We are back for another re-release from season 2 with Young Whan Choi! In this episode, we explore ways of being and leading in education that truly center students. Young Whan implores us to “marginalize” standardized testing, or at least push it to the periphery, as he offers a vision of authentic, community-based, performance assessments that demonstrate what students know and are able to do. He exposes the irony that, while many new leaders evoke the principle of being “student-centered”, students themselves are often painfully absent from professional learning agendas, except perhaps as an aggregated data point. And finally, Young Whan helps us rethink where knowledge lives and where power exists within the system.

For Further Learning:

Get a copy of Street Data on Amazon, Corwin Press, or from a BIPOC-owned local bookstore. Get a copy of Young Whan’s book, Sparks Into Fire: Revitalizing Teacher Practice Through Collective Learning at Teachers’ College Press. Read Shane’s recent Ed Week article on standardized testing. Watch Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, Wayne Au, Denisha Jones and Jesse Hagopian discuss the racist history of standardized testing and its impacts today in The Racist History of Standardized Testing

In this brief retrospective episode, Shane, Alcine and their 'Magic Millennial' producer, Maya Cueva look back at Season 1, reflecting on the moments that nested deepest in their hearts. You’ll get to hear or revisit impactful clips from guests in Season 1 and hear about what our producer Maya Cueva is up to on her other projects. The hosts also talk about current innovations from outside of education, including sobriety “quit lit” and Dr. Gabor Maté’s incredible work on childhood development, trauma and the potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health conditions that show up daily in our schools and classrooms. As we prepare to launch Season 2 in February, Alcine invokes Dr. Jamila Dugan’s invitation in Episode 4: “How do I dream bigger and in community? Who do I need to be in community with so that my dreams become bigger?” Join us and dream with us about next-generation schools that affirm love and value every child!

For Further Learning:

Learn about Producer Maya Cueva’s PBS project On the Divide Host a screening of On The Divide vía GOOD Docs! https://gooddocs.net/products/on-the-divide  Episodes mentioned and excerpted include: https://www.onthedividemovie.com 

Episode 4: “What Does it Mean to Freedom Dream?”: Disrupting Traps and Tropes with Dr. Jamila Dugan

Episode 6: “We Need to Marginalize Standardized Testing” with Young Whan Choi

Episode 8: “Connecting Present to Past”: The Impact of Critical Pedagogy with Rocky Rivera and Norma Gallegos

If you’re interested in listening to Tales of The Town, the podcast about Oakland — listen here. You can also get tickets to the Tales of The Town film: https://www.talesofthetown.info Tales of the Town Podcast : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-tales-of-the-town-a-podcast-about-black-oakland/id1235932328?i=1000579592977  Get Dr. Gholdy Mohammed’s Cultivating Genius

In an emotional Episode 6, Alcine and Shane get real with author and educator Young Whan Choi, witnessing his personal story of marginalization in school and how it took another Asian man–during college orientation–to help him see himself for the first time in American history. Together, they explore ways of being and leading in education that truly center students. Young Whan implores us to “marginalize” standardized testing, or at least push it to the periphery, as he offers a vision of authentic, community-based, performance assessments that demonstrate what students know and are able to do. He exposes the irony that, while many new leaders evoke the principle of being “student-centered”, students themselves are often painfully absent from professional learning agendas, except perhaps as an aggregated data point. And finally, Young Whan helps us rethink where knowledge lives and where power exists within the system.

For Further Learning

Get a copy of Street Data on Amazon, Corwin Press, or from a BIPOC-owned local bookstore. Get a copy of Young Whan’s book, Sparks Into Fire: Revitalizing Teacher Practice Through Collective Learning at Teachers’ College Press. Read Shane’s recent Ed Week article on standardized testing.

Watch Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, Wayne Au, Denisha Jones and Jesse Hagopian discuss the racist history of standardized testing and its impacts today in The Racist History of Standardized Testing