The Education Gadfly Show
For more than 15 years, the Fordham Institute has been hosting a weekly podcast, The Education Gadfly Show. Each week, you’ll get lively, entertaining discussions of recent education news, usually featuring Fordham’s Mike Petrilli and David Griffith. Then the wise Amber Northern will recap a recent research study. For questions or comments on the podcast, contact its producer, Stephanie Distler, at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.
Episodes
500 episodes
#979: Is too much democracy hamstringing our schools? with Vlad Kogan
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show, Vlad Kogan—professor and director of undergraduate studies at The Ohio State University—joins us to discuss his forthcoming book, No Adult Left Behind: How Politics Hijacks Education Policy and...
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Episode 979
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31:01
#978: Mike on the mic: Regulation in school choice programs
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show, Mike returns for another solo episode, reflecting on the role of regulation in school choice—is it stifling innovation or saving us from bad schools?Then, on the Research Minute, Adam covers a study ...
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35:37
#977: New law, new questions for school choice, with Brian Jodice
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show, Brian Jodice, National Press Secretary for the American Federation for Children joins us for a lively debate on the federal school choice provision embedded in the newly enacted “One Big Beautiful Bill”—inc...
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Episode 977
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35:38
#976: A new hub for smarter education policy, with Doug Harris
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Doug Harris, director of the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH), joins us to discuss a new website aimed at advancing evidence-based education po...
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39:31
#975: Mike on the mic: On “discrimination” and demagoguery
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike flies solo to reflect on what’s happening across the education reform landscape—from the private school choice debate to the question of whether education reform has successfully scaled....
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Episode 975
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35:04
#974: The Risks of the Educational Choice for Children Act, with Jon Valant
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jon Valant —director of the Brown Center on Education Policy and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings—joins Mike to discuss his recent analysis of the federal tax credit scholarship in...
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Episode 974
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31:26
#973: Debunking the teacher experience myth, with Linda Darling-Hammond and Anne Podolsky
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Linda Darling-Hammond and Anne Podolsky of the Learning Policy Institute—authors of our latest Think Again brief, “Do the Returns to Teacher Experience Fizzle Out?”—join Mike and David to discuss wh...
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Episode 973
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27:17
#972: Indiana’s charter strategy: A red-state roadmap? with Brandon Brown
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, joins Mike to explain why charter school advocates keep winning in red states—and how others might follow Indiana’s lead. Then, on the Research Minute, Adam sha...
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Episode 972
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28:14
#971: A “Quality Check” on school accountability, with Tom Toch and Lynn Olson
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tom Toch, director of FutureEd, and Lynn Olson, former deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, join Mike and David to discuss Lynn’s new paper, “Quality Check: The New, Best Way to...
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Episode 971
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41:23
#970: Big moves in the Lone Star state: ESAs come to Texas, with Genevieve Collins
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Genevieve Collins, Texas State Director for Americans for Prosperity, joins us to discuss Texas’s newly passed Education Savings Account bill—an ambitious policy that could position the Lone Star St...
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Episode 970
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32:19
#969: Charters, church, and the Court with Starlee Coleman
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Starlee Coleman, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike and David to discuss the religious charter schools case currently before the U. S. Supreme Court. T...
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Episode 969
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35:33
#968: Are school inspections the accountability tool we’ve overlooked? with Erik Robelen
#968: Are school inspections the accountability tool we’ve overlooked? with Erik RobelenOn this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, former Education Week reporter Erik Robelen joins Mike and David to discuss school inspections—w...
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Episode 968
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35:09
#967: Mississippi’s secret? Twenty years of persistence and progress, with Rachel Canter
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rachel Canter, the founding executive director of Mississippi First and the new director of education policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, joins Mike and David to discuss what really fueled M...
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Episode 967
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38:49
#966: Is calculus king? Rethinking math pathways, with Matt Giani
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Matt Giani, professor and researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, joins Mike and David to discuss whether there’s a one-size-fits-all math pathway for students, as explored in Calculus ...
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Episode 966
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35:06
#965: Understanding ESSA Waivers, with Anne Hyslop
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Anne Hyslop, Director of Policy Development at All4Ed, joins Mike and David to discuss the evolving federal role in K–12 education—particularly how the Secretary of Education’s waiver authority may—...
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Episode 965
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39:10
#964: Why states should keep testing, with Scott Marion
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Scott Marion, Executive Director of the Center for Assessment, joins Mike and David to discuss why states should maintain annual assessments—even if the Trump Administration waives some federal test...
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Episode 964
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34:05
#963: All about the Educational Choice for Children Act, with Jim Blew
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, joins Mike and David to talk about his work on the Educational Choice for Children Act—a federal proposal that could expand educational opti...
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Episode 963
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39:14
#962: Replacing DEI with something better, with Richard Kahlenberg
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Richard Kahlenberg, author of Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges, joins Mike and David to discuss how...
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Episode 962
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37:07
#961: How “No Excuses” charter schools went off the rails, with Steven Wilson
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Steven Wilson, senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute, joins Mike to discuss his new book The Lost Decade: Returning to the Fight for Better Schools in America, which argues that the push f...
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Episode 961
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37:12
#960: Why Secretary McMahon shouldn’t waive federal testing requirements, with Charles Barone
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Charles Barone, Senior Director of the Center for Innovation at the National Parents Union, joins Mike and David to discuss the future of federal assessment and accountability policies under the Tru...
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Episode 960
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35:50
#959: Are GPAs the key to measuring school quality? with Jing Liu and Seth Gershenson
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jing Liu (University of Maryland) and Seth Gershenson (American University), authors of our latest report, Ready or Not? A New Way to Measure Elementary and Middle School Quality, join Mike...
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Episode 959
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40:18
#958: Louisiana’s NAEP gains and the power of a strong curriculum, with John White
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, John White, former Louisiana superintendent of education and current CEO of Great Minds PBC, joins David and Amber to discuss the reforms he led in Louisiana and their role in the state’s significan...
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Episode 958
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35:14
#957: DOGE, IES, and the future of education research
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike and David discuss what’s really going on with DOGE, including its cuts to IES research grants and the implications for education policy. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber highlights a study o...
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Episode 957
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37:08
#956: How schools can manage deportation fears, with Delia Pompa
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Delia Pompa, Senior Fellow for Education Policy at MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, joins Mike and David to discuss how the potential threat of immigration agents at school doo...
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Episode 956
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30:52
#955: Critical race theory: The student perspective with Brian Kisida
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Brian Kisida, Associate Professor at the Truman School of Government & Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, joins Mike and David to discuss his recent Education Next article, w...
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Episode 955
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34:06