The Education Gadfly Show

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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This week, Fordham’s president emeritus Checker Finn and Laura Hamilton of the Center for Assessment join us for a polite debate on whether school quality should be judged by more than test scores.

On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner unpacks a massive study of ten million students that tracks how gender gaps in math and reading develop from kindergarten through fifth grade—and what that means for the narrative about boys and school.

Recommended content

• The mixed blessing of new school measures —Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham
• Our assessment systems should reflect the purposes of public education —Laura Hamilton, Center for Assessment
• #971: A “Quality Check” on school accountability, with Tom Toch and Lynn Olson —The Education Gadfly Show
• Do we know how to measure school quality? —Van Schoales, Education Week
• Gender Gaps in the Early Grades: Questioning the Narrative that Schools are Poorly Suited to Young Boys — Megan Kuhfeld and Margaret Burchinal, Annenberg Institute at Brown University (2025)
• Redshirt the boys—Richard V. Reeves for The Atlantic

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This week, Chandler Fritz, author of Harper’s Magazine’s cover story The Homemade Scholar, shares what he discovered when teaching in an ESA-funded micro-school—including a lackluster curriculum but undeniably joyful kids.

On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner unpacks California’s big school-spending surge—showing that despite major funding increases, starting teacher pay hasn’t risen and staffing levels have barely changed.

Recommended content

• The Homemade Scholar —Chandler Fritz, Harper’s Magazine
• The “à la carte education” accountability conundrum —Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Student experience data is sending a message. Will we listen? —Dr. Deborah A. Gist for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Why I’m wary of universal education savings accounts —Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Doing educational equity right: School finance —Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham
• Teacher Staffing Trends in California: Assessing the Impact of Recent Spending —Julien Lafortune, Iwunze Ugo, and Brett Guinan, PPIC (2025)

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This week, Mike Petrilli digs into the latest NAEP results—and explores whether the rise of smartphones and social media might help explain them. It’s another solo episode, just Mike and the mic.

On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner shares a new REACH study showing that school voucher programs have boosted private school enrollment by just 3 percent so far—but are already putting upward pressure on tuition.

Recommended content

• The Best Takes on the Worst NAEP Scores Ever —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED
• Schools, but not states, should ban phones —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED
• Cellphone bans are not enough —Henry Seton for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Student Test Scores Keep Falling. What’s Really to Blame? —Martin R. West, Education Week
• Pay Attention, Kid!—Daniel T. Willingham, EducationNext
• The Effects of Universal School Vouchers on Private School Tuition and Enrollment: A National Analysis —Douglas N. Harris and Gabriel Olivier, REACH (2025)

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