The Education Exchange

Polling data reveal that when it comes to most debates in education policy, the divide between Republicans and Democrats is not growing. Only on issues like teacher tenure and merit pay is public opinion becoming more polarized. David Houston, a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his latest paper, "Polarization and the Politics of Educati...

Nathan Glazer, urban sociologist and scholar of ethnicity, race and education, died recently at the age of 95. On this episode, Peter Skerry, Professor of Political Science at Boston College, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Glazer’s work and the ideas he wrestled with.

As teachers strike or threaten to strike in several cities, one of the key issues is pay. But while teachers want higher salaries, school districts face a number of financial challenges. One source of strain in school district budgets is what economist Ben Scafidi calls the staffing surge, a major increase in non-teaching staff hired over the past few decades. Ben Scafidi joins EdNext senior edito...

Many Teach for America corps members remain in the classroom long-term, but a large number move on to careers involving advocacy. A new study looks at how Teacher for America impacts state-level education policy. Leslie Finger of Harvard University joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss her study, “National Youth Service and Policy Feedback: How TFA Shapes Education Policy Working Papers through the De...

Many parents choose to wait an extra year before enrolling a child in elementary school, a practice known as redshirting. Does this practice benefit the children who are held back? This week, Paul E. Peterson talks with Phillip Cook of Duke University, the co-author of a new study on the impact of delayed entry on student achievement. The paper, "The School-Entry-Age Rule Affects Redshirting Patte...

A study based on data from North Carolina finds that grade inflation increased over the last decade and that grade inflation was more severe in schools attended by affluent students than in those attended by lower-income pupils. Seth Gershenson, the author of “Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005-2016),” joined Paul E. Peterson this summer to discuss the study. https://edexcellence.net/publicatio...

How do teachers feel about the changes taking place in American education? In this replay episode, Evan Stone, the co-founder and CEO of Educators for Excellence, joined Paul E. Peterson to discuss his organization's survey, “Voices from the Classroom: A Survey of America’s Educators.” https://e4e.org/sites/default/files/2018_voices_from_the_classroom_teacher_survey.pdf

The Florida Legislature created the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program in 2001. Last year, scholarships from the program were awarded to a total of 108,098 students to attend private schools in the state. Jason Bedrick, director of policy for EdChoice, joins Paul E. Peterson to explain how the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program works and to discuss the results of a new survey of participat...

Researchers and policymakers are often puzzled when a policy like high quality preschool or class size reduction is found to have no impact on student test scores but a positive impact on longer-term outcomes like college graduation or future earnings. A new paper by Eric Nielsen can help explain these different findings. It turns out that the way we calculate test scores may be disguising the tru...

Erica Suares, Senior Policy Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss some of the inner workings of legislation in the Senate, including how the tax reform bill came together and what's on the horizon for higher education and school choice.

Clint Bolick, an Associate Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, talks with Paul E. Peterson about how the results of gubernatorial elections will affect the school choice climate in various states. They also discuss the proposed expansion of an education savings account program which was on the ballot in Arizona.

Are parents move likely to want to send their kids to college if they are given accurate information about the costs and benefits of attending college? A new study looks at what happens when parents are given customized information about the cost of going to college and the wage premium for earning a college degree. Albert Cheng, Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas, joins Paul E. Pet...

Richard Barth, CEO of the KIPP Foundation, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how the KIPP network is adapting to changes in the charter sector.

In Boston, nearly 25% of public middle and high school students attend exam schools, but these schools are much less diverse than the school district as a whole. A new study looks closely at the entrance exam used to select students for these schools and at ways the admissions process could be changed to to make the schools more diverse without sacrificing academic selectivity. Joshua Goodman of t...

Hanna Skandera, Editor-in-chief of The Line and former Secretary of Education for New Mexico, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss the four-day school week and Pathway 2 Tomorrow, a call for innovative proposals to broaden education.

There are plenty of college-level online courses available for free, but students who want college credit for an online course may have to pay up to $1,000 per credit, or $30,000 per year. Modern States Education Alliance has come up with a way to combine college-level online learning with free college credit. Students take specially designed courses aligned with tests offered by the College Board...

When a school district's discipline policy has a disparate impact on African American students, is that racial discrimination? How about when an elite university uses affirmative action to increase the diversity of its student body? Adam White, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scal...

Under the leadership of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Miami-Dade County Public Schools has won numerous awards for student performance. Carvalho sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his strategy of empowering school leaders and reforming teacher compensation.

A new study based on data from North Carolina finds that grade inflation increased over the last decade and that grade inflation was more severe in schools attended by affluent students than in those attended by lower-income pupils. Seth Gershenson, the author of “Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005-2016),” joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the study, which can be read here: https://edexcellence...

The world of education policy has been filled with some nasty battles in the recent years. Hanna Skandera, who formerly served as education secretary in New Mexico, hopes to change that by promoting civil discourse around education. Skandera is the new editor new editor-in-chief of The Line, a publication for state and district superintendents. She joins Paul Peterson on this week's episode.

Education Next and PDK both released the results of major surveys of public opinion about education in recent weeks. Joshua Starr, the president of PDK, joins Paul E Peterson to discuss the results of the two surveys.

Michael Henderson, assistant professor at Louisiana State University and survey director for the EdNext poll, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the nuts and bolts of EdNext's annual survey of public opinion. https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-schools-universal-vouchers-2018-ednext-poll/

School is back in session after one of the hottest summers in recorded history, and many students are now in classrooms without air conditioning. A new study looks at how hotter school days impact. student learning. Josh Goodman of the Kennedy School at Harvard sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his recent working paper, “eat and Learning,” co-written with Michael Hurwitz, Jisung Park and...

Last year's EdNext poll revealed a sharp drop in support for charter schools. On today's podcast, Paul E. Peterson and Marty West look at the biggest changes in public opinion revealed by the 2018 EdNext poll, some of which relate to charter schools and vouchers. Read more about the 2018 EdNext Poll here: https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-s...

The Boston Public Schools will be led by an interim superintendent this fall, since former superintendent Tommy Chang was asked by the mayor of Boston to step down last June. Steve Poftak talks with Paul E. Peterson about some of the challenges that have faced, and will continue to face, the school district, including debates over school start times, diversity levels at exam schools, whether the s...