On this episode of The Report Card, Nat reviews the past year in education with Laura Meckler of the Washington Post, Linda Jacobson of The 74, and Goldie Blumenstyk of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Nat, Laura, Linda, and Goldie discuss affirmative action, school masking, ChatGPT, the top pieces of education journalism from the past year, higher education labor strikes, enrollment shortages, book bans, how education journalists use Twitter, COVID recovery, learning loss, sports gambling on college campuses, what education stories audiences want, income driven repayment, technology in schools, student mental health, what we can expect from the coming year, and more.

Show Notes:

How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campus Life

Young and Homeless in Rural America

Sold a Story

As AI Writing Gets Better, Teachers Work to Stop the Inevitable Cheating

Virtual Nightmare: One Student’s Journey Through the Pandemic

A 'Blanket Approach' Won't Win Adults Back

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Jennifer Frey, associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina and the host of Sacred and Profane Love. Nat and Jennifer discuss human happiness and education, what psychology doesn't understand about happiness, why we should care about teaching virtue, the Hillbilly Elegy, the proper ends of education, why it's not such a great idea to let children choose what they read, Catholic education, whether it is old fashioned to teach virtue, Social and Emotional Learning, the liberal arts, and more.

Show Notes:

The Universe and the University

Liberal Education and Human Flourishing

The Jubilee Centre

Virtue and Classic Children's Literature

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Melissa Arnold Lyon and Matthew Kraft about perceptions of the teaching profession. Nat, Mimi, and Matt discuss why the status and prestige of the teaching profession are at their lowest points in fifty years, why this matters for student learning, how perceptions of the teaching profession have changed over time, the extent to which current declines preceded the pandemic, Mimi and Matt's own job satisfaction when they were teachers, how the prestige of K-12 teaching compares with the prestige of college teaching, the effectiveness of teacher strikes, teachers unions, teacher pay, what can be done to improve the status of the teaching profession, and more.

Show Notes:

The Rise and Fall of the Teaching Profession: Prestige, Interest, Preparation, and Satisfaction over the Last Half Century

Sustaining a Sense of Success: The Protective Role of Teacher Working Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Elevating Education in Politics: How Teacher Strikes Shape Congressional Election Campaigns

Can We Tutor Our Way out of Covid Learning Loss?

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC), the Republican Leader of the House Committee on Education and Labor. Nat and Dr. Foxx discuss student loan forgiveness, the REAL Reforms Act, community colleges, credentialism, serving on a school board, spelling bees, the role of federal education policy, and more.

Show Notes:

The REAL Reforms Act

Press Release for the REAL Reforms Act

Dr. Foxx Bio

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Tom Kane, the Walter H. Gale Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the faculty director of CEPR, and one of the project leaders of the Education Recovery Scorecard. Nat and Tom discuss NAEP results, the Education Recovery Scorecard, COVID learning loss, pandemic recovery, and more.

A collaboration of the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, and Stanford CEPA, the Education Recovery Scorecard links NAEP scores with state assessment results, giving us the first chance to really compare learning loss at the district level across the country.

Show Notes:

The Education Recovery Scorecard

Tom Kane

NAEP

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Po-Shen Loh, professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University and coach of the United States' International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team. Nat and Po discuss the difference between teaching problem solving and teaching computation, the limitations of mastery learning, the potential of online learning, math outreach, IMO, Hagoromo chalk, how to make math instruction simultaneously more engaging and more challenging, whether educators should discuss the usefulness of math, a scalable program to teach problem solving to advanced students live online, calculators, and more.

Show Notes:

Po's Personal Website

Po's Academic Website

International Mathematical Olympiad

Live.PoShenLoh

Po on Quadratic Equations

NOVID

Po's Speaking Tour

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Richard Reeves, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It. Nat and Richard discuss redshirting, changing gender disparities, why many education interventions don't help men, Jordan Peterson, conscientiousness, why boys' standardized test scores are better than their grades, Bernard Williams, meritocracy, the modern male's need for a better life script, the prefrontal cortex, monarchy, the feminization of schooling, and more.

Show Notes:

Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It

Redshirt the Boys

Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It

Ilana Horwitz on the Impact of Religion on Student Outcomes

Truth and Truthfulness

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat interviews Freeman Hrabowski. Nat and Freeman discuss Black students in STEM, the state of free speech on college campuses, university spending and how to keep costs down, whether high schools are doing a good enough job of preparing students for college, the NCAA tournament, campus culture, the value of collaborative teamwork, how to improve graduation rates, multibillion-dollar university endowments, and more.

Freeman Hrabowski served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) from 1992 until earlier this year. Under his leadership, UMBC became the nation’s number one college in terms of the number of Black students it graduates who later earn a Ph.D. in the natural sciences and engineering—an especially impressive feat when you consider that UMBC’s undergraduate enrollment is only about 11,000 and that Black students make up slightly less than 20% of that number. During Hrabowski's tenure, UMBC also more than doubled graduation rates, earned the #1 ranking in US News's list of up and coming universities for six consecutive years, and won the biggest upset in the history of March Madness.

Show Notes:

Meyerhoff Scholars Program

Replicating Meyerhoff for Inclusive Excellence in STEM

Meyerhoff at Berkeley and UCSD

Freeman Hrabowski on 60 Minutes

The Empowered University

Holding Fast to Dreams

Overcoming the Odds

Beating the Odds

UMBC Upsets UVA

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat interviews Doug Lemov. Nat and Doug discuss cellphones and social media, how they harm the academic and social development of students, how they make schools less inclusive, and what we can do about all of this. Nat and Doug also discuss online learning, school choice, the difficulty of creating schools with a coherent operating philosophy, the state of public schooling, The Scarlet Letter, the pandemic's effects on students, teacher professional development, the relationship between parenting and schooling, the idea that schooling sometimes has to be hard for students, and the crucial role that schools play in shaping students' habits of attention.

Doug Lemov is the author of Teach Like a Champion and the founder of the Teach Like a Champion organization. He was previously the managing director and one of the founders of Uncommon Schools. His new book, Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging, hits shelves next month.

Show Notes:

Take Away Their Cellphones

Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging

Teach Like A Champion 3.0

Teach Like A Champion

iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us

It Was a Mistake to Let Kids Onto Social Media Sites. Here’s What to Do Now.

We are now entering the fourth school year that will be affected by COVID-19. What can we expect? What have we learned so far? And does anyone still care?

What should we be keeping our eyes on as another year rolls around? Evolving safety protocols? School spending? Student behavior? Potential teacher shortages? New vaccines?

To discuss these questions and more, Nat invited John Bailey onto the podcast for a conversation. At AEI, John studies technology and education, and since the start of the pandemic he has written over 550 COVID-19 Policy Updates on his Substack.

Show Notes:

John's COVID-19 Policy Updates

Nat's Return to Learn Tracker

Reset Strategies Now, Prepare for the Future

A Failure to Respond: Public School Mask Mandates in the 2021–22 School Year

Pandemic Enrollment Fallout: School District Enrollment Changes Across COVID-19 Response

Bush Pandemic Preparedness Plan

2022 School Pulse Panel: Student Behavior

Student achievement in 2021-22: Cause for hope and continued urgency