EdSource’s Best of 2025: Our favorite Education Beat podcast episodes

Credits: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource; Lasherica Thornton/EdSource; GoFundMe; Palo Alto Unified; and Becca Esquivel Makris.

EdSource’s “Education Beat” podcast gets to the heart of California schools by highlighting stories from our reporters and featuring the voices of teachers, parents and students. 

This year, we brought you the sounds and stories of teachers escaping wildfires and helping families after immigration raids, a school board meeting debating ethnic studies, bilingual and migrant education classrooms from California to Texas, and students fighting for better school buildings and instruction. 

Subscribe to Education Beat on your favorite podcast platform: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

Here are our favorite podcast episodes from 2025. Take a listen:

Teachers, students reel from Los Angeles fires

A teacher shares the story of her family’s escape, and a reporter describes the physical and emotional damage to schools and communities.

Undocumented student civic engagement in the Trump era (Live at SXSW EDU)

Undocumented young people risked everything decades ago to “come out of the shadows.” As the Trump administration threatens mass deportations, what can we learn from this history?

Ethnic studies requirement sparks debate in Palo Alto

A school board meeting in Palo Alto offers a peek into an argument over whether ethnic studies should be required and what the course should teach.

This curriculum helps immigrant students fill learning gaps

Students who have missed years of school in their home countries not only have to learn English, but also basic reading, writing, math and science.

What California can learn from Texas about bilingual education

We visit an elementary school and a middle school in Austin, Texas, where students learn in Spanish and English and take the AP Spanish exam in the eighth grade.

A program that helps farmworkers’ children is on Trump’s chopping block

The Migrant Education Program, which provides academic support to the children of agricultural workers, could end after the Trump administration froze federal funds.

Play and potty training: The realities of California’s TK rollout

California schools need a whole new understanding of the importance of play — and potty training — in TK classrooms.

Students and families caught in the crosshairs of immigration enforcement

As ICE raids ramp up across California, family members — and sometimes students themselves — have been detained or deported.

School leaders grapple with U.S. Supreme Court decision on religious rights

The Mahmoud v. Taylor case involved storybooks with LGBTQ themes, but legal experts say it has much broader implications that could affect subjects like literature, history and science.

How one student became a powerful voice for others with disabilities

Saran Tugsjargal found herself wondering who would stand up for students like her. Little did she know that she would become that person.

After a classmate is deported

For Chelsea Duran, returning to high school for her senior year means being on high alert, watching over her shoulder for immigration enforcement agents.

Hot classrooms, leaky roofs — one student’s fight for better school facilities

Miliani Rodriguez attends Coachella Valley High School, where the air conditioning often breaks in over 100-degree heat, and when it rains, the ceilings leak.

How one bilingual educator’s childhood trauma fuels his fight for inclusion

José Medina spreads his message on social media and in schools across the country with a sassy, no-nonsense style, telenovela-level energy and strong research.

Subscribe to Education Beat on your favorite podcast platform: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube