The Education Gadfly Show

By Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Education

What's The Education Gadfly Show about?

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, Pedro Enamorado, at [email protected]

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LAST EPISODE

#825: Learning loss may get...

06.22.2022

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Goldstein, founder of Match Education in Boston, a college prep charter school with an embedded Graduate School of Education, discusses his prediction that learning losses will continue without a bold plan to ...

The Education Gadfly Show episodes:

06.22.2022 #825: Learning loss may get worse before it gets better - 6/23/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Goldstein, founder of Match Education in Boston, a college prep charter school with an embedded Graduate School of Education, discusses his prediction that learning losses will continue without a bold plan to ...
06.15.2022 #824: Dana Suskind on supporting low-income parents in their children’s early years - 6/15/2022 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Dr. Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and founder of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago, discusses how social supports for low-income and working-class parents equalize ...
06.08.2022 #823: How detrimental was remote learning? - 6/8/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tom Kane, Harvard economist and director of its Center for Education Policy Research, explains the latest research on the disastrous—and inequitable—impact of remote learning on America’s students. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber ...
06.01.2022 #822: Checker Finn: Why we need—and need to improve—NAEP - 6/1/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Checker Finn, the Fordham Institute’s president emeritus and a distinguished senior fellow, discusses recommendations for the National Assessment of Educational Progress from his new book, Assessing the Nation’s Report Card. Then, on the ...
05.24.2022 #821: Sec. Aimee Rogstad Guidera on the state of education in Virginia - 5/24/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera discusses Governor Glenn Youngkin’s and her vision for education outlined in a state report titled Our Commitment to Virginians: High Expectations and Excellence for All Students. ...
05.18.2022 #820: Social-emotional learning doesn’t have a hidden agenda - 5/18/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and senior visiting fellow here at Fordham, discusses his wariness about social-emotional learning but rebuts the claim that it’s a “Trojan horse” for ...
05.11.2022 #819: The pod on (pandemic) pods 5/11/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Ashley Jochim, a principal at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, joins Mike Petrilli to discuss her research on pandemic learning pods, what parents and educators liked about them, and whether they might ...
05.04.2022 #818: Kate Walsh on the state of teacher quality in America - 5/4/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Kate Walsh, who just finished a twenty-year run leading the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), joins Mike Petrilli to discuss America’s progress (and the lack thereof) on the teacher effectiveness front over ...
04.27.2022 #817: Doug Lemov on rebuilding school culture amid a mental health epidemic - 4/27/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion, and co-managing director of the organization of the same name, joins Mike Petrilli to discuss his forthcoming book, Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, ...
04.20.2022 #816: Want kids back in school? Make sure they feel safe. - 04/20/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jing Liu, Assistant Professor in Education Policy at the University of Maryland College Park and author of our latest study, Imperfect Attendance: Toward a fairer measure of student absenteeism, joins Mike Petrilli to ...
04.13.2022 #815: Paul Hill vs. Checker Finn: Does Denver prove that portfolio districts are doomed? - 4/13/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Paul Hill, founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education and emeritus professor at the University of Washington Bothell, joins Mike Petrilli and Checker Finn to debate recent reform setbacks in Denver, and ...
04.06.2022 #814: How Biden’s proposed regulations would hurt charter schools - 4/6/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Christy Wolfe, vice president for policy and planning at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike Petrilli to discuss how new regulations proposed by the ...
04.01.2022 Education Gladfly Show: The literal research minute This week’s Education Gladfly Show podcast is a Research Minute–only special! Amber Northern examines a survey of district and charter network leaders about staffing challenges they’ve faced this school year—and true to the segment’s name, tries her mightiest to do ...
03.30.2022 #813: Rick Hess and Mike Petrilli on ed reform and culture wars - 3/30/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Rick Hess, Senior Fellow and Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the cohost of the “Common Ground” podcast, joins Mike Petrilli and ...
03.23.2022 #812: How to follow the science to improve elementary education - 3/23/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Mike Petrilli, David Griffith, and Victoria McDougald discuss Follow the Science to School: Evidence-based Practices for Elementary Education, a new book that Mike edited with Kathleen Carroll ...
03.16.2022 #811: How one district scouts for talent for its gifted programs - 3/16/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), April Wells, Gifted Coordinator in Illinois School District U-46 and author of Achieving Equity in Gifted Programming: Dismantling Barriers and Tapping Potential, joins Mike Petrilli and David ...
03.09.2022 #810: College for all or college for some? - 3/9/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds, Vice President of Policy for ExcelinEd, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the pros and cons of the college-for-all movement. Then, on ...
03.02.2022 #809: Diversity, the law, and the future of selective-admission schools - 3/2/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Fordham’s editorial director, Brandon Wright, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to talk about the shifting landscape of highly-selective high schools. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber ...
02.23.2022 #808: End school mask mandates. It’s now or never - 2/23/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Daniel Buck, Fordham senior visiting fellow and English teacher at Holy Spirit Middle School in Appleton, Wisconsin, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to argue that the ...
02.16.2022 #807: What are schools doing with their Covid relief dollars? - 2/16/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the ways schools are spending $123 billion in federal Covid relief. Then, on the ...
02.09.2022 #806: On school boards, curriculum controversies, and a Parents’ Bill of Rights - 02/8/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Robert Pondiscio, Mike Petrilli, and David Griffith discuss a school board’s controversial removal of a holocaust book from its district’s curriculum, and whether states should create a ...
02.02.2022 #805: High schools didn’t get the memo that college isn’t for everyone - 02/02/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Checker Finn, Mike Petrilli, and David Griffith discuss whether American education should stop trying to send every student to college, and what that may mean for high ...
01.26.2022 #804: How charter schools are closing achievement gaps in metro areas - 01/26/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss Fordham’s latest charter school study, Still Rising, and how school choice helps students in traditional public schools, ...
01.19.2022 #803: John Bailey on Omicron and schools - 1/20/2022 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, John Bailey, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss Omicron’s impact on schools and whether the virus will soon be endemic. Then, on the ...
01.12.2022 #802: Erica Green on the pandemic’s impact on high school students - 1/12/2022 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Erica Green, national education reporter at the New York Times, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss schools’ struggle to support teens’ mental health and respond ...
01.05.2022 #801: Grumpy New Year with Checker Finn - 1/5/22 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Checker Finn, Fordham’s senior fellow and president emeritus, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the big education issues of the past year and look ahead ...
12.22.2021 #800: Why we need virtue education in our classrooms - 12/21/2021 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jennifer Frey, associate professor at the University of South Carolina and a regular guest writer for Fordham’s Flypaper blog, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss why and how we should incorporate ...
12.15.2021 #799: Build Back Better’s big impact on pre-k and child care - 12/15/21 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Elliot Regenstein, partner at Foresight Law + Policy and former member of Illinois’s Early Childhood Funding Commission, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how the Build Back Better plan would affect ...
12.08.2021 #798: Which metro areas are accelerating student learning? - 12/08/21 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Adam Tyner, Fordham’s Associate Director of Research, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss our new analysis, America’s Best and Worst Metro Areas for School Quality, some of which may surprise you. ...
11.30.2021 #797: Why debunked reading practices continue to spread - 11/30/21 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Sandi Jacobs, Principal at EdCounsel and former Senior Education Program Specialist for Reading First at the U.S. Department of Education, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss why reading programs based on ...
11.16.2021 #796: What Glenn Youngkin’s election says about education politics today - 11/16/21 On this week’s show, Andrew Rotherham, cofounder and partner at Bellwether Education partners, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss Glenn Youngkin’s election and what it means for education politics. He shared his thoughts about this on an interview ...
11.10.2021 #795: Why we should test in K–2 - 11/10/21 On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Dale Chu, senior visiting fellow at Fordham and independent education consultant, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to make the case for K–2 standardized testing. He wrote about this same topic earlier this ...
11.04.2021 #794: Universal pre-K seems imminent. Should we celebrate? - 11/4/21 On this week’s podcast, Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss what the Democrats' still-in-the-works “social infrastructure” bill may mean for pre-K and childcare. On the ...
10.28.2021 #793: How D.C. increased teacher diversity and quality - 10/28/21 On this week’s podcast, Tom Toch, director of Future Ed, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss D.C.’s teacher-hiring strategy, and why other districts can and should follow suit. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how teacher specialization ...
10.21.2021 #792: NAEP scores were falling even before the pandemic. Was the Great Recession to blame? - 10/21/21 On this week’s podcast, Checker Finn joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the last week’s worrisome NAEP results. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether stricter high school math requirements in the Nation at Risk era boosted ...
10.13.2021 #791: Is this the end of gifted education in New York City? - 10/13/21 On this week’s podcast, Brandon Wright, Fordham’s editorial director and coauthor of Failing Our Brightest Kids, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent move to overhaul gifted education in New York City. On the ...
10.07.2021 #790: Why boys flail - 10/07/21 On this week’s podcast, education writer Richard Whitmire joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how boys’ education failure starts in the earliest grades. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines districts’ plans for remote learning during the pandemic.
09.30.2021 #789: Too many lost Einsteins - 9/30/21 On this week’s podcast, Scott Imberman, professor at Michigan State University, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the new study he conducted for Fordham exploring the inequitable outcomes for early high achievers in Ohio. On the Research Minute, ...
09.23.2021 #788: Has the pandemic caused an exodus to charter schools? - 9/23/21 On this week’s podcast, Debbie Veney, Senior Vice President at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss her new report on Covid-era enrollment trends in charter and traditional public schools. On the ...
09.16.2021 #787: How the Delta variant is impacting back-to-school season - 09/16/21 On this week’s podcast, John Bailey, nonresident senior fellow at AEI, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how students’ transition back into classrooms is going in the face of the Delta variant and battles over vaccine, mask, and ...
09.09.2021 #786: Research deep dive: The impact of school voucher programs - 09/09/21 On this week’s podcast, Patrick Wolf, Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith on the fifth edition of our Research Deep Dive series to discuss the impact of voucher programs—both on participating students and ...
09.01.2021 #785: Helping students fight disinformation online - 09/2/21 On this week’s podcast, Peter Warren Singer, strategist and senior fellow at New America and defense policy expert, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the Cyber Citizenship Initiative, which helps build students’ resilience to digital misinformation. On the ...
08.26.2021 #784: Remote learning worked well for some students. What schools can learn from that. - 08/26/21 On this week’s podcast, Alyson Klein, assistant editor and education writer at Education Week, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss why some students thrived in virtual schooling and what brick-and-mortar schools might learn from that. On the Research ...
08.19.2021 #783: One teacher’s call for choice and content-rich curricula - 08/19/21 On this week’s podcast, Daniel Buck, a teacher and Fordham’s newest senior visiting fellow, joins Amber Northern and Brandon Wright to discuss the importance of a strong curriculum, the inherent value in school choice, why he teaches, and more. On ...
08.12.2021 #782: Whatever you do, don’t call it social and emotional learning - 08/12/21 On this week’s podcast, Adam Tyner and David Griffith discuss the Fordham report Adam just authored on parental attitudes toward and the politics of social and emotional learning. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how school-based mentoring affects academic ...
08.04.2021 #781: The House Democrats’ attack on charter schools - 08/04/21 On this week’s podcast, Ron Rice, senior director of government relations at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the House’s recently passed spending bill.
07.28.2021 #780: The state of teacher licensure - 07/28/21 On this week’s podcast, Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss NCTQ’s new analysis on teacher licensure tests. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the importance of informational ...
07.21.2021 #779: How districts are spending federal aid - 07/21/21 On this week’s podcast, Bree Dusseault, practitioner-in-residence at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss how large school systems are spending their federal pandemic aid dollars. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines ...
07.14.2021 #778: The virus isn’t done with schools - 07/14/21 On this week’s podcast, John Bailey, a nonresident senior fellow at AEI, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the Delta variant’s likely impact on school reopenings this fall. On the Research Minute, Olivia Piontek examines how stand-alone technical ...
07.08.2021 #777: O-H-I-O: School reform victories in the Buckeye State - 07/08/21 On this week’s podcast, Chad Aldis, Fordham’s vice president for Ohio policy, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the big ed reform victories this past legislative session on private school choice, charter schools, and accountability. On the Research ...

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