On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Bellwether co-founder and Virginia Board of Education member Andy Rotherham joins Mike Petrilli, David Griffith, and Amber Northern to discuss Virginia’s newly-approved history and social science standards. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber examines how test-based and non-test-based measures of teacher quality affect student outcomes.

Recommended content:

• Virginia’s new standards: “Standards of learning for history & social science” —Virginia Department of Education
• Andy’s blog on education policy: Eduwonk
• “After months of controversy, Virginia approves new school history standards” —Washington Post
• Fordham’s most recent report on history and civics standards: “The State of State Standards for Civics and U.S. History in 2021,” by Jeremy A. Stern, Ph.D., Alison E. Brody, José A. Gregory, Stephen Griffith, and Jonathan Pulvers
• The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Benjamin Backes et al., “How to measure a teacher: The influence of test and nontest value-added on long-run student outcomes,” CALDER Working Paper (April 2023)

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