The Education Gadfly Show

On this week’s podcast, Checker Finn, Mike Petrilli, and David Griffith discuss what it takes for real change to happen in America. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether student outcomes improve when college faculty engage with students more often.

On this week’s podcast, Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, talks with Mike Petrilli and David Griffith about how well school districts handled remote learning this spring. On the Research Minute, Olivia Piontek joins Mike and David to examine data on academic growth affects parents’ perception of school quality.

On this week’s podcast, Michael McShane, the director of national research at EdChoice, joins Mike Petrilli to discuss how Catholic schools are weathering the pandemic and economic downturn and what public policy can do to help. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the effects of a quarter century of school finance reforms.

This week’s podcast guest is John V. Winters, Ph. D., associate professor of economics at Iowa State University and author of Fordham’s new report,  What You Make Depends on Where You Live.  He joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the report’s findings and implications. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines educators’ strong record in detecting and reporting child mistreatme...

This week we're hosting "Teacher to Chief," a special episode with members of  Chiefs for Change  on their pathways to education leadership. The discussion is tied to a new multimedia  report  designed to spark teachers’ interest in the chief role. Elizabeth Green, founder of  Chalkbeat , also moderates a candid conversation with aspiring, current, and former chiefs about what the j...

On this week’s podcast, Paul DiPerna, vice president of research and innovation at EdChoice, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss his organization’s new monthly Public Opinion Tracker. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how superior social skills improve the performance of groups.

On this week’s podcast, John Bailey, visiting fellow at AEI, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss AEI’s new Blueprint for Back to School. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern and special guest Paul von Hippel, associate professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, talk about Paul’s recent work on year-round school calendars and their many effects, including thos...

On this week’s podcast, Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director of advocacy and governance at AASA, the School Superintendents Association, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the complexities that school systems must consider when reopening schools, especially if social distancing is required. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines which news sources social studies...

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli, Robert Pondiscio, and David Griffith debate how much we can expect districts to do during the current crisis, whether student work should be graded right now, and if schools will return to normal in the fall. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the wide variation of substitute teaching across the country.

On this week’s podcast, Diane Tavenner, co-founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to offer advice on how schools can help meet students’ individual needs when they return after lengthy closures. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether social-emotional learning is improving students’ self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness.

On this week’s podcast, Deven Carlson, assistant professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith for the third installment of our Research Deep Dive series, this one focusing on the impact school closures, due to poor performance or under-enrollment, on student outcomes—both the students whose schools are shuttered and their classmates at their...

On this week’s podcast, Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss district innovation in the face of country-wide school closures. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether Teach For America corps members still improve student outcomes even after a major national scale-up.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and Checker Finn discuss Betsy DeVos’s quick and laudable U-turn on distance learning and mull what “accountability” might look like over the next three months. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the role work experience plays in helping those without bachelor’s degrees find jobs.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli, Checker Finn, and David Griffith discuss Mike and Checker’s new edited volume, How to Educate an American: The Conservative Vision for Tomorrow’s Schools . On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether the nationwide rise in high school graduation rates is real, and whether high-stakes school accountability played a role.    

On this week’s podcast, Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the Trump administration’s proposal to block-grant the federal Charter Schools Program. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether instructors who teach several sections of the same universe course improve with repetition.

On this week’s podcast, William Johnston, associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the positive impacts of New York City’s community schools. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how expanding private school choice in Florida helped public school students.

On this week’s podcast, Ed Trust’s Ary Amerikaner and Kayla Patrick join Mike Petrilli to discuss why students of color lack access to gifted programs and advanced coursework, and ways to help fix that. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how peer suspensions affect non-suspended students’ learning trajectories.

On this week’s podcast, Seth Gershenson, associate professor at American University, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the Fordham study he authored this month,  Great Expectations: The Impact of Rigorous Grading Practices on Student Achievement . On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how gender affects the ability of college students to receive favorable grade changes.

On this week’s podcast, Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss whether affluent suburban kids deserve vouchers too. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the extent to which older siblings affect college-going behavior. 

On this week’s podcast, Mike Magee, CEO of Chiefs for Change, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss National School Choice Week. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how teachers who specialize instead of teaching all subjects affect elementary school outcomes.

On this week’s podcast, Matthew Steinberg, associate professor of education policy at George Mason University, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith for the second installment of our Research Deep Dive series, this one focusing on school discipline reform.

On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli, Robert Pondiscio, and David Griffith discuss the latest news from the 2020 election debate and what it portends for our schools. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how air quality (yes, air quality) affects student achievement.

On a special all-Research-Minute podcast, Amber Northern, Mike Petrilli, and David Griffith discuss the best research studies of 2019.

On this week’s podcast, Daniel Showalter, associate professor of math at Eastern Mennonite University and author of "Why Rural Matters," joins Mike Petrilli and Victoria McDougald to talk about the many challenges facing rural schools in America. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how local labor market downturns affect college-going.

On this week’s podcast, Morgan Polikoff, associate professor of education at USC, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to talk about Fordham’s new report that he coauthored,  The Supplemental Curriculum Bazaar . On the Research Minute, Amber Northern discusses a study on ways to sustain effective teacher evaluation.