My name is Taina Asili, and you're listening
to two dope teachers and a mic.
Hey, yo. What's up,
nerds?
How y'all doing?
Welcome back to two Dope Teachers and a
mic. The most dangerous podcast in the schoolhouse
even in 2025.
I am just
another dude with a podcast. There's a lot
of us dudes, with podcasts out there.
The mansplainer in me wants to say to
you,
but I'm one of the nice dude podcasters.
Why can't nice dude
podcasters
get
engagement and listenership?
Like, I'm just a nice dude.
Sorry. Now that I've lost,
all non cis
hetero dude bro, listeners,
I'm just gonna be very sad. No, it's
true. And,
you know, here at two Dope Teachers and
a Mic, we strive every day to try
to uplift
all voices in our communities, particularly those who
are marginalized, minoritized,
or as one of my favorite writers Arundhati
Roy once wrote, preferably
unheard. So we are here today. It is
spring.
I am recording this on spring break.
Yes, central office,
middle management, nobody's also get a short spring
break. It's very nice.
To get three days, so that'll be good
before we get back into the home stretch,
for all of us. If you are new
to the show, and hopefully we have new
listeners all the time, welcome.
Welcome to Tudoep Nation.
We do not have citizenship requirements.
Our borders are wide open.
Anyone can be a citizen of Tudoep Tupelo
nation. You can even vote
without showing an official Tupelo nation ID.
In fact,
we're gonna assume that you're Tupelo
even
if
you don't say so.
We'll just look at the evidence. Because some
people are not too dope. Others are very
dope. But if you're welcome if you're new
if you're new, welcome to the show.
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these tried and two patrons who have been
with us are day ones,
who have weathered the storm with us,
time in and time again. And,
it's just
it's just also it's just so humbling
because I know that there's times that we
bring you, like, really amazing stuff and you're,
like, listening to it. And you're like, man,
this is why I listen to two Dope
Teachers and a Mic. And then there's, like,
yo, is
is two Dope Teachers and a Mic still
a podcast? Like, I haven't heard from them
in a while.
So we're trying to keep this thing alive.
I'll be really honest with you.
A lot of my life is being taken
up. I'm at I'm at a pretty major
crossroads at the moment.
And,
I am able to retire in a few
months if that's what I choose.
I'm looking at other,
possibilities. I'll still need to work because this
is America.
But,
I'm I'm sort of excited about
the notion of
a next act.
It's kinda cool.
But yeah. So there's been a lot of
uncertainty with me. I'm also if my, advisor
is listening, I've definitely been putting in a
lot of work into my my dissertation proposal,
and definitely would
not prioritize my podcast over my dissertation. But
that is also a thing I'm working on.
So just trying to balance it all and,
you know, always always feeling the love for
you all.
It's kinda crazy in these education streets, isn't
it?
Like, I have in my notes to do
a check-in on the state of education today,
but,
like, I don't even where know where to
start.
Also, Linda McMahon, if you're listening, we would
love to invite you to the podcast. Have
a real conversation about education.
Dude, that would be amazing. Like,
that would be amazing.
We could even say your predecessor came on.
So I don't know if you want him
controlling the narrative of what the Department of
Education should be.
Yeah. If any, y'all have connects to Linda
McMahon.
Let's get her on the show.
That's so not happening.
But I there's just a lot of stuff
that I just kind of
I'm watching and I'm trying to react to.
Remember that this administration
and this leadership regime,
all they want is
to fire hose
us with their BS.
So it makes really
difficult,
the task
of responding
and reacting and combating
some of this stuff. And so what I
see a lot of people doing
is either
responding with humor, which a, I'm good with
that. Like,
if we
can't laugh, we're gonna cry.
We really are. And
I see others combating with facts, and I
think that's also a good thing. But I
was listening to On The Media, and if
you've been watching my Instagram feed and if
you've been watching my Substack oh, also follow
my Substack.
Gotta get my name out there.
I've posted a lot of On The Media
content
that really gets at this question of how
do we deal with this reality that's in
front of us today. Especially,
the most recent episode is talking about,
journalism being in peril
and how
we combat
misinformation
and untruths
in an environment that is not driven
by truth
or objectivity. I I don't really believe objectivity
fully exists, but I do believe in telling
a complete story and aligning your story with
evidence.
And so
it's just a really scary time out there.
And so I've got a couple of pieces
that I'm working on, that are interrogating a
lot of things around us.
I am interrogating
whether the fights we're in are good for
us as a society and as a,
as a social justice movement? Do we need
to wake up a little bit in the
face of all this stuff?
I'm also interrogating
social media, whether social media is a place
to have these conversations and whether whether the
work stops
with social media engagement.
And, and it's not just because people aren't
following my socials like that. It's fine. I
totally get it. It's the algorithm.
It's definitely
not me. But I also, you know, posting
on social media,
I just sit here wondering whether is this
moving the needle even a little bit for
anybody that it needs to move the needle
for?
I don't have an answer to that question,
but I'm dubious man. You know me. I'm
always like scratching my head and kind of
wondering what's going on.
But this,
the past week has seen
the president give an executive order to abolish,
the depart of the department of education, and
it's stupid.
And this is a piece that we'll talk
about more in-depth.
But, essentially,
it's
it's ridiculous because we have federal funds. And
for me, it's stupid. Beak and I'm sorry
for using that word. I know that it's
ableist and harmful.
I'm running out of words for how to
describe the things that are happening around us.
But but the reason it's such a problem
is this notion,
as a person
who manages
state, local, and federal dollars in my budget,
I will tell you it all needs oversight.
Like, the notion that we're just going to
disperse dollars to the state,
to the states,
there needs to be oversight in some states.
I believe that the Department of Education in
my state is pretty diligent and does a
pretty good job of ensuring that we know
the rules and ensuring that we are maintaining
fidelity to the spirit of the grants that
we have. Not all states are like that.
And if you don't believe me, ask my
friend Gina Nelson in Oklahoma,
what it's like to trust the state
and the fascist state superintendent
with this whole idea of states' rights of
education. And let's also not forget
that the entire states' rights framing
of government
was developed as a justification
to
maintain
enslavement
of human beings.
To to some, it doesn't matter what the
roots are of things. Like, just because that's
what state rights were for,
for three hundred years in The United States
Of America. Not three hundred years, obviously. The
United States Of America was not a country
for three hundred years. Don't come at me,
nerds. But,
also,
it may be having states' rights could be
deployed for good. There is there are some
who believe that, and there are some who
will pursue that line of thinking. And I'm
not, like, super mad at you. I'm I'm
just not one of those people. I think
that something that was developed in bad faith
will eventually find its way to being in
bad faith.
So,
you know, we just I I don't have
anything smart or encouraging to say about this.
I just hope that
there are people whose hands
are on the levels of pa on the
on the levers of power
can come
to the conclusion
that preserving a society
is a good thing.
I've been watching a lot of zombie movies,
y'all. It doesn't,
doesn't end like this.
On a personal level, like, I can tell
it's hard out there. I'm not a classroom
teacher anymore.
I'm not going back to teaching.
There's that's a whole other Substack post that's
on its way.
Nobody wants me to go back to teaching.
Like honestly, it's not it's not a thing
that's good for anybody.
But,
I can tell it's hard out there man.
I have a lot of teacher friends. Obviously
most of my friends are teachers. This This
happens when you spend twenty plus years, as
a classroom teacher.
And
they're going through it. And I can tell
the unanswered text,
the
silence on social media,
the chasm that seems to open up between
us. And just give our teachers grace, man.
It's horrible out there.
Can you imagine trying to
keep young
and not yet fully developed minds focused on
a larger purpose,
when
the larger purpose of our society seems to
be,
in this day and age, for the people
in power,
the conclusion of that society.
So I can tell teachers,
you are too dope.
And,
we hope you're just getting through
it.
I am feeling good about some things.
The work that my team and I,
get to do together every day to remove
barriers to teaching and to
support
people who dream of being teachers,
and people who just made that dream come
true of becoming teachers. It's beautiful.
And the little tiny ways
that we can move the needle is like
it's like really cool. And, you know, I
am a recovering,
you know, attention addict.
Shout out to my therapist.
And now that I'm sort of moving away
from some of those things,
y'all, I kinda like being in the background.
Like, there's a lot of things that
that we are doing for future teachers and
new teachers in my space
that people won't
ever really know that I'm the one that
did it. And that's kinda dope. It's kinda
dope. It feels really good to just smile
and nod,
and feel really good about what we're doing,
for teachers. Also, I got to, I got
to chaperone indigenous students
to the Denver March Powwow. If you haven't
been to the Denver March Powwow, like, you
gotta go, even if you're not in Denver.
Like, it's one of the my understanding is
it's one of the biggest powwow events,
on the powwow calendar for native people.
I'm I'm good friends with, members of our
Native American education,
team.
And,
we and, you know, I volunteered my team
to go and chaperone some little ones. And
it was a blast. It was it was
just cool to be around kids, and, like,
one little girl said to a person on
my team
that she was really tired because she was
so excited to go to the powwow that
she couldn't sleep the night before.
Children still
want and need to feel connected and feel
a sense of belonging and just to be
there and watch our resilient,
indigenous communities in Denver really just
be there for each other.
It was great. Ran into,
a former student,
who is really important in the powwow circuit
and
is, like, he's just grown into this fantastic
young man, family man, a man who's rooted
in his community. It's it's like, it's like
the best, you guys.
I'm gonna pivot real quickly.
This, intro is going a lot. I just
I there's so much I want to share
with everybody,
and,
feel free to talk back wherever you find
this.
So the topic for today is grow your
own teacher development programs.
And these are
programs that have really
gained in popularity
really since just before the pandemic.
Most districts even in Colorado where tend to
lack a little behind in innovation,
have developed
some,
mechanisms
to bring people into the classroom that we
really need.
We know
that people who are from the communities that
they teach in tend to stay in their
roles and grow and become the teachers
who students need. And when I say teachers
who students need,
I mean
they tend to be from similar backgrounds. They
tend to be from a similar neighborhood.
These teachers tend to be a reflection
of the communities that they serve in ways
that
in ways that teachers who come out of
traditional pipelines
don't.
This is not a slam on those of
you who are in traditional teacher education programs.
Not everybody,
has been able to access a Grow Your
Own program,
especially if you're not in a super diverse
district. It probably hasn't come up.
But Grow Your Own is essentially we have
people in our community
who should have the opportunity to become teachers
if they want to be.
Most Grow Your Own Profess
Grow Your Own program participants,
are from the communities that they are working
in. And so this is a lot about
the work that I support, where our paraprofessionals,
who are amazing,
and who have a lot of the the
talents and the gifts to become teachers, they
just don't have the training yet,
the overwhelming
majority
of those
individuals come from communities of color and historically
marginalized or minoritized
backgrounds just like the kids.
There's also the growth of growing your own
student cadet programs that reflect those communities.
I remember
reading
a piece,
by Von Lock by Doctor. Von Lock. I'm
probably not pronouncing that correctly.
On the critical educators of color pipeline:
leveraging youth research to nurture,
future critical educators of color. So this, this
piece is going to be in the show
notes. You really should read it. It. The
full text is available on Eric. But essentially
it's a teacher, I think in California, I
could be wrong about that, who posed the
question of if we start developing critically focused
educators of color when they are in high
school,
what could that mean for the teaching profession?
And so student cadet programs have tended to
lack a lot of racial diversity. They tend
to be all white students. And,
that's a podcast for another day, but it's
something to kinda keep in mind. But what
I'm noticing both in my own district
as well as more broadly
that there seems to be there seem to
be some,
you know, rumblings of a critical educator of
color pipeline that starts in high school. And
it's for that reason
that I bring to you today,
my interview with doctor Jeffrey
Geisse
and,
of this of this Silver State Education Foundation.
Doctor Geis has dedicated his career to transforming
education. He's been a teacher. He's been a
principal. He's been a district leader in the
Clark County School District.
This this guy has done all of the
work, and that's one of the things that
I always think about when people come on
the podcast and and we have a conversation
about putting the story out there is have
you actually done the work?
He's done everything.
He's led
efforts in school turnaround programs, improving student achievement,
and expanding access to honors and AP courses,
which resonates really deeply with me. As an
as a school associate superintendent,
he oversaw the turnaround zone where he helped
struggling schools significantly improve graduation rates
and academic performance. Excuse me. Keeping it real.
Beyond CCSD, doctor Geiss has held leadership,
roles in educational organizations,
advocating for school administrators,
and shaping policy. He is currently the executive
director
of NASA, the Nevada Association of School Administrators,
where he leads expanded professional development and has
strengthened partnerships.
Most importantly, and what brings him on the
podcast today
is that he leads the Silver State Education
Foundation,
which supports high school students
in becoming teachers in the city of North
Las Vegas.
This this is just such
a dope story
of really
engaging
young people into the teaching profession coming out
of communities
that really, really need that engagement.
I was really excited to have him reach
out because his work really is relevant to
us,
because we are a community based podcast. We
wanna know what's going on in
communities, and we wanna know the ways
that,
the conversation
on race power and education can be remixed.
And this work that he is doing particularly
around diversifying and sustaining
the teaching profession,
It just aligns really deeply. That's a remix.
So,
Jeff is a great guy. Really enjoyed the
conversation,
and I really hope you enjoy our conversation
as well.
Hey. What's up, everybody? As promised, we are
here,
with, I think, my new friend. We're we're
friends now. Right, doctor Geiss? Yeah. Yeah. So
it's my new friend. After meeting. That's right.
We we have to keep common interest not
to be friends.
I know. Exactly. We're gonna have to figure
that out. Yeah. So
I'm here with doctor Jeff Geiss,
who is the
CEO
of the Silver State Education Foundation.
And as I said in the intro,
is one of the leaders and one of
the most powerful and innovative,
grow your own,
teacher programs in kind of the country right
now. Doctor Geiss, welcome to two Dope Teachers
and, Mike.
Thank you so much, Gerardo. It's so it's
a pleasure to be here, and I appreciate
you taking the time to,
speak with me and about our foundation and
about also
the Nevada Association of School Administrators where I
also serve as the executive director.
That's right. Different kind of NASA. Right? Yeah.
But it's Right.
So and this is you know, I think
I was saying to you before we started
recording,
this work that you are doing in grow
your own programming for,
teachers,
especially in light of this teacher shortage that
we've been facing.
This is near and dear to my heart.
This is the work I do in Denver
public schools of trying to find out how
we put the teachers that our students need
in front of them,
every day. But I wanna start really quickly
just to have you set the stage a
little bit for me.
So talk a little bit about the context
of education in North Las Vegas where where
you're doing a lot of this work, and
how does this larger context
help us understand the schooling needs in this
in this in this community?
Well, let me start by saying, as the
executive director of the Nevada Association of School
Administrators,
I went to my board about two and
a half years ago,
and we've been we're we're we were and
are doing very well from a fiduciary standpoint.
And I said to my board, I said,
we need to do something to give back
to our state and our communities in our
state. They said, what do you wanna do?
I said, I wanna I wanna tackle,
however we can,
this decades old problem
of teacher vacancies
in Nevada.
Most most felt in Southern Nevada,
deepest felt in the city of North Las
Vegas
with more,
teacher vacancies there per capita
than any other municipality
in our state.
And,
so,
they unanimously
agreed.
To date, we've put about a quarter million
dollars into that foundation,
and we secured an endowment
from the,
city of North Las Vegas through the mayor,
mayor Pamela Goins Brown, who was a I
mean, once an educator, always an educator. Right?
She retired as an educator from the Clark
County School District and then,
was ultimately elected mayor where she serves in
that community now.
And,
I will just say to you
that,
when I retired from the Clark County School
District in 2019, I was an associate superintendent.
I supervised many schools in the North Las
Vegas community.
I was a principal in the North Las
Vegas community.
And years before that, I was an administrative
assistant
to,
one of the region's superintendents
in the North Las Vegas community.
And for
years, you would see the impact
of not having all the vacancies
filled,
and, hundreds and hundreds of vacancies,
often primarily in the city of North Las
Vegas,
in the most economically
disadvantaged,
schools
where children need,
the teachers the most, especially highly qualified teachers.
So that's why we started there.
That's why we started the program.
The last time every vacancy was filled in
the Clark County School District alone,
which is the fifth largest district in The
United States Of America,
was 1994.
So we're talking now 31
of of a systemic problem
where the most vacancies,
teacher vacancies are in schools,
where the poor kids go to school, and
that's unacceptable.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's
that's really intense. There's something you said early
on that wanna see if you can kind
of unpack that and just really bring it
to light for listeners. When you said that,
North Las Vegas has the worst per capita
vacancies, can you kind of explain what that
what that, metric means?
Well, well, I'll tell you what it means
in practical terms.
It means that you have substitute teachers,
that are well intended people. Most substitute teachers
are very good people. That's right. Yep. That
I'm not I'm not criticizing. Special kind in
my in my experience. But yeah. Not by
by no means do I want my my
my
comments to be interpreted
as any criticism
of individuals that substitute
or or are long term term substitute teachers
because we need those people. They're good people.
But the reality is that a substitute teacher
is not in a requirement of any kind
of advanced degree or bachelor's degree.
They often do not have content knowledge
around the subject in which they're
teaching, especially at the secondary level.
Many of them, unfortunately, have not had the,
you know, the the pedagogy
or even the classroom management. I mean, that's
the reality.
High school in North Las Vegas,
who I can tell you last year with
2,000 kids
had 38 vacancies.
18,
18
positions at that school were in science, which
is not uncommon,
for a a comprehensive high school to have
18
science teacher positions.
But that principal was only able to hire
one
licensed science teacher.
Wow. So 17 of those substitute
teachers,
many of whom
were long term, meaning they were there every
day all year long,
didn't have the content knowledge
of the subject they were teaching.
Right.
It means
that when you
have a large number of vacancies,
in a school
that at any level, elementary, middle, or high,
that on any given day, if all your
people don't show up because you have some
people out sick compounding
the vacancies you may have,
that,
that you you are now putting two and
three classes together,
or you're putting four or 500 kids in
the
multipurpose room at a secondary school, or in
the gymnasium, or in the lunchroom
with a couple campus monitors and a secretary
just simply babysitting.
That
those are the kinds of things
that happen
in schools in our community
as a result of
many, many vacancies.
And often, those vacancies can't even attract substitute
teachers
because there's not enough of those people either.
Right. Yeah. And that's so it sounds like
it what that the position that
that the schools are put in, it is
very triage. It's very much, like, how do
we stop the bleeding on this particular day
in terms of
just ensuring that students are in the room
with an adult.
And, you know, and and I really appreciate
you
kind of, like, uplifting our substitute
teachers as as being quality professionals who do
their jobs really well. This is not the
work that they sign up
for. Right? It's important that we have a
vibrant substitute teacher force as well as a
teacher force, but I appreciate you doing that.
And you said that this is essentially when
we spoke before,
you said this is has essentially been the
reality since 1994.
Am I am I remembering that correctly? That's
correct. Yeah. That's the last the the year
I was hired as a English teacher in
the Clark County School District,
I got hired in Jan December of ninety
four.
There was only one position open
at that time, and it was the job
I got. And there were many of us
that applied for that. Many of
us that year that graduated at UNLV midyear,
and I was very fortunate because all of
those all of my,
colleagues at that time were highly qualified people.
I mean, they're all teaching or or have
now retired, but, they all eventually got positions.
But but my point is that's how competitive
it was. Right. And and fast forward to
today
where we're trying everything we can to attract
folks into teaching and and to find some
sort
of solve.
So you've kind of covered the questions on
sort of, you know, how you became involved
in the work and kind of the implications
of of the staffing
challenges for students and communities.
Let's,
frame this a little bit because in in
my own
dissertation research that I'm working on right now,
I've noticed that there are
there's more than one definition for a grow
your own program. It sort of depends on
where you are, where the funding comes from,
what the need is that's being filled.
Can you kind of describe what grow your
own means in the work that you are
doing?
Doing. Yes. I will do that. But I
will say to you, first that the Clark
County School District, for example, where I what
I grew up in as a educator
has recruited not only all over the country,
but all over the world
and brought people in on j one visas
and everything.
And then, you know, the national average, I
think it's still true that we lose most
people within five years after they start teaching.
And in Clark County, it's even higher than
that because what would traditionally happen is if
somebody's from, you know, the great state of
Colorado, for example, and they get a job
in Las Vegas, you know, it sounds kinda
sexy. Right? Getting a job in Vegas, and
you're gonna go have an adventure as a
twenty two, twenty three year Long road trip
to the beach, you know, if you you
get to medium road trip. Right?
Yeah. Five hours from the Pacific Ocean and
so on and so forth. But what happens
even in the in even in the good
years,
where and I say the good years when,
I mean,
where vacancies were filled and you didn't struggle,
was we would hire,
young people from somewhere else where where it
was hard to get a job as a
teacher,
where people had to wait for somebody literally
pass away
before they could get a job in their
community. Hearing that slightly.
Those days, thirty, forty years ago,
and they would come here. And then as
soon as they could often often, not always,
but as soon as they could get a
job back home, they they'd they'd move, and
we would have given them the the experience
here.
Right. So,
so
the bottom line is, here's a grow your
own here's what we define as grow your
own.
We look at high school students. We're at
one high school in particularly named Canyon Springs
High School in the city in North Las
Vegas. They have 3,000 students.
We have a career coach. That's what's different
from our program than a lot of programs.
You can offer things,
Gerardo,
till pigs fly. It doesn't mean a dang
thing. That's right.
When you're especially when you when you're working
with young people and especially young people that
are gonna be first generation college or at
risk or or economically disadvantaged, however we wanna
say it,
We need an a caring adult working with
them and their family. So we have a
career coach.
That career coach goes to all the sophomore
classes and says, here's the opportunity we'd like
you to think about. If you're at all
interested, come come visit with us, bring your
parents, so on and so forth.
Then we developed a cohort, our first cohort
of 50 kids, and part of the criteria
is looking at their enrollment history, if they
have family connections here, if their family, their
parents have no intention of moving from here.
Because this is a very transient community, yet
it's a growing community.
So we're supposed to get a million more
people in the next ten years in this
community.
And, you know, when when I moved here,
my dad moved us here in 1980, there
were a quarter million people.
Now Wow. There's there's almost 2,000,000 people Wow.
Since 1980.
So this is a growing place,
but still there's a lot of transiency. So
we wanna identify young people
who have family roots here. Their family intends
to stay here. They're they're,
they're they're they're part of our community
because it begins to become an investment once
they graduate,
especially once they graduate high school, and you
continue to help support
their college tuition on their trajectory
to be a teacher, in this case, in
North Las Vegas. That's the commitment.
I love that so much. And I'm so
I'm looking at,
at the, article from the Las Vegas Review
Journal,
that you shared with me. And there's a
couple of things that really jumped out at
me. But I think just to echo kind
of what you're saying,
there's
so much power in the type of program
that you describe
because,
oddly, one of the phrases that popped into
my head as you were talking was this
idea of brain drain. Right?
Where oftentimes
the way we frame attaining
a higher level of education
is
it removes
young people from their communities, particularly communities of
color. Right? And so what ends up happening
is a lot of them do leave,
and maybe they do, maybe they don't come
back after attaining that education. So what you
do is you
create this tradition of college matriculation
that goes on for generations, and then they're
also
giving back to the community.
The other thing that I thought was really
fascinating so the in in the article and
and this is linked in the show notes,
everybody, so definitely take a look at it.
In the article,
there's a great story about Lonnie Fletcher, the
16 year old,
who wasn't actually that kid who was a
superstar,
in terms of how he engaged school.
And it was actually
a world an AP world history teacher
that
sort of helped him move in the direction
of,
his passion for education. So it sounds a
little bit like one of the ways
that this program
is is different at Canyon Springs High School
is
that it isn't just confined
to one cadet space.
It sounds like there's actually
collective
interest among the staff at the school
to say we're gonna contribute to this score.
You're on am I understanding that correctly?
No. You're you're understanding that 100%
correctly. They already have a teacher CTE program,
so this is an enhancement to it. And
the biggest enhancement
just to be this is not complicated.
Okay? Right. This is not complicated. So you
tend in education to complicate things.
The biggest enhancement
is sergeant major Gary Schoolfield,
who's a retired
junior ROTC instructor,
sixty years old,
African American gentleman,
who
and I just say that because it's a
very diverse population.
That's right. This is this is we didn't
intend this, but at this point, there's not
even any Caucasian children in the program.
Right. Part of it is where we started.
It's a majority minority school. Yep. But but,
you know, I always feel with this this
kind of effort. We're killing two birds with
one stone. That might not be the best
analogous statement to make. I I've been using,
feeding two birds with one seed. Maybe that
feels better. Okay. Let's go with that one.
Feeding two birds with one seed. I like
that. So I see this in two ways.
I see the young people that we engage
and are in the program
as as giving an an opportunity to change
their life trajectory,
an opportunity that they wouldn't have otherwise had.
K? Even if they ultimately decide, you know
what?
Teaching pathway is not for me. Well, they're
only 16 years old, so that can happen.
Okay? No problem.
But even if they've done that, they're getting
30 college credits before they graduate from high
school,
all of which are mainly in those core
areas
that can carry over to them. So you're
giving them a collegial experience.
All of these young people are first generation
college.
All most of them are first generation high
school. Okay? Yeah. So number one, you're uplifting
these young people who wouldn't have otherwise
had the opportunity because we're inviting them in.
But number two, for the ones that do
finish and become teachers,
they're gonna impact
like, over the course of their career, we
looked at the data. It's over 300,000
kids
that they would impact if they stay a
teacher thirty years.
I mean, you know, that's a phenomenal
thing when you're looking, like, right now, the
Clark County School District, just them alone
has about a thousand vacancies as we sit
here right now in February.
Yeah. And therefore, we're all in the schools
that are economically disadvantaged
communities.
Yeah. We see exactly the same thing in
the district. I'm in I work in, the
office of talent, human resources,
and there's a board I walk by every
day where, fortunately, I'm not beholding to hiring
data.
Yeah. Yeah.
I walk by this board and it and,
you know, it used to be in DPS
that,
you know, big heavy hiring season, as you
probably remember back in the day, was in
the summer,
spring, and maybe the odd December, January hire.
Now it just feels like constantly
needing to hire and bring teachers in.
And and that point that you made about
have about about changing
a person's life trajectory and giving them credits
in areas that may open other pathways,
listeners, when you read this article, you'll learn
that Lonnie, the student we were talking about,
is also studying,
biochem biomedical engineering with
Yep. The hopes of becoming an AP biology
teacher. The last time I checked, he could
use that degree in a lot of other
areas too if he changes his mind.
I just think that's incredible.
Couple of We hope he doesn't change his
mind, but if he does, he's had a
great,
eye opening experience,
and opportunities to learn about. I just wanna
say one other thing before you go on
to the next question.
We we didn't create this concept of the
way I defined homegrown.
We we partner
with an organization called Avenue Scholars, and Avenue
Scholars is in Omaha, Nebraska
and Des Moines, Iowa.
And my dear friend, doctor Ken Bird, started
Avenue Scholars about twenty years ago
with a multimillion dollar check
from billionaire Walter Scott
in Omaha, Nebraska.
Walter's no longer with us.
Ken's board chair now is Susie Buffett.
But the whole concept was
to grow your own
in various
career
strands to keep those young people in your
community,
which is exactly what we're doing. We just
started
in the strand of education.
And the big difference with with with doctor
Byrd's Avenue Scholars and with our Silver State
Education Foundation programming
is,
and it always will be no matter what
it what program it is,
the caring
and competent adult
that is working with those young people
and their families. That's always
the success of these things.
To leave
it young people to just fend I don't
like the word opportunity
for that reason
because you it can you can be, it
it almost can be a cop out. Well,
they have the opportunity.
You know?
So I don't like that. It's they have
to be sometimes I'm gonna use these words
because I don't think they're bad. Spoon fed
through a process.
Sure.
So because children don't know what's best for
them. We as adults know what's best for
them. And when something's getting hard,
I don't know about you, but when I
was a young man, sometimes I just wanted
to give up.
And,
fortunately,
I had,
you know, parents that were,
you know, able to get two parents in
the home and able to give me experiences
and make me follow through with things. They
may be many occasions.
And, that's what the career coach, in part,
does. They're a mentor and a monitor.
So they help, and they work with the
kids and their parents.
Yeah. I think that's really powerful, and I
and I really do think you know, I
definitely
resonate with this idea of, you know, how
you sort of contextualize the idea of spoon
feeding because I really do think that when
you have folks who are first gen who
traditionally have felt alienated from the educational process,
the the dots seem to be a little
bit closer together. They still need to connect
them. But for us to assume
that a person coming from an upper middle
class educated background
is on the same level as somebody who's
first gen and that they need the same
things is is inaccurate and culturally insensitive. So
I appreciate you saying that. One thing that,
piques my curiosity,
when we when we met a little while
back, we you mentioned this a little bit,
but would love to have you unpack this.
What happens
between
a young person
you know? So there's a couple of students
that are that are discussed in this. There's
Lonnie Fletcher.
There's,
there's Quatria Jemison who's who also wants to
become a teacher, kind of like the the
family driven,
motivation for being a teacher.
What happens between the time that they opt
in to participating in this program
and the time that they
finish school? What other supports are available to
them?
Oh, they're they're well, there's several. Number one,
the career
each
there's nothing more unequal than the equal treatment
of unequals. I say that all the time.
There's nothing more unequal
than the equal treatment of unequals. And not
every kid is equal in the sense that
they come to the table
with the same,
skill set, with the same,
supports from home,
with the same understanding
of how to get where they wanna get.
So so we have to differentiate support for
each individual students, and that's why the relationship
with the career coach is so critical, not
just with the youngster, but with their moms
and and or dads or guardians, whoever, whatever.
Yep. So level of support is dependent.
So for example,
we found out at the end of first
semester
that seven of our of our,
students in our cohort of, 47
had failed
or were failing
one of their,
college
classes
Because their the whole concept is they graduate
with a year of college, 30 credits,
then they enter the rebel teach program at
UNLV.
And and and and while they do the
rebel teach program to finish at UNLV,
we help them apply and obtain support staff
para pro jobs, like teacher aids and stuff
while because we wanna keep them in the
schools.
Yep. So of those seven kids, we met
with, doctor Seaburn Coleman
and and Danica Hayes, doctor Hayes over in
the Department of Education at UNLV.
These people
are wonderful
because doctor Coleman
carried the message from his boss, doctor Hayes,
doctor Geis, we don't wanna give these young
people a bad
experience,
collegially
when they're 16 years old.
And so we talked as a team with
their team,
and and he said we should keep these
classes open
for those seven kids.
Sergeant major school field can continue to work
with them
to support them in learning and or doing
the work they need to complete to pass.
And,
then we'll give them a deadline to create
a little fire under their belly.
Yep. We gave them the deadline,
and all all of them made it except
two.
Then with those two, because those two almost
made it,
we're gonna keep theirs open longer while sergeant
major works with them.
Because this is their first now you have
people.
If I were to talk to some people
about this, they'd say that's the rule.
We can't compromise the integrity of the prog
of the university
course,
and that's the rule,
and they fail Yeah. And they're 16.
People that talk that way,
I know I don't want anything to do
with them professionally
because that is that is incorrect thinking
when you're dealing with young people. And you
know what I find too? Often people
that talk that way, as I illustrated,
they're the first ones as an adult to
call you for a break.
That's right.
That's right. They don't want they don't want
you to give the kid a break who's
16.
A 16 year old kid who doesn't know
what's best for them Yeah. Whose whose mom
and dad are working two, three jobs to
make end meets.
They're not home when they get home from
school because they're working swing shifts. 40 30
to 40% of our workforce here in Las
Vegas goes to work after 02:00 in the
afternoon.
That's right. You know? So, I mean,
you gotta
I'm not saying,
by any means, you don't hold young people
accountable.
I'm not saying you don't make them do
what they need to do to pass.
Matter of fact, I'm saying just the opposite.
They gotta do the work. But when I
say the word spoon feed, that's the kind
of stuff I'm talking about because you gotta
help uplift them because at some point,
you want it to click for that intrinsic
motivation.
But sometimes you have to exercise a little
extrinsic motivation for a moment.
Yeah. And that's okay because they're children.
Yep. I mean, that that's absolutely right. I
and and even if we just take our
most basic understanding of adolescent development, like,
they're running around with undeveloped brains. Like, their
brains won't be developed until they're in their
third or fourth year of teaching. Right?
Which which is a whole other podcast topic.
Especially as nails. Especially as nails. Well and,
yeah, I mean and I'm fond of saying
that, you know,
aging is mandatory. Growth is optional. Right?
But I think so it's interest so all
this stuff that you've kinda outlined,
the various people at the table,
the way that supports are differentiated
for the participants,
the way that folks get opportunities
to figure it out
when,
when
when mayor Pamela Goins Brown that that's her
name. Right? When when she says
that this
what's that?
She's a wonderful human being. She sounds great.
And I and I love the idea. I
mean, this folks just gonna editorialize here for
a second. So what happens when you bring
teachers into decision making spaces? Right? We come
up with things that are really working for
communities.
So when she says that this homegrown teacher
program
is more than a solution to a problem,
that's what you're referring to. Right? It's these
wraparound supports. It's this comprehensive
way to
just receive
the young person that is that is expressed
interest
with the knowledge that they may not have
all of the tools
to get in the classroom now, but good
news. You're 16. You're not gonna be a
teacher today.
Right? And so doing that kind of thing.
Plus,
the the sort of
the generational
life trajectory
that can be altered through this program. Is
that is that sort of what's meant
when she says it's more than a solution
to a problem? Well, I wouldn't wanna speak
for the mayor directly, but she and I
have had these conversations,
and she understands conceptually,
what we're trying to do here. And this
is not just to recruit
a workforce to become teachers. It's to also
change the trajectory of these young people's lives
in the state. I mean, you're dealing with
a state here
where,
you know, if somebody has a a million
dollar house, your property taxes are about $2.50
a month.
250
a month. Okay? You're there is that's why
our class sizes in our secondary schools, like
where my son went to school out here
in suburbia,
he had 45, 50 kids sitting in his
classrooms. Wow.
So that's when people say that, why are
the class sizes so high? That's why. And
we don't have state income tax.
So it's very hard. And and I would
say
that most industry here, hospitality
particularly,
they don't need an educated workforce.
They need people educated in some of the
vocational tracks, you know, dealing cards and and
or or dealing crap games. They have jobs.
They need people who will fill those jobs.
Yeah. They need they need
people need to be well spoken. They need
to be,
you know, be able to read
decently and and write.
But, I mean, you know, I don't know
many communities in this country
where you can wait tables
or or be a server
or be a valet parker or be bellman
bellman or a bellwoman,
and and and or a card dealer,
and you are living an upper middle class
lifestyle if you're those things. There's not many
community. I don't know of any other, quite
frankly. I mean and when I say upper
middle class lifestyle, I'm saying you're you're you're
living in a gated community. Each of you
have a nice vehicle. You you you you
get to go out, spend some money. You're
you're making very good income. Yeah. And so
I'm not criticizing
that.
I I think that's fine.
But the problem with that is
in a community loss like Las Vegas, Nevada,
then
you are you it's makes the battle tougher,
to to convince a child or young people
to go the scholastic route.
Yeah.
I I there's so much that I'm connecting
to just based on what I see in
the work I'm doing, based on all this
kind of stuff. I mean, one of the
fundamentals
of of this work is
the families
need to be able
to bring their kids to school where they
can access an education. And so if we're
really beefing up our communities
through these,
homegrown programs,
then we're actually preserving an infrastructure for generations
to come. It's it's really amazing. I'm gonna
pivot really quickly to final question I wanna
bring up to you.
It's it's a turbulent moment in in our
nation and in education in American education.
This is stuff that is feels sort of
agnostic to political party.
Over the last generation or so, we've definitely
seen education go through a real gauntlet of
challenges.
As we navigate this moment,
what is the potential of a vibrant
homegrown
program
to meet our needs
in education and in society?
Oh, I think there's tremendous potential. Here in
in the here in Nevada,
every group I talk to,
no no matter their political persuasion,
has been very supportive of this
because
everyone recognizes
the problem.
And it's been a problem that we've talked
about
year after year,
decade after decade.
And
we always say we're doing the same things,
but those same things never
produce
an eradication
of or at least close
to an eradication of this vacancy crisis.
So this is something different,
that we've had for years
in the state of Nevada, might be similar
in the state of Colorado,
offering teacher pipeline pathways to high school students.
None of them
have produced significantly
enough
to come close to eradicating
the vacancy,
number of vacancies. I call it a crisis.
I think even when you have 300,000
kids in the system
and about a thousand vacancies, that's still a
crisis because that's thousands of children that do
not have a licensed teacher in front of
them. You know, if you
had, you know, a couple of dozen, I
could see that,
in a large system
or or even a hundred. You know, you
can see some of those things. But when
you're getting,
you know, a thousand or more
year after year after year, it's just it's
just too much in compounding.
So I haven't had no pushback
relative to the asks because we're doing some
other traditional foundation things
around, you know, galas and golf tournaments and
all those things as fundraisers.
And Yep. We're doing all that. We're in
the midst of planning those things now. And
and I have people
really just wanting not only to give, but
jump on board, and
and,
they find it very refreshing.
I have if we would have started this
thirty years ago,
I'm not saying it would have eliminated all
the vacancies in Nevada. I mean, that would
be a pretty,
you know, that's pretty egotistical to say that.
Be a tall order. Right? But but but
I would never say that. But had we
really seriously
started at thirty years ago just in one
school
with 50 kids or so year after year
in a cohort,
boy, that would have made a that would
have made a big difference.
You would have moved the needle for sure.
And I think move the needle. Yeah.
Yeah. And I think the the challenges that
remain is
in the position I'm in, I sort of
look at, okay, once we have folks who
have matriculated
from these from these pathways and pipelines,
now are we allowing them to help us
craft the next iteration of this system
and to bring those things,
that brought them into this space
into
the broader
education world.
Doctor Geiss, this has been amazing.
I want to
invite you back at some point.
Well, any maybe we can come back and
give you a report about this time next
year because we've already recruited. He's recruited about
another
65 or 70 for next year on top
of the 47 we have, and,
we'd love to stay in contact. And I
just wanna commend you for the work you
do do. I know that you and your
colleague cover a variety of topics,
and I think that is great
for our, educational community in The United States
Of America. So thank you for what you
do and bring and and bringing people together.
Oh, yeah. That's what I love. That I
I like to think of myself as a
twenty first century Akbar, the Mughal emperor who
Yeah. Used to just bring he he would
say, I just wanna hear a Buddhist and
a Christian missionary just talk to each other
and just talk about
the work they do and why they do
it. And and I really that resonates with
me. I love just elevating incredible voices and
incredible work, and, you know, I just really
appreciate you coming on the show and helping
us remix this conversation on race power and
education.
How do people follow you, connect with the
work, the ideas, whether it's you, whether it's
through,
Silver State Education Foundation,
the other ones that you missed. Also, folks,
I have linked
all of the programs
and,
foundations
in the show notes. So if you wanna
know about rebel teach, if if you wanna
know about Avenue Scholars, if you obviously, if
you wanna know about Silver State Education Foundation,
you will find that in the show notes.
How how else do people sort of follow
your work and the work that's happening in
North Las Vegas? Well, if you could link
our websites to your,
to the for your listeners, the the
the ssef.org
and,
nasanv.org,
those are our websites,
if you wanna link those. And then on
Twitter, it's NASA Nevada
at NASA Nevada,
n a s a Nevada.
And we I post foundation stuff there too
because remember NASA,
you know, created and founded this foundation. It
is a separate entity. It's a c c
three where NASA's a c six because
state associations,
we're not a union. We're a professional association,
but we advocate,
for all educators, not just administrators,
you know, for things like higher pay, good
benefits, and and, of course, school autonomy where
principals and and teachers work together to make,
you know, problems are best solved where they
where they closest to where they occur. That's
what we believe.
So,
you could list those on on there and
and then we have a Facebook account. NASA
does as well. Just search search,
Nevada Association of School Administrators. That will come
up.
And, I really appreciate you.
This is great. This has been a great
conversation.
We will stay in touch. I am excited
to see the progress,
that you all make and just the impact
that you continue to have, and I thank
you. Folks,
you should be able to access this wherever
you get podcasts.
If you have questions, if you have feedback
for,
doctor Guy Geiss or for me,
obviously, 2dopeteachers@gmail.com,
or you can hit us up on any
social media platform at two dope teachers.
Folks,
we,
hopefully, this, great conversation
touch with the things that are happening
in communities that are really powerful. Don't get
distracted
by the negativity and the things that can
frustrate us, but really look at the people
who just need the good work in in
the