The Education Gadfly Show

On this week’s podcast, Jeremy Stern, coauthor of Fordham's new report, The State of State Standards for Civics and U.S. History in 2021 , joins Mike Petrilli, David Griffith, and Checker Finn to discuss what the analysis found.

On this week’s podcast, Brian Gill, senior fellow at Mathematica and director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith for the fourth installment of our Research Deep Dive series, this one focusing on the impact of urban charter schools on student outcomes—for those in both the charter and traditional public schools.

 On this week’s podcast, Derrell Bradford, newly appointed president of 50CAN, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss whether New York City and other major districts should still offer a virtual option this fall. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how well Arkansas’s middle and high school postsecondary-readiness metrics predict college outcomes. 

On this week’s podcast, Checker Finn joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the current kerfuffle over the NAEP reading assessment. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether alternative certification policies increase the number of new teachers of color.

On this week’s podcast, Chad Aldeman, policy director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the latest trends in school district spending of federal relief funds. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how learning acceleration can recover learning loss.

On this week’s podcast, Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up for Students, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the potential impact of and lessons from Florida’s new school choice expansion. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how users engage with professional learning that takes place online. 

On this week’s podcast, Howard Husock, adjunct scholar in Domestic Policy Studies at AEI, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss his new report, “The case for breaking up big urban school systems.” On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines children’s learning outcomes when they read on paper versus digital devices. 

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli, Checker Finn, and David Griffith discuss President Biden’s proposal for universal preschool. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how school board size affects charter schooling and teacher salaries.

On this week’s podcast, Clarice Schillinger, founder of Keeping Kids in School PAC, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss her experience leading the movement for five-day-a-week, in-person instruction for Pennsylvania public school kids. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the reading skills of fourth graders who perform at low levels on NAEP.   

On this week’s podcast, Dale Chu, Mike Petrilli, and David Griffith discuss the Biden Administration’s flawed decision-making on testing waivers. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how investments in local libraries affect communities and children.

On this week’s podcast, Chris Brewster, president of the Oklahoma Public Charter School Association, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how a recently settled lawsuit will boost charter school funding in the Sooner State. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how math and ELA gender gaps change between childhood and young adulthood.

On this week’s podcast, John Schilling, president of the American Federation for Children, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss a string of school choice victories in this year’s state legislative sessions. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how some privileged parents discussed their local school system on an online parent forum.

On this week’s podcast, Eric Hirsch, founding executive director of EdReports, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how teachers are increasingly gaining access to high-quality instructional materials. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how better truancy notifications to parents reduced student absences. 

On this week’s podcast, David Steiner, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to explain why schools should embrace acceleration over remediation when addressing students’ unfinished learning. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines efforts to reliably measure teacher quality at scale.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith are joined by Michael Goldstein, founder of Match Education in Boston, and Bowen Paulle, a faculty member at the University of Amsterdam, to discuss the new Fordham paper they co-authored, The narrow path to do it right: Lessons from vaccine making for high-dosage tutoring . On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines a recent and rapid...

On this week’s podcast, Scott Winship, resident scholar and director of poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the expanded and fully refundable child tax credit that’s included in President Biden's Covid-19 relief bill—and why it should give conservatives pause. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how special educat...

On this week’s podcast, education policy wonk Karen Vaites joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss her experience leading a return-to-school movement in New York City. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how the admissions policies of Boston’s exam schools affect racial diversity.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli, David Griffith, and Dale Chu debate whether President Biden’s soft touch will succeed in getting schools in blue districts to reopen. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the unintended effects of test-based accountability on students in untested grades.

On this week’s podcast, Bibb Hubbard, founder and president of Learning Heroes, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how to leverage parents’ newfound awareness of their children's academic struggles during the pandemic. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether in-person schooling contributes to the spread of Covid-19.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith are joined by Mark Weber, a special analyst for education policy at the New Jersey Policy Perspective, to discuss the new report he authored for Fordham, Robbers or Victims? Charter Schools and District Finances . On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines a poll of parents’ opinions on Covid-19 and their children’s’ schooling.

On this week’s podcast, Vic Klatt, a principal of Penn Hill Group, joins David Griffith and Checker Finn to discuss what the latest proposed federal stimulus package would mean for America’s schools. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how school district consolidation affects student achievement.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith are joined by Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week, which is this week, to discuss how the school choice movement has been altered by the pandemic. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines parents’ demand for childcare quality.

On this week’s podcast, Patricia Levesque, chief executive officer of ExcelinEd, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss what’s on the ed reform agenda in state legislative sessions nationwide. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether schools of choice are able to pull high-performing students from traditional public schools and push out low performers. 

On this week’s podcast, Eric Parsons, associate teaching professor of economics at the University of Missouri and co-author of our new report “Bridging the Covid Divide,” joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss what he and his fellow researchers learned about measuring student achievement growth in the absence of 2020 test scores. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the effec...

On this week’s podcast, Subira Gordon, executive director of Connecticut’s ConnCAN, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss President-elect Biden’s education secretary nominee, Miguel Cardona, and his work in the Nutmeg State. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern runs down the best research of 2020.