The Biden administration's proposed changes to income-driven repayment (IDR) haven't received the same level of attention that student loan forgiveness has, but they are arguably no less significant. Changes to IDR will cost billions of dollars, affect millions of borrowers, and fundamentally change the student borrowing landscape for past, present, and future borrowers.

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Matt Chingos and Jason Delisle, both of the Urban Institute, about IDR and some of the eyebrow-raising effects the Biden administration's proposed changes might have on student borrowing.

Show Notes:

Few College Students Will Repay Student Loans under the Biden Administration’s Proposal

How Were Student Loan Borrowers Affected by the Pandemic?

Who Should Pay? Designing a More Equitable Income-Driven Repayment Plan

In 2015, Liberia’s school system was in shambles. Years of civil war and a 2014 Ebola outbreak shut down schools nationwide; only radical action could correct course. Then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf charged then-Education Minister George Werner with doing just that.

The following year, Werner implemented the Liberian Education Advancement Program (LEAP). This initiative brought in eight independent operators to run a handful of Liberian schools, the most successful of which was Kenya-based Bridge International Academies.

On this episode, host Nat Malkus talks with Werner and Steve Cantrell, Bridge International’s vice president of measurement and evaluation. Join the discussion on the educational landscape of Liberia, Bridge International’s impressive outcomes, and the work yet to be done.

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and the author of Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy. Nat and Dan discuss the benefits and limitations of the science of learning, why we don't spend enough time teaching students how to learn, learning styles and education myths, the potential education benefits of chewing gum, why ed schools need to teach more than just Piaget, education R&D, why students develop bad study habits, how students are different and how they are the same, entrance exams, group assignments, the value of memorization and content knowledge, why students should learn subjects that they will later forget, and more.

Show Notes:

Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy

Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

Raising Kids Who Read: What Parents and Teachers Can Do

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