The Education Gadfly Show

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Linda Jacobson, a senior writer at The 74, joins Mike to discuss why more students are attending in-person classes with a virtual teacher. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber discusses a new study on the minimally positive effect of summer school interventions designed to mitigate pandemic learning loss.

Recommended content:

• “Exclusive data: Fueled by teacher shortages, ‘Zoom-in-a-room’ makes a comeback” —Linda Jacobson
• “Welcome back to school. Your teacher is 2000 miles away.” —Wall Street Journal
• Ian Callen et al., “Summer school as a learning loss recovery strategy after COVID-19: Evidence from summer 2022,” National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (August 2023).

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, William McKenzie, a senior editorial advisor at the George W. Bush Institute, joins Mike to discuss the state takeover of Houston ISD and its crusading new superintendent. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber discusses a study that finds a Los Angeles public school choice policy increased academic achievement. 

Recommended content:

• “What Mike Miles can do to transform Houston ISD” —William McKenzie
• “Texas revamps Houston schools, closing libraries and angering parents” —New York Times
• “Texas Education Agency will take control of Houston ISD in June” —Texas Tribune
• “What does Gadfly say?” —Fordham Staff
• Christopher Campos and Caitlin Kearns, “The impact of public school choice: Evidence from Los Angeles’ Zones of Choice,” National Bureau of Economic Research (August 2023).

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Daniel Buck, Fordham’s editorial and policy associate, joins Mike and David to discuss the behavioral chaos in American schools post-pandemic. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber discusses a new study finding that pandemic-era declines in public school enrollment are likely to persist. 

Recommended content:

• “The school discipline disaster” —Daniel Buck
• “‘There were fists everywhere.’ Violence against teachers is on the rise.” —Wall Street Journal
• Andrew Backer-Hicks et al., “The stickiness of pandemic-driven disenrollment from public schools,” Annenberg Institute at Brown University (August 2023).

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rachel Canter, the executive director of Mississippi First, joins Mike to debunk the allegations that her state fudged its notable gains in reading achievement. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber examines the failure of a federal student loan forgiveness program for teachers.

Recommended content:

• “The truth about Mississippi’s NAEP gains” —Rachel Canter
• “Mississippi didn’t cheat. Its reading gains are real.” —Todd Collins
• Brian Jacob, Damon Jones, and Benjamin Keys, “The Value of Student Debt Relief and the Role of Administrative Barriers: Evidence from the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program,” National Bureau of Economic Research (June 2023).

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Aaron Churchill, Fordham’s Ohio research director, joins David to discuss how the Buckeye State’s latest omnibus bill benefits education. Then, on Research minutes, Amber examines a study on whether attending high-performing charter schools reduces risky behaviors like drug use.

Recommended content:

•  “Ohio lawmakers pass historic policies on charter schools, private school choice, governance, and literacy” —Aaron Churchill
•  “More dollars follow Ohio students” —Wall Street Journal
• Rebecca N. Dudovitz et al., “Assessment of Exposure to High-Performing Schools and Risk of Adolescent Substance Use: A Natural Experiment,” JAMA Pediatrics (2018).

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tom Loveless, a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, joins Mike to discuss the problematic practices and research in California’s new mathematics framework. Then, on Research minutes, Amber discusses a depressing new report that finds a degradation in instructional quality that’s making it difficult to recover pandemic-era learning loss.

Recommended content:

•  “California’s new math framework doesn’t add up” —Tom Loveless
•  “California adopts controversial new math framework. Here’s what’s in it.” —Education Week
• Lydia Rainey, Paul Hill, and Robin Lake, “Teach recovery? Three years in, school system leaders report that the pandemic weakened instruction,” Center for Reinventing Public Education (July 2023).

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Perpetual Baffour, the research director at the Learning Agency Lab, joins Mike to discuss her creation of an AI Chatbot designed to give teachers and school leaders research-based advice. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber discusses a study covering the negative impacts on teacher pay of a Texas policy to expand alternative teacher certification.

Recommended content:

•  “Creating a custom Chabot to give evidence-based education advice”—Learning Agency Lab
• “The promise of personalized learning never delivered. Today’s AI is different.”—John Bailey
• “AI won’t replace teachers, but it can make them more effective.” —Nathaniel Grossman
• Sarah Guthery and Lauren Bailes, “Unintended Consequences of Expanding Teacher Preparation Pathways: Does Alternative Licensure Attenuate New Teacher Pay?” American Education Research Association (March 2023)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Fordham’s Adam Tyner joins Mike to discuss his latest report on the inequalities or lack thereof in education funding. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber reviews an evaluation of a teacher-led course for college advising.

Recommended content:

• “Think Again: Is Education Funding in America Still Unequal?”—Adam Tyner
• “Another Nail in the Money Doesn’t Matter Coffin”—Adam Tyner
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Joshua Hyman, “College Counseling in the Classroom: Randomized Evaluation of a Teacher-Based Approach to College Advising,” Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University (June 2023)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, former Massachusetts Secretary of Education Jim Peyser joins Mike to discuss education reform’s tendency to overpromise, and how we can avoid that in the fight against learning loss. Then, on the Research Minute, Adam discusses a study on how the pandemic affected the academic growth of high- and low-achieving students.

Recommended content:

• “Settle for better”— James Peyser
• “Education reform is alive and well, even if the Washington Consensus is dead for now”—Michael Petrilli
• “Let’s forge a new K–12 political coalition—without political extremists” —Bruno Manno
• The study that Adam reviewed on the Research Minute: Scott J. Peters et al., “Unequal Learning Loss: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced the Academic Growth of Learners at the Tails of the Achievement Distribution,” Annenberg Institute at Brown University (June 2023)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Jeanette Luna at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Alia Wong of USA Today joins Mike and David to discuss what’s causing chronic absenteeism and ways to fix it. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber discusses a California study that investigates the extent to which a small group of teachers exacerbates racial gaps in school discipline.

Recommended content:

• “Showing up to school was hard amid COVID. Why aren’t kids (or teachers) returning to class?” — Alia Wong
• “When students feel unsafe, absenteeism grows” —Amber M. Northern, Ph.D. and Christian Eggers
• “Imperfect Attendance: Toward a fairer measure of student absenteeism” —Jing Liu
• “3 years since the pandemic wrecked attendance, kids still aren't showing up to school” —NPR 
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Jing Liu, Emily K. Penner and Wenjing Gao, Troublemakers? The Role of Frequent Teacher Referrers in Expanding Racial Disciplinary Disproportionalities, American Educational Research Association (June 2023)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Jeanette Luna at [email protected].