The Education Gadfly Show

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute tells Mike Petrilli and David Griffith why we should be happy that an increasing number of states are eliminating college degree requirements for many jobs. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber tells us about the effect of mandatory pass/fail grading on college student performance.

Recommended content:

• “Penn.’s New Governor Strikes a Blow Against the College-Industrial Complex” —Forbes
• “Busting the College-Industrial Complex” —National Affairs
• “Utah governor wants to eliminate the ‘paper ceiling’ of degree requirements” —The Center Square
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Kristin Butcher, Patrick McEwan, and Akila Weerapana, “Making the (Letter) Grade: The Incentive Effects of Mandatory Pass/Fail Courses,” National Bureau of Economic Research (December 2022)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tim Daly of EdNavigator tells Mike Petrilli and David Griffith how districts should prepare for looming school closures. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber explains the effect of worker displacement on college enrollment. 

Recommended content:

• “We need to prepare now for the school closures that are coming” —Tim Daly
• “America’s public schools are losing students” —Axios
• “Illinois public school enrollment continues to drop, preliminary numbers show” —Chalkbeat Chicago
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Veronica Minaya et al., “The effect of job displacement on public college enrollment: Evidence from Ohio,” Economics of Education Review (February 2023)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith talk with Nicole Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School, about the Supreme Court decisions that could legalize religious charter schools. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber reports on a literature review about inclusion for special education students. 

Recommended content:

•  “Supreme Court Opens a Path to Religious Charter Schools” —Nicole Garnett
• “The Education Exchange: Will Supreme Court Pave Way For Religious Charter Schools?” —Education Next
• “Oklahoma’s Endorsement of Religious Charter Schools Could Alter Legal Landscape for Choice” —The 74
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Nina T. Dalgaard et al., “The effects of inclusion on academic achievement, socioemotional development and wellbeing of children with special educational needs,” Campbell Systematic Reviews (December 2022)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith talk with Robert Pondiscio of the American Enterprise Institute about what schools should resolve to do better—and resolve to do less of—in 2023. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber tells us about the effect of school-based telemedicine clinics on student outcomes.

Recommended content:

• “Artificial intelligence is not the end of high-school English” —Robert Pondiscio
• Sold a Story —American Public Media
• The State of State Standards for Civics and U.S. History in 2021 —Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Sarah Komisarow and Steven Hemelt, “School-Based Healthcare and Absenteeism: Evidence from Telemedicine,” CALDER Working Paper (January 2023)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, David Griffith talks with Checker Finn about why we should still teach writing in the age of ChatGPT, a new AI-powered bot that can mimic human prose. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber tells us about the challenges of implementing academic Covid recovery interventions.

Recommended content:

• ChatGPT, the writing bot discussed in this episode
• “Why learn to write?” —Checker Finn
• “Artificial intelligence is not the end of high-school English” —Robert Pondiscio
• “Did a fourth grader write this? or the new chatbot?” —New York Times
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Maria V. Carbonari et al., The Challenges of Implementing Academic COVID Recovery Interventions: Evidence from the Road to Recovery Project, CALDER Working Paper (December 2022)
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Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s special, year-end Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli looks back on 2022’s most important education stories with 50CAN founder and CEO Marc Porter Magee. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber counts down the year’s top academic studies on education.

Recommended content:

• “Nation’s Report Card shows largest drops ever recorded in 4th and 8th grade math” —The 74
• “Gov. Bill Lee unveils new school funding formula aimed at focusing money directly on students” —Tennessean
• “Arizona’s school choice revolution” —Washington Examiner
• Emily Hanford’s podcast series, Sold a Story —American Public Media

Amber’s top five studies of the year:

• 5. Paul T. von Hippel and Ana P. Cañedo, “Is Kindergarten Ability Group Placement Biased? New Data, New Methods, New Answers,” American Educational Research Journal (2021).
• 4. Owen Thompson, “Gifted & Talented Programs and Racial Segregation” NBER Working Paper #29546 (December 2021).
• 3. Rune Vammen Lesner, Anna Piil Damm, Preben Bertelsen, and Mads Uffe Pedersen, “The Effect of School-Year Employment on Cognitive Skills, Risky Behavior, and Educational Achievement,” Economics of Education Review (March 2022); Alicia Sasser Modestino and Richard Paulsen, “School’s Out: How Summer Youth Employment Programs Impact Academic Outcomes,” Education Finance and Policy (January 2022).
• 2. Young Hwang and Cory Koedel, “Holding Back to Move Forward: The Effects of Retention in the Third Grade on Student Outcomes,” Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University (December 2022)
• 1. Kenneth Shores, Hojung Lee, and Elinor Williams, “The Distribution of School Resources in The United States: A Comparative Analysis Across Levels of Governance, Student Sub-groups, And Educational Resources,” Social Science Research Network (August 2021).

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith talk with the University of Colorado’s Parker Baxter on how Denver’s comprehensive school reform effort led to higher student achievement and graduation rates. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber brings us good news about a third grade retention policy in Indiana.

Recommended content:

• “The system-level effects of Denver’s portfolio strategy on student academic outcomes” —Parker Baxter
• A University of Colorado video on Parker Baxter’s study. 
• “Denver Public Schools’ controversial reform strategy led to higher test scores and graduation rates, but not without costs” —Colorado Public Radio
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Young Hwang and Cory Koedel, “Holding Back to Move Forward: The Effects of Retention in the Third Grade on Student Outcomes,” Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University (December 2022).

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith talk with Juliet Squire, Senior Partner at Bellwether, about a new initiative called Assembly, which is a deep dive into the idea of unbundling education services for all students. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber discusses a Teach For America study that examines how teacher-turnover rates affect student achievement.

Recommended content:

•  Bellwether’s Assembly
•  “The Pandemic and the Great Unbundling (and Rebundling) of American Schools” —The Bulwark
• “The Unbundling Series: Five Services Public Education Should Do Differently” —EdChoice
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Virginia F. Lovison, “The Effects of High-performing, High-turnover Teachers on Long-run Student Achievement: Evidence from Teach For America,” Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University (November 2022)

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Kymyona Burk, Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss what states are doing to promote the science of reading and crack down on the snake oil salespeople still peddling bogus reading programs. Then on the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how playing video games affects children’s cognitive performance.

Recommended content:

• Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong —American Public Media
• Emily Hanford’s keynote address and panel discussion from the National Summit on Education —ExcelinEd
• Comprehensive How-To Guide: Approaches to Implementing Early Literacy Policies —Kymyona Burk
• “The Noose Tightens Around Failed Reading Programs in Schools” —Robert Pondiscio 

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Virginia Gentles, the director of the Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women’s Forum, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the results of the 2022 midterm elections and what they mean for the parents’ rights movement. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern reviews a study that finds that students from under-resourced schools perform worse on computer-based tests than on traditional paper ones. 


Recommended content: 

• “School Board Candidates Who Pushed ‘Parental Rights’ See Mixed Results” —Wall Street Journal 
• “Still the Ones to Beat: Teachers’ Unions and School Board Elections” —Michael Hartney 
• “DeSantis, conservatives score more Florida school board wins” —Politico 
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: John Gordanier et al., “Pencils Down? Computerized Testing and Student Achievement,” Education Finance and Policy (Oct 2022).

Feedback Welcome:

Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to our podcast producer Nathaniel Grossman at [email protected].