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, Mike Petrilli, Checker Finn, and David Griffith discuss Checker’s experience on Maryland’s Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, and its bold proposals for improving the state’s schools. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the benefits of arts education.
On this week’s podcast, Neal McCluskey, director of Cato's Center for Educational Freedom, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the appropriate role of for-profit entities in education. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the effects tracking, instructional practices, and text complexity have on students who are struggling with reading in middle school.
On this week’s podcast, Kristen Soltis Anderson, pollster and co-founder of Echelon Insights, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss what millennial parents think about education. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how Florida’s tax credit scholarship program has affected participants’ college enrollment and degree attainment.
On this week’s podcast, Shavar Jeffries, President of Democrats for Education Reform, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss what teacher strikes and Democratic presidential candidates’ support for them mean for education reform. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether efforts to boost academic achievement in kindergarten hinder the development of social-emotional skills.
On this week’s podcast, Mike Magee, CEO of Chiefs for Change, and Nina Rees, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, join Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss National School Choice Week and the many hopeful developments on the charter schools front nationwide. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether schools of choice (both traditional and charter) “skim” students they perceive to be easier to educate or avoid those perceived harder to educat...
On this week’s podcast, Lindsey Burke, a director at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to explain why school choice is poised to have a good 2019, despite its many headwinds. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the relationship between automatic-college-admission policies and the college preferences of low- and high-income students.
On this week’s podcast, Andrew Ujifusa, an assistant editor for Education Week, and one-half of the Politics K-12 team, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to explain why we wonks shouldn’t completely ignore Washington in the coming year. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern counts down the five most influential education studies of 2018.
On this week’s podcast, Ashley Berner, assistant professor and deputy director of the Institute for Education Policy at Johns Hopkins, joins David Griffith and Adam Tyner to discuss pluralism in American education. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the latest data on school spending, as well as high school dropout and completion rates from the Institute of Education Sciences.
On this week’s podcast, Lindsey Rust, National Director of Implementation for the American Federation of Children, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss whether private schools serve as oases in charter school deserts. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether parents’ aspirations for their children to go to college someday are affected by receiving new information on the cost, and returns, on completing post-secondary education.
On this week’s podcast, Samantha Viano, Assistant Professor of Education at George Mason University, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss Fordham’s new study of credit recovery programs, and her own work on the subject. On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner examines how high school start times affect student outcomes.
On this week’s podcast, Mary Alice McCarthy, a director of the Center on Education and Skills at New America, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how leading states like Florida are vetting thousands of technical credentials to identify the ones worth pursuing. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the relationship across the globe between testing policies and student achievement.
On this week’s podcast Chester E. Finn, Jr., Chad Aldis, and David Griffith discuss whether we’ve reached the “end of education policy.” On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how same-race teachers affect students’ long-term educational outcomes.
On this week’s podcast, Erin Lockett, a senior policy analyst at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss her organization’s recent report on access to rigorous coursework in high school. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the effects of a free-college initiative on graduation rates in New Mexico.
On this week’s podcast, Andy Rotherham, co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education Partners, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the midterms’ effects on education policy. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how voucher regulations impact program participation and school quality.
On this week’s podcast, Russ Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and founding director of the Institute of Education Sciences, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss early childhood education and whether we expect too much from it. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines an alternative approach to remedial education in Tennessee.
On this week’s podcast, Stephani Wrabel, an associate policy researcher at RAND, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss states’ ESSA-driven school report cards. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines Kentucky’s school turnaround efforts in the late NCLB period.
On this week's podcast, Madeline Mavrogordato, an associate professor at Michigan State University, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the relationship between English language learners and school choice. On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner examines how New Orleans’s choice-based system affects students’ commute times.
On this week's podcast, Halli Faulkner, national policy director at the American Federation for Children, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss her organization’s annual school choice guidebook. On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner examines whether better student supports in elementary school can reduce high school dropout rates.
On this week’s podcast, Seth Gershenson, associate professor at American University, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the Fordham study he recently authored on high school grade inflation. On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner examines the impact of principal effectiveness on teacher turnover.
On this week’s podcast, Emily Hanford, a senior education correspondent and producer at APM Reports, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss her recent documentary on the sad state of reading instruction. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines TNTP’s new report about the inferior academic experiences of disadvantaged students.
On this week’s podcast, Donna Bahorich, Chair of the Texas State Board of Education, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how to encourage students to take ownership of their educational journeys. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether encouraging more students to retake the SAT would narrow college enrollment gaps.
On this week's podcast, Adam Peshek, a managing director at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss whether new IRS regulations will harm tax credit scholarship programs. On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner examines the academic effects of longer school days.
On this week's podcast, literacy expert Tim Shanahan joins Robert Pondiscio and David Griffith to discuss his review of states’ English language arts standards for Fordham’s new report, “ The State of State Standards Post-Common Core .” On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the results of the 2018 Education Next poll.
On this week's podcast, Sekou Biddle, a vice president at UNCF, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss African American youth’s near-universal aspirations to go to college, but frustration at an education system that is not preparing them for success. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern covers a new comprehensive look at America’s colleges of education.
On this week’s podcast, Gisèle Huff, executive director of the Jaquelin Hume Foundation, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the use of technology in education. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern covers Fordham’s recent study on reading and writing instruction in America's schools.
On this week's podcast, Carlos Marquez, a senior vice president at the California Charter Schools Association, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the state’s charter school politics. On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner examines the effects of the Investing in Innovation Fund.
On this week’s podcast, Jim Shelton, who is about to step down from the helm of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s education efforts, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the whole-child approach to personalized learning. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how coaching programs affect teachers’ instructional practices and student achievement.
On this week’s podcast, Matthew Chingos, director of the Urban Institute’s Education Policy Program, joins Mike Petrilli and Brandon Wright to discuss what high schools should be doing to address the college completion crisis. On the Research Minute, David Griffith examines the impact of New Orleans’s post-Katrina education reforms on short-term and long-term academic outcomes.
