The Education Exchange

Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new article and whether teachers are paid appropriately compared to similar professions. Read the full article, "The Truth about Teacher Pay," co-written with Jason Richwine, at National Affairs: https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-truth-about-teacher-pay

Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new book "Choosing College," co-written with Bob Moesta, and the different questions prospective college applicants should ask themselves as they work through the application process for college. Read an excerpt from "Choosing College," "What Colleges Can Learn Fr...

Ep. 113 - Oct. 7, 2019: The Turnaround of Camden's Schools by Paul E. Peterson

Carlos X. Lastra-Anadón, a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University and an Assistant Professor at IE University in Madrid, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss their co-authored paper, "Who Benefits from Local Financing of Public Services? A Causal Analysis." Read the full paper here: https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/PDF/Papers/PEPG19_03.pdf

Matt Beienburg, the Director of Education Policy at the Goldwater Institute, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the impact of education savings accounts as a school choice option in Arizona. Read his full paper, "The Public School Benefits of Education Savings Accounts: The Impact of ESAs in Arizona," here: https://goldwaterinstitute.org/az-esa/

Rebecca Friedrichs, the lead plaintiff in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case that ended in a four-four split in the Supreme Court, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss her book, "Standing Up to Goliath," and how teachers feel about national unions.

Doug Harris, Professor and Department Chair of Economics at Tulane University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new study, "How is New Orleans School Performance Evolving, and Why?," co-authored with Lihan Liu, Alica Gerry, and Paula Arce-Trigatti, and how school choice and performance-based contracting have fared after 15 years. Read the full study here: https://educationresearchalliancenola...

Robert G. Valletta, Group Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss whether the earning power of college graduates have flatlined in relation to those without a college degree. The research referenced can be found at "Recent Flattening in the Higher Education Wage Premium: Polarization, Skill Downgrading, or Both?," by Robert Valletta, as well a...

Marty West, the editor-in-chief of Education Next, joins Paul E. Peterson to continue their discussion on the 2019 EdNext Poll, focusing on the public's opinion on higher education. Read the 2019 EdNext poll here: https://www.educationnext.org/school-choice-trump-era-results-2019-education-next-poll/

Michael Henderson, Research Director, Public Policy Research Lab at the Manship School of Mass Communication, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how the 2019 Education Next Poll came together, including methodology and how the sample builds in experiments to best gauge the public's opinion on schools. The 2019 EdNext Poll will be released on Aug. 20, 2019, and available at educationnext.org. https:...

Todd Rogers, Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new study that looks to curb chronic absenteeism through randomized experiments. The paper, "Reducing Student Absences at Scale by Targeting Parents’ Misbeliefs," is co-written with Avi Feller and available here: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/todd_rogers/files/rogers_feller_absen...

Jason Delisle, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how the federal Pell Grant program, initially designed to help low-income students access college, has become available to more and more middle-class families. Read the paper, "Pell Grant mission creep: How a federal program for low-income families expanded to the middle class," co-written with...

Andrew Roberts, a Visiting Professor at the War Studies Department at King’s College, London and the Lehrman Institute Lecturer at the New-York Historical Society, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new book, "Churchill: Walking with Destiny," Winston Churchill's lasting impact on Western civilization, and how he is taught today in schools.

Scott Imberman, a Professor in the Department of Economics at Michigan State University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new paper which uses data from Florida to explore how the identification of childhood disabilities varies by race and school racial composition. The paper, "School Segregation and Racial Gaps in Special Education Identification," is co-written with Todd E. Elder, David N. Fi...

Richard Vedder, an Independent Institute Sr. Fellow and a Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new book, "Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America," and how rising college tuition costs have changed the dialogue around higher education. https://www.independent.org/store/book.asp?id=129

Howard Fuller, a Distinguished Professor of Education, and Founder/Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, joins Paul E. Peterson on the 100th episode of the Education Exchange to discuss the state of school choice and it's contentious standing in current politics.

Wilfred McClay joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new book, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Society, which he describes as a narrative account of the American story that could be used as a high school history textbook.

There is new interest in giving adult prisoners greater access to education while they are behind bars. One bill in Congress would allow prisoners access to Pell Grants to pay for higher education, something which has not been possible since 1994. Gerard Robinson, Executive Director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the importance of education for men and w...

Americans may like to buy things online, but people who live in neighborhoods with stores, libraries, restaurants, schools, and parks nearby have higher levels of community satisfaction and lower levels of social isolation. That's the finding of a new survey on community and society conducted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Daniel Cox, a research fellow in polling and public opinion at...

Students attending school in big cities made significant gains on NAEP in the years between 2003 and 2013 but those trend lines have flattened in recent years. Paul Peterson talks with Kristin Blagg, a research associate in the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute, about what the data show, and about which districts made the greatest gains. In "Making the Grade in America's C...

In the most recent ratings put out by the state of Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Schools earned an "A" designation and had no "F" rated schools, unusual achievements for a large urban district. Ron Matus, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Step Up For Students, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss some factors behind the school district's success: dynamic and stable leadership, an...

Families in Milwaukee gained access to the nation's first private school vouchers nearly three decades ago. Today the educational landscape in Milwaukee also includes charter schools and many other forms of public school choice. But standardized test scores are still low and the achievement gap between black and white students remains large. Alan Borsuk of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Marque...

Robin J. Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss what Indianapolis has done to make charter schools work.

Jim Blew, assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the U.S. Department of Education, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss some of the work of the department, including a new federal tax credit initiative and proposed changes to Title IX.

For over 50 years, a limited number of students of color living in Boston have been able to enroll in schools in the suburbs as part of the METCO program, run by the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity. Charles Glenn sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss who benefits from the program and whether it distracts from larger issues related to urban schools.