This week, Mike Petrilli looks back at the highs and lows of education reform in 2025 as we wrap up our final episode of the year.

Then, on the Research Minute, David Griffith closes things out with a countdown of his top five studies of 2025—plus one bonus pick.

Recommended content:

• Wonkathon 2025: What will make science of reading laws succeed? —Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• 2025 Eddies —PIE Network
• Was 2025 a good year for education reform? —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED

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David’s Top Research Minutes of 2025

5. Gender Gaps in the Early Grades: Questioning the Narrative that Schools are Poorly Suited to Young Boys

• Featured in Episode 988

4. How Test Optional Policies in College Admissions Disproportionately Harm High-Achieving Applicants from Disadvantaged Backgrounds

• Featured in Episode 955

3. When Decentralization Works: Leadership, Local Needs, and Student Achievement

• Featured in Episode 985

2. The Effects of Universal School Vouchers on Private School Tuition and Enrollment: A National Analysis

• Featured in Episode 986

1. Who Wants to Be a Teacher in America?

• Featured in Episode 992

Bonus: The Impact of Cell Phone Bans in Schools: Evidence From Florida

• See also: Cutting the cord: Early evidence on cellphone policy implementation —Alicia Anderson, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

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This week, we’re joined by Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat’s Ideas editor, to unpack whether college enrollment is truly declining—or whether the national narrative has gotten ahead of the data. 

Then, on the Research Minute, Fordham’s new national research manager Brian Fitzpatrick highlights evidence from D.C. Public Schools showing that teacher monitoring improves instruction and student outcomes—especially for teachers under pressure to raise test scores. 

Recommended content: 

• Is college enrollment really plummeting? — Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat Ideas
• It’s Too Early to Write Off College Degrees —Callum Borchers, The Wall Street Journal
• Does Monitoring Change Teacher Pedagogy and Student Outcomes? —Aaron Phipps, Journal of Labor Economics, The University of Chicago Press Journals (2025)

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This week, we’re joined by Wonkathon winner Eric Tucker—CEO and president of The Study Group—to talk about his first-place entry on what it will take for the science of reading laws to succeed.

Then, on the Research Minute, David Griffith highlights a study showing how much valuable information is lost when individual test questions are collapsed into a single score—and why states could produce better value-added measures by using the rich data they already collect.  

Recommended content: 

• Science of reading 2.0: Assessment in the service of learning as the backbone of science-powered reading improvement — Edmund W. Gordon and Eric Tucker for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Wonkathon 2025: What will make science of reading laws succeed? —Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Do Test Scores Misrepresent Test Results? An Item-by-Item Analysis —Jesse Bruhn, Michael Gilraine, Jens Ludwig, and Sendhil Mullainathan, EdWorkingPapers (2025)

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Don’t miss our December 4 webinar, Implementation Is Where It’s At: What’s Next for the Science of Reading?, happening at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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This week, Mike Petrilli returns for a solo episode to dig into artificial intelligence—not classroom tools or teaching tips, but the big-picture implications of AI for what students need to learn as work, citizenship, and even human flourishing rapidly evolve.

Then, on the Research Minute, David Griffith highlights a study linking the recent rise in child labor violations to declining school attendance—especially among Black youth and students living on farms.

Recommended content: 

• A “Zero-Based Budgeting” Approach for High School Course Requirements in the Age of AI — Michael J. Petrilli for The Center on Reinventing Public Education
• The illusion of learning: The danger of artificial intelligence for education — Robert Pondiscio, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• AI Will Transform The Workplace. Will Education Keep Up? — Matt Gandal, Forbes
• Contemporary Child Labor and Declining School Attendance in the U.S —Lucy C. Sorensen, Melissa Arnold Lyon, Ji Hyun Byeon, and Stephen B. Holt, EdWorkingPapers (2025)

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This week, we’re joined by longtime special education advocate Elizabeth Yancy Bostic to discuss what could happen for students with disabilities if federal oversight and enforcement of IDEA are scaled back. Drawing on more than two decades of experience supporting families, including her own, as they navigate services, Elizabeth explains why strong oversight matters and what is at risk for students and districts when those safeguards erode.

Then, on the Research Minute, David Griffith shares a study from Sweden that tracks the long-term outcomes of students attending for-profit versus nonprofit charter high schools.

Recommended content: 

• ‘Educational exile’: How Trump’s layoffs threaten students with disabilities — Susan Haas, Education Week
• CRPE on special education: Great diagnosis, wrong prescription — Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Schooling for Profit: Long-run Effects of Private Providers in Public Education —Petter Berg (2025) 

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This week, we’re joined by Ohio State’s Stéphane Lavertu, author of Fordham’s new study, The Leaky Pipeline: Assessing the college outcomes of Ohio’s high-achieving low-income students. The report examines the experiences of Ohio’s high-achieving, low-income—or “HALO”—students and finds that access to advanced learning opportunities plays a major role in whether they make it to four-year colleges.

Then, on the Research Minute, David Griffith spotlights a decades-long British study that followed the same individuals from childhood to age fifty—revealing how early cognitive skills shape lifelong outcomes, from education and occupation to wages.

Recommended content: 

• The Leaky Pipeline: Assessing the college outcomes of Ohio’s high-achieving low-income students —Stéphane Lavertu, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Excellence Gaps by Race and Socioeconomic Status —Meredith Coffey and Adam Tyner, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Building a Wider, More Diverse Pipeline of Advanced Learners —The National Working Group on Advanced Education
• Cognitive Skills Beyond Childhood —Uta Bolt, The Economic Journal (2025) 

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This week, Fordham’s President Emeritus Checker Finn joins the show to unpack a troubling trend—the collapse of graduation standards—and why it matters for every American student.

Then, on David Griffith’s first Research Minute, a new study looks at the demographics of college applicants interested in teaching in America—and explores why some who enter similar “helping professions,” like nursing and social work, steer clear of the classroom.

Recommended content: 

• High school graduation standards have collapsed. Does it matter? —Michael J. Petrilli, Schooled
• Are high school graduation standards too low? —Michael J. Petrilli, Schooled
• The end of MCAS is the end of an era. Now let’s figure out what comes next. —Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Who wants to be a teacher? — Robert Chung, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Who wants to be a teacher? — Brendan Bartanen, Andrew Avitabile, and Andrew Kwok, EdWorking Papers (2025)

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This week, we’re joined by Bryan Hassel, co-president of Public Impact, to discuss how redesigning school staffing—through models like Opportunity Culture—can boost both teacher retention and student success.

Then, on Adam Tyner’s final Research Minute, he shares a study on how ending compulsory religious education in German schools shaped students later in life—making them less religious, but more likely to work and earn higher incomes as adults.

Recommended content: 

• Opportunity Culture —Public Impact
• Think Again: Do the returns to teacher experience fizzle out? —Anne Podolsky and Linda Darling-Hammond for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Here’s how we hold on to experienced teachers: Give them the support they need —Linda Darling-Hammond and Michael J. Petrilli for the Hechinger Report
• Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? — Benjamin W. Arold, Ludger Woessmann and Larissa Zierow, The Journal of Human Resources (2025)

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This week, Mike Petrilli flies solo to discuss New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to eliminate gifted education in the early grades—and how progressives can be persuaded to champion advanced learning opportunities for all students.

Then, on the Research Minute, Adam Tyner reviews a new study on how parental education shapes excellence gaps among students.

Recommended content: 

• How can we depolarize “gifted education”? —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED
• Building a wider, more diverse pipeline of advanced learners — The National Working Group on Advanced Education
• The war against gifted education continues, Zohran Mamdani edition —James Pethokoukis, Faster, Please
• Gifted, talented and Zohran Mamdani —The Wall Street Journal
• Five facts about the first-generation excellence gap —Uditi Karna, John A. List, Andrew Simon and Haruka Uchida, NBER 2025

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This week, Aneesh Sohoni, CEO of Teach for America, joins The Education Gadfly Show to discuss TFA’s impact in the classroom and beyond, why teaching is a compelling opportunity for Gen Z college graduates, what corps members are saying about AI in the classroom. 

Then, on a special Research Minute, Adam Tyner shares findings from Who’s on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict, Fordham’s brand new report by David Houston and Michael Hartney surveying school board members across the country.

Recommended content: 

• Could an AI-driven “job apocalypse” push the best and brightest into teaching? —Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Who’s on Board? School boards and political representation in an age of conflict —David M. Houston and Michael T. Hartney for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (October 2025)

Upcoming webinar on October 14 at 3:00 PM ET: 

• Are school boards out of touch with their constituents?

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