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.
The Education Gadfly Show
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 students.
Then, on the Research Minute, Adam Tyner reviews a new study on how parental education shapes excellence gaps among students.
Recommended content:
- How can we depolarize “gifted education”? —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED
- Building a wider, more diverse pipeline of advanced learners — The National Working Group on Advanced Education
- The war against gifted education continues, Zohran Mamdani edition —James Pethokoukis, Faster, Please
- Gifted, talented and Zohran Mamdani —The Wall Street Journal
- Five facts about the first-generation excellence gap —Uditi Karna, John A. List, Andrew Simon and Haruka Uchida, NBER 2025
Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show? Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org