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
531 episodes
Too many A’s, not enough honesty? | Episode 1011 of The Education Gadfly Show
Bibb Hubbard, founder and CEO of Learning Heroes, joins the Education Gadfly Show to discuss grade inflation and the disconnect between what parents think report cards are telling them and how students are actually performing. As families rely ...
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Season 20
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Episode 1011
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39:42
Can we agree on teacher diversity? | Episode 1010 of The Education Gadfly Show
Mike Petrilli takes a solo turn to tackle teacher diversity, a topic at the center of today’s debates over DEI. Should schools recruit teachers whose backgrounds reflect those of their students? What does the research say about how shared life ...
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Season 20
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Episode 1010
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31:51
Can schools keep up with AI? | Episode 1009 of The Education Gadfly Show
Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, joins the Education Gadfly Show to discuss the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and what it could mean for schools. As AI tools grow more powerful, do schools need to...
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Season 20
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Episode 1009
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37:03
What the fadeout effect means for testing, accountability, and school choice | Episode 1008 of The Education Gadfly Show
Drew Bailey, professor at the University of California, Irvine, joins The Education Gadfly Show to discuss the fadeout effect across education interventions. Why do early treatment effects shrink over time, and what does that mean for judging p...
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Season 20
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Episode 1008
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36:15
When state curriculum lists go bad | Episode 1007 of The Education Gadfly Show
Karen Vaites, founder of The Curriculum Insight Project, joins us to discuss the evolving debate over curriculum reviews and state adoption policies. As more states look to third-party evaluations to guide decisions—and some consider mandating ...
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Season 20
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Episode 1007
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30:02
Mike gives easy A’s a big ole F | Episode 1006 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week on The Education Gadfly Show, Mike Petrilli goes solo to talk about grade inflation—what it means, how it’s changed over time, and why tougher grading standards help students learn more. He argues that easier grades don’t serve studen...
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Season 20
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Episode 1006
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29:45
Can states build coherent early childhood systems? | Episode 1005 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week on The Education Gadfly Show, we’re joined by Elliot Regenstein, partner at Foresight Law + Policy and author of Readiness: Preparing State Early Childhood Systems for a Brighter Future, to talk about early childhood educatio...
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Season 20
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Episode 1005
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29:07
Success stories shouldn’t be a secret | Episode 1004 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week on The Education Gadfly Show, we’re joined by Karin Chenoweth, founder of Democracy and Education and author of Schools that Succeed, to talk about what she’s learned from years of visiting successful classrooms, schools, and...
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Season 20
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Episode 1004
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38:26
National School Choice Week: Why “school choice” matters—and where ESAs fit | Episode 1003 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week on The Education Gadfly Show, we’re marking National School Choice Week with a conversation with Shelby Doyle of the National School Choice Awareness Foundation. We talk about why the movement emphasizes school choice rather than educ...
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Season 20
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Episode 1003
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23:35
Education Savings Accounts: Boffo or bonkers? | Episode 1002 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week on The Education Gadfly Show, Mike Petrilli goes solo. After recently playing ESA skeptic at an international school choice conference, Mike walks through where he now stands on Education Savings Accounts—laying out the strongest argu...
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Season 20
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Episode 1002
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34:39
Is tutoring the next big thing? | Episode 1001 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week, we’re joined by Liz Cohen, vice president of policy at 50CAN, to discuss her book, The Future of Tutoring. Mike and David ask her some tough questions on whether tutoring is worth the investment, and she provides some excell...
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Season 20
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Episode 1001
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32:33
An Education State of the Union | Episode 1000 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week, we’re marking a major milestone—Episode 1,000 of The Education Gadfly Show. Instead of focusing on a single topic, we’re branching out for a big-picture conversation about the state of education policy—past, present, and future—with ...
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Season 20
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Episode 1000
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39:19
The good, the bad, and the best research of 2025 | Episode 999 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week, Mike Petrilli looks back at the highs and lows of education reform in 2025 as we wrap up our final episode of the year.Then, on the Research Minute, David Griffith closes things out with a countdown of his top five studies of ...
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Episode 999
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30:36
Is the “college enrollment crisis” a myth? | Episode 998 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week, we’re joined by Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat’s Ideas editor, to unpack whether college enrollment is truly declining—or whether the national narrative has gotten ahead of the data. Then, on the Research Minute, Fordham’s new na...
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Episode 998
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29:07
Moving from science of reading laws to science of reading success | Episode 996 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week, we’re joined by Wonkathon winner Eric Tucker—CEO and president of The Study Group—to talk about his first-place entry on what it will take for the science of reading laws to succeed.Then, on the Research Minute, David Griffith...
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Episode 996
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31:03
How AI is reshaping what kids need to learn | Episode 995 of 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 flourishin...
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Episode 995
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32:32
What’s at stake if federal oversight of IDEA weakens? | Episode 994 of The Education Gadfly Show
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 ...
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29:02
The leaky college pipeline for high-achieving, low-income students | Episode 993 of The Education Gadfly Show
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 hig...
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Episode 993
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28:42
The collapse of graduation standards | Episode 992 of The Education Gadfly Show
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 stu...
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Episode 992
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31:15
Redesigning school staffing for student success | Episode 991 of The Education Gadfly Show
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 R...
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36:31
How the Left can learn to love gifted education | Episode 990 of The Education Gadfly Show
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...
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Episode 990
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34:39
TFA, Gen-Z, and AI | Episode 989 of The Education Gadfly Show
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 A...
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Episode 989
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34:33
Beyond test scores: Debating how to measure school quality | Episode 988 of The Education Gadfly Show
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 unpac...
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Episode 988
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32:22
Joyful classrooms, but zero public transparency: Inside an ESA micro-school | Episode 987 of The Education Gadfly Show
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...
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Episode 987
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39:30
On the negative NAEP news, and the real reason screen time is hurting student learning | Episode 986 of The Education Gadfly Show
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 ...
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Episode 986
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31:48