shiva loves to run, ski, and fish in wild Idaho.

Check out his Instagram @shiva_rajbhandari and Twitter @_Shiva_R.

Our Children Can't Wait is a podcast by the Center for the Transformation of Schools in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Joe Bishop (Twitter @joepbishop) is the host. Elizabeth Windom is the Producer. Julia Windom is the Associate Producer. Geneva Sum is the Creative Director, and Senior Producer is Jay Woodward. Our Children Can't Wait is a companion to the book of the same name, Our Children Can't Wait. Available now from Teachers College Press and Amazon. Our Children Can't Wait is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

Join the CTS mailing list: new research, events, tools & resources, straight to your inbox.

Support the work of CTS with a financial gift here. Follow CTS on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and share your thoughts with us by emailing ctschools@ucla.edu.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we make a shift from speaking to scholars across the country to speaking to young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen.

Dr. Joe Bishop begins the conversation on how to support young leaders with social media strategist and organizer Annie Wu Henry. Annie explains how digital spaces allow people to connect to communities that would be otherwise inaccessible. And despite the impact of the digital age that often isolates people from one another, people remain hungry for authentic connection and for their stories to be heard. These connections forged around social issues have the power to unite us.

How can we use the ever-changing digital media landscape as an effective tool for justice? How can we learn from the young leaders who are cultivating community through these online spaces?

Special Guest: Annie Wu Henry is a social media and digital strategy expert for progressive organizations and campaigns. She believes that we need on-the-ground organizing, electoral work, and the online media to drive progress in society, and has taken a hand in contributing to all three. She was most recently the social media producer for John Fetterman's successful Senate campaign in Pennsylvania.

As a strategist, creator, and political operative, Annie has been profiled by the New York Times, contributed to some of the largest online advocacy platforms like @feminist, @impact, @shityoushouldcareabout, @intersectionalenvironmentalist, @so.informed, @genzforchange and has had a myriad of content "go viral," being shared by the likes of Rachel Cargle, Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, Ariana Grande, Yara Shahidi, the Kardashians, Jenners, Olivia Rodrigo + more. Through her personal platform, she engages her own following to inform and activate them about the world and how they can get involved to push for change. She is passionate about progressive politics, press notifications, pop culture, pressed coffee, and people who do the right thing.

Our Children Can't Wait is a podcast by the Center for the Transformation of Schools in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Joe Bishop is the host. Elizabeth Windom is the Producer. Julia Windom is the Associate Producer. Geneva Sum is the Creative Director, and Senior Producer is Jay Woodward. Our Children Can't Wait is a companion to the book of the same name, Our Children Can't Wait. Available now from Teachers College Press and Amazon. Our Children Can't Wait is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

Join the CTS mailing list: new research, events, tools & resources, straight to your inbox.

Support the work of CTS with a financial gift here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.