For more than 15 years, the Fordham Institute has been hosting a weekly podcast, The Education Gadfly Show. Each week, you’ll get lively, entertaining discussions of recent education news, usually featuring Fordham’s Mike Petrilli and David Griffith. Then the wise Amber Northern will recap a recent research study. For questions or comments on the podcast, contact its producer, Stephanie Distler, at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.
On this week’s podcast, David Griffith, Adam Tyner, and Brandon Wright discuss New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to revamp the admissions process for the city’s selective high schools. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines why ELL kids are doing better than we think on NAEP.
On this week’s podcast, Andy Rotherham, co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education Partners, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how schools can prevent mass shootings without turning themselves into bunkers. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how warm weather affects student learning.
On this week's podcast, Ben Castleman, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia, and Ethan Fletcher, a managing director at ideas42, join Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss Ben and Ethan’s collaborative project to improve college access and completion, Nudges, Norms, and New Solutions. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern looks at nudges, too, in this case the role of information and incentives in getting students to fill out their FAFSA forms.
On this week’s podcast, Dale Chu, education consultant and Indiana’s former assistant superintendent for innovation and improvement, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss what went wrong with Hoosier State school reform. On the Research Minute, David Griffith examines how school improvement grants in Ohio affected achievement and school administration.
On this week's podcast, Paul Morgan, Professor of Education and Demography at Penn State University, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss the evidence on racial disparities in special education identification and services. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the effect of online versus paper tests on student achievement.
On this week's podcast, Bibb Hubbard, founder and president of Learning Heroes, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss better ways to communicate students’ academic progress (or lack thereof) to parents. On the Research Minute, David Griffith examines the recent AEI study that questioned the relationship between test scores and long-term outcomes.
On this week's podcast, Paolo DeMaria, Ohio's State Superintendent of Public Instruction, joins Mike Petrilli and Brandon Wright to discuss the state’s new strategic plan for education, which Fordham’s gadflies find disappointing. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the access, perseverance, and outcomes of first-generation college students.
On this week’s podcast, Rebecca Kockler, Louisiana’s assistant superintendent of academic content, joins Mike Petrilli and Robert Pondiscio to discuss her state’s curriculum initiative. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how career and technical education affects students’ noncognitive skills.
On this week's podcast, Bruno Manno, Senior Advisor to the Walton Family Foundation’s K–12 Education Reform Initiative and a Trustee Emeritus at Fordham, joins Mike Petrilli and Checker Finn to discuss this week’s NAEP results in the context of the thirty-fifth anniversary of A Nation at Risk. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how accountability metrics related to student subgroups affect teacher turnover and attrition.
On this week’s podcast, Hanna Skandera, former New Mexico education chief, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss next week’s NAEP score release and why we’ve seen so little progress in recent years. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how NCTQ’s ratings affect teacher education programs.
On this week's podcast, Carissa Moffat Miller, the new executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss CCSSO’s campaign to highlight innovative state education policies. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the effects of the National Heritage Academies chain of for-profit charter schools.
On this week’s podcast, Jessica Shopoff and Chase Eskelsen, employees of K12, Inc. and winners of Fordham’s 2018 Wonkathon, join Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss their ideas for reimagining American high school. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines race and gender biases in online higher education.
On this week's podcast, Roberto Rodríguez, president and CEO of Teach Plus, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss race and poverty in education. During the Research Minute, David Griffith examines whether authorizers are making it harder for people of color to win charter contracts.
On this week’s podcast, Aimee Rogstad Guidera, president and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign, joins Alyssa Schwenk and Brandon Wright to discuss what ed reform’s decades of progress portend for the future. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines career-tech’s effect on human capital accumulation.
On this week's podcast, Mike Petrilli, Chad Aldis, and Alyssa Schwenk discuss what it will take to get gubernatorial candidates to embrace ed reform. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the cost effectiveness and return on investment of charter schools in eight American cities.
On this week's podcast, Howard Fuller, renowned civil rights activist and education reformer, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss school segregation. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines ways to help bachelor’s degrees better facilitate professional success.
On this week's podcast, Mike Petrilli, Alyssa Schwenk, and Brandon Wright discuss what the recent graduation rate scandals say about the state of the American high school. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how parents rank public and private schools in New Orleans’s post-Katrina system of choice.
On this week's podcast, Mike Magee, CEO of Chiefs for Change, and Nina Rees, CEO and president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, join Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss where the choice movement stands on the occasion of National School Choice Week. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines a study on school discipline reform in Philadelphia, complete with a jaw-dropping teacher survey.
On this week's podcast, Margaret Horn, an executive at CenterPoint Education Solutions, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how policymakers and philanthropists can help educators implement high standards. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines public preferences for universal and targeted preschool.
On this week’s podcast, Benjamin Boer, deputy director at Advance Illinois, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss how a coalition of advocates succeeded in getting the Land of Lincoln to overhaul its inequitable school funding formula. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the relationship between high school value added and students’ college success.
On this week's podcast, special guest Chris Minnich, who is stepping down after five years at the helm of the Council of Chief State School Officers, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss the future of state education policymaking in the ESSA era. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern highlights the best research studies of 2017.
