The Report Card with Nat Malkus: Recent Episodes
American Enterprise Institute
The Report Card with Nat Malkus is the education podcast of the American Enterprise Institute. It is a hub for discussing innovative work to improve education – from early childhood to higher education – and the lives of America’s children. It evaluates research, policy, and practice efforts to improve the lives of families, schools and students. The Report Card seeks to engage with everyone who is interested in education in an accessible way. It brings guests that are doing compelling work across a spectrum from high level policy changes to innovations at the classroom level, work that will start conversations about improving education and the lives of children more broadly. Each episode lets listeners – policymakers, teachers, and parents –learn relevant information that they can use in their efforts to improve education.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with John White about state education leadership, how the education landscape has changed over the last few decades, innovation in education and where it tends to go wrong, the importance of school choice, the Southern Surge, why coherent systems matter, what we know about curriculum, and more.
John White is the CEO of Great Minds. Previously, he was the Louisiana State Superintendent of Education, Superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District, Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, and a Teach For America corps member.
This episode was produced by Elli Lucas.
During the pandemic, national chronic absenteeism rates surged across all demographics, but what has happened to chronic absenteeism rates since then?
Are chronic absenteeism rates back to pre-pandemic levels? Is chronic absenteeism less of a problem for students who weren’t yet in school during the pandemic? And where might chronic absenteeism rates end up when all the dust settles?
On this episode of The Report Card, Elli Lucas discusses these questions, and more, with Nat Malkus.
Nat Malkus is a senior fellow and the deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies. He is the creator of AEI’s Return to Learn Tracker, which tracked pandemic school closures and masking policies and currently tracks post-pandemic chronic absenteeism, and the host of the podcast The Report Card with Nat Malkus.
This episode was produced by Elli Lucas.
Show Notes:
From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025
Please Excuse My Child: Unexcused Absences in Student Attendance and Achievement
Catching Absenteeism Early and Often: Introducing the AEI Absence Forecast
AEI Absence Forecast
What Stories Does Daily Attendance Tell? Student Attendance Patterns Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
AEI’s Chronic Absenteeism Research Working Group (CARWG)
Teacher and Student Absences Before and After the Pandemic
The 50% Challenge
In a few short days, we’ll be celebrating America’s 250th birthday, but rather than feeling uniformly triumphant and celebratory, America’s Semiquincentennial comes at a time when many worry about the state of our democracy and civic culture.
Schools are central to this worry. Many are concerned that civic education in American schools is insufficient or misguided, and that schools are not doing enough to prepare the next generation of Americans for self-governance. But what would better civic education look like?
What subject matter should it consist of? What should its aims be? And how much of it should happen in schools?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Yuval Levin.
Yuval Levin is a senior fellow at AEI, where he is the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy; Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies; and Editor in Chief of National Affairs. He is also the author of several books, including American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again.
The Department of Education has said it is trying to return education to the states, but what does that mean for the federal role in education and for the states expected to take on more responsibility?
What is the Department doing now to scale back the federal role in education? How does the Department think about its own education agenda as it tries to return education to the states? And are states ready to have education returned to them—whatever that might mean?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Kirsten Baesler.
Kirsten Baesler is the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. From 2013 until 2025, she served as the North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Recently, Harvard faculty voted to push back on grade inflation at the institution by capping the proportion of A’s given to students at 20%. But according to a new paper, Harvard’s new policy—and grade caps in general—are not the right solution.
In What Does a Grade Mean? Informativeness and Strategic Manipulation of Grading Systems, Scott Duke Kominers and Joshua S. Gans argue that to create better incentives for students and faculty, we need to change the current grading system itself.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Scott Duke Kominers about Harvard’s new grade inflation policy. Nat and Scott discuss grading at Harvard, how traditional grading creates bad incentives for students, why grade caps might make these incentives worse, the importance of communicating information about course difficulty, how a different grading system can create better incentives and lead to more learning, and more.
Scott Duke Kominers is the Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School; a Faculty Affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics and the Harvard Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications; and an a16z crypto Research Partner.
Show Notes:
What Does a Grade Mean? Informativeness and Strategic Manipulation of Grading Systems.
Grade Caps Fail the Game Theory Exam
When the Proposal Keeps Changing, It's Clear It Doesn't Make the Grade
70% of Faculty Vote to Overhaul Harvard Grading With A Cap
Enigmatic Puzzles
Historically, many didn’t consider Alabama to be at the forefront of education, but Alabama’s pandemic recovery may be among the best in the nation.
Perhaps most impressively, Alabama was the only state whose 4th-grade math NAEP scores were higher in 2024 than in 2019, and Alabama reports a chronic absenteeism rate that is the lowest in the nation—and the closest to its pre-pandemic levels of any state.
Are these results part of a broader story about how Alabama has changed the way it thinks about education? What changes have helped produce Alabama’s recent education gains? And where might education in the Yellowhammer State be headed next?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey.
Although the Trump administration’s efforts to reform education might not be making national headlines quite as often as they did one year ago, a lot has still happened in education over the last several months.
The Trump administration has continued its push to dismantle the Department of Education. Elite universities are making efforts to reform campus culture. The Department of Education released a major report on the future of the Institute of Education Sciences. And campaigns to limit phone use and, now, screen time in school continue to gain momentum.
To make sense of it all, on this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess.
Andy Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Rick Hess is a senior fellow and the director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
Show Notes:
Mend, Don’t End, the Institute of Education Sciences
Hope or Hype? What to Make of Yale’s Report on Trust in Higher Ed
The Trump Administration Has Mostly Dismantled the Ed. Dept. Should You Care?
Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences
This podcast has covered AI in K–12 education a fair amount, but how will and how should AI change higher education?
Should any human instructors be replaced with AI? Should universities change what and how they teach to strengthen their value proposition? And in the age of AI, how should universities prepare their students for an unpredictable job market?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Hollis Robbins.
Hollis Robbins is a professor of English at the University of Utah, where she was formerly Dean of the College of Humanities. She writes about AI in higher education on her Substack, Anecdotal Value.
Show Notes:
It's Later Than You Think
Last Mile Education
Teaching Quality
The Two-Minute Mile Problem
What Should a University AI Czar Do?
My AI Thinks Civics Is Black Studies
Note: This episode originally aired in April 2025.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy. Nat and Eva discuss why COVID learning loss is a misnomer; whether chronically absent students should face consequences for their poor attendance; why, despite its strong academic performance, Success Academy decided to overhaul its curriculum; what Success Academy looks for when hiring new teachers; Success Academy’s potential expansion into Florida and Texas; the challenges Success Academy faced in expanding into high school; whether charter schools have lived up to their original promise; and what’s next for Success Academy.
Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 57 schools in New York City educating 22,000 students. Despite 72% of its students being economically disadvantaged, Success Academy ranked first on the 2024 New York State Grade 3–8 math exam.
Recently, there has been a lot of handwringing over grade inflation both at the higher education and K–12 levels, but how big of a problem actually is grade inflation?
What sort of effect does grade inflation have on student learning? Does grade inflation help or hurt college enrollment? And what impact, if any, does grade inflation have on lifetime earnings?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Jeff Denning.
Jeffrey T. Denning is an associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and—along with Rachel L. Nesbit, Nolan G. Pope, and Merrill Warnick—is the author of a new paper: Easy A’s, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation.
Math is one of the subjects that gets the most attention in American education, but how well do we actually understand what good math instruction should look like?
Should math classes consist of students solving problem after problem, or should math classes also include opportunities for discussion and group work? Should students learn a topic and then move on to the next topic after they have achieved competency, or should teachers strive to teach each topic deeply, giving students many different strategies for solving problems? And if math education in America were dramatically improved, just how good could it be?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Jon Star. Nat and Jon discuss conceptual understanding and procedural fluency, whether constructivism has a place in the classroom, the value of worked examples, online curricula and the importance of curricular coherence, what mathematical flexibility is and why it matters, whether students can understand problem-solving strategies more or less well, whether math makes students better problem-solvers more generally, Chinese math education, Jon’s experience teaching middle school math and how being a researcher informs his teaching, whether math education research is sufficiently accessible to teachers, how to improve American math education, and how good American math education could be.
Jon Star is the Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr. Professor of Teaching and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a middle school math teacher.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has rewritten the playbook for how Washington interacts with higher education, especially elite universities.
How should universities respond to the Trump administration’s efforts? Have the Trump administration’s actions been legal? And how can universities better serve the American public?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Lee Bollinger. Nat and Lee discuss the purpose of large university endowments, the meaning of the Ivy League today, university hiring, whether elite universities should double their undergraduate enrollments, the scholarly temperament, whether there is a tension between serving the public and the research missions of universities, the relationship between Washington and universities in the pre-Trump era, how universities can better convey their value to the American people, and the best evidence in favor of affirmative action.
Lee Bollinger is the Seth Low Professor at Columbia University and the author of University: A Reckoning. Previously, he was President of Columbia University and President of the University of Michigan.
To commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, The Report Card will be releasing a few episodes on the history of American education—both to discuss how we arrived at the education system we have today and how our education system has shaped America.
On this episode, Nat Malkus and Johann Neem cover the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Nat and Johann discuss civics education in early America, why some educators cared so much about imagination and self-culture, Horace Mann, pushback against education reformers, the difficulties of schooling in the young republic, the spread of the common schools movement, and more.
Johann Neem is Professor of History at Western Washington University, editor of the Journal of the Early Republic, and the author of Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America.
On the right, teachers’ unions are often treated as the bogeyman, and no one today is more synonymous with teachers’ unions than Randi Weingarten. Indeed, in 2022 former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Weingarten “the most dangerous person in the world.”
But who is Randi Weingarten? What does she do on a day-to-day basis? How much power does she actually have? What are her views on topics such as pensions, curriculum, and teacher autonomy? And is she actually the most dangerous person in the world?
On this episode of The Report Card, Randi Weingarten joins Nat Malkus for a wide-ranging conversation on many of the biggest topics in American education.
Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers and the author of Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.
Can students learn math much faster than they typically do? Can students who feel like they have hit a wall in math instruction make steady progress again? And can math instruction be successfully delivered online through a platform that doesn’t even use video?
Math Academy, an online learning platform that is serious about math instruction, is built on the premise that the answer to all of these questions is yes: An adaptive learning platform that carefully determines what students already know and what they don’t know yet can radically improve math instruction for many students—and can do so without many of the bells and whistles that are typical of education technology.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Jason Roberts and Justin Skycak about how Math Academy works, why many of Math Academy’s users are adults, and whether middle school students can really learn calculus.
Jason Roberts is the co-founder of Math Academy.
Justin Skycak is the chief quant and director of analytics at Math Academy.
Show Notes:
Math Academy
How Math Academy Works
We are now coming to the end of another year. What were the biggest stories in education this year? What stories didn’t get as much attention as they should have? And what can we expect in the coming year?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with three education journalists: Sarah Mervosh of The New York Times, Jill Barshay of The Hechinger Report, and Eric Kelderman of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Show Notes:
The Improbable Warrior
Trump’s Attacks on DEI May Hurt Men in College Admission
The Big Fail
In classrooms across the nation, students and teachers are using AI—but should they be?
AI’s advocates argue that it can be used to individualize instruction and provide personalized feedback, but its critics contend that the adoption of AI in the classroom will get in the way of students acquiring critical thinking skills.
Who is right here? Can AI reverse a decade of falling test scores, or will it only exacerbate this trend? And even if AI in the classroom is the future, does that mean schools should adopt AI in the classroom today?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus and four experts discuss and debate whether maximizing school improvement by 2035 means integrating AI into classrooms today.
Note: This episode is adapted from the most recent installment of the American Enterprise Institute’s Education Policy Debate Series, which was held at AEI on December 8. A video recording of the debate can be found here.
Shanika Hope is the director of Americas & Knowledge, Skills, and Learning at Google.
Alex Kotran is the CEO of the AI Education Project.
Dan Meyer is the vice president of User Growth at Amplify.
Jake Tawney is the chief academic officer at Great Hearts Academies.
One of the hottest names in education right now is Alpha School. A network of high-end private schools founded in Texas but with additional locations elsewhere, Alpha School uses AI to implement mastery learning principles and incentives to accelerate student learning.
How well the Alpha model works is an open question: Alpha School graduated its first seniors—a class of twelve—just last year, and most of Alpha’s students come from wealthier families. That said, for anyone who complains about a lack of experimentation in the education sector or wonders what it might look like if schools took some of the boldest ideas in education more seriously, Alpha is a welcome antidote.
To learn more about the Alpha model, on this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with MacKenzie Price, cofounder of Alpha School.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus, Rick Hess, and Andy Rotherham discuss what recent elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City mean for education, the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, the latest in the Jim Ryan saga, and more.
(Note: This episode was recorded on Monday, before the Trump administration announced further plans to dismantle the Department of Education.)
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
Jim Ryan Letter
The Impoundment Wars, Begun They Have. Plus, Wait, What Just Happened at UVA?
"Patriotic Education" Isn't. Plus, The Vagueness of "No Kings."
What's The Forecast In Virginia? Plus Literacy, Des Moines, Cell Phone Bans, More...And Fish Pics.
VCU Changed Scholarship for Descendants of the Enslaved to Align with Anti-DEI Policies
Finding Common Ground on Trump’s College Compact
Campus Leaders Conveniently Find the Spines They Lost Years Ago
How Zohran Mamdani Could Kill New York’s Schools
Texas A&M Tightens Rules on Talking About Race and Gender in Classes
How to Really Know a Thing, Directed by Quentin Tarantino
For decades, there has been research showing that tutoring can be a highly effective mode of instruction, but before 2020, large, in-school tutoring programs were not widespread. Then the pandemic struck, and large tutoring programs cropped up in districts around the nation. In fact, according to the June 2025 School Pulse Panel, 85% of American public schools now offer tutoring, with 42% offering high-dosage tutoring.
Has this COVID-era experiment been successful? Should these tutoring programs stick around as the pandemic recedes further from view? And what might AI mean for the future of tutoring? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Liz Cohen.
Liz Cohen is the vice president of policy at 50Can and the author of The Future of Tutoring: Lessons from 10,000 School District Tutoring Initiatives.
In August 2023, right after he took over as superintendent of Houston ISD, Mike Miles came on The Report Card to talk about his plans for Texas’s largest school district.
From changing teacher pay to overhauling curriculum, Miles’s plans for Houston were ambitious—and controversial—but would they work?
Two years later, Mike Miles comes back on The Report Card to speak with Nat Malkus about the progress Houston has made and whether Houston’s bold reform agenda has gone according to plan.
F. Mike Miles is the superintendent of Houston Independent School District. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of Third Future Schools, superintendent of Dallas Independent School District, and superintendent of the Harrison School District in Colorado Springs.
Show Notes:
Mike Miles on Houston ISD
The Last Hurrah
TikTok. Instagram. Constant notifications. Many worry that phones are destroying students’ ability to pay attention and, in turn, their ability to learn in the classroom. Indeed, even many adults say that they have trouble reading books because of the constant stream of distractions their phones provide.
But what does the research say? Are students actually less able to pay attention as a result of their phones? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Dan Willingham.
Daniel Willingham is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author of several books on education. His recent article Pay Attention, Kid! explored the link between technology use and students’ ability to focus.
Show Notes:
Pay Attention, Kid!
Are Purported Causes of NAEP Score Decline Actually Symptoms?
Daniel Willingham on Outsmarting Your Brain
Earlier this month, 2024 NAEP scores came out for 8th grade science and 12th grade reading and math, and the results were not good, with students losing ground in each subject. But these declines are not new and they are not only the result of the pandemic: Across a number of tests and subjects, scores have been declining for over a decade, especially for low-performing students. Indeed, while achievement for the top 10 percent of students has remained roughly flat, achievement for the bottom 10 percent of students has fallen precipitously—on many assessments, by well over a year.
What might be causing these declines? Is it the rise of phones? The fall of No Child Left Behind? The aftereffects of the Great Recession? A change in the culture of schooling? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus explores these questions and more with James Wyckoff and Chad Aldeman.
James Wyckoff is the Memorial Professor of Education and Professor of Public Policy Emeritus at the University of Virginia.
Chad Aldeman is the founder of Read Not Guess, the author of Aldeman on Education, and a regular columnist for The 74.
Show Notes:
Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends
Puzzling Over Declining Academic Achievement
Interactive: See How Student Achievement Gaps Are Growing in Your State
Don't Blame the Subgroups
Student Achievement Is Down Overall—But Kids at the Bottom Are Sinking Faster
A lot has happened in education over the last couple of months. A new school year started for students across the country. State governors began announcing whether they would be opting in to the new federal tax credit scholarship program. Penny Schwinn, former Education Commissioner of Tennessee, withdrew her nomination to be Linda McMahon’s number two at the Department of Education. A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s shutdown of the Comprehensive Centers and Regional Educational Laboratories was unlawful. And the Trump administration continued waging its battles with elite universities.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
Why Did Penny Schwinn Withdraw Her Bid to Be No. 2 in Trump’s Ed. Dept.?
The Greatest Trick Randi Weingarten Ever Pulled. Plus, What’s the Freezing Temperature in Trump World? A Penny for Your Thoughts. Dems in Voucher Disarray.
Everyone’s a Hypocrite
Restoring Free Inquiry on Campus
Tear Down This Wall: The Case for a Radical Overhaul of Teacher Certification
Breaking Down The New Federal School Choice Program With Shaka Mitchell
Commentary: Virginia Students Deserve Better. Close the ‘Honesty Gap'
PragerU Teacher Qualification Test
Is Online Sports Betting a Risk to Public Health?
Many school choice proponents today focus on what choice does for the students who use it to leave traditional public schools. But one of the original arguments for choice was that, through competition, it would spur traditional public schools to improve.
So: Has it?
Do choice programs make traditional public schools better? Does the size of these competitive effects depend on the type of choice program? And what other factors might matter for the amount of competitive pressure that choice programs exert on traditional public schools?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Sarah Cordes. Nat and Sarah discuss ESAs and the new federal tax credit scholarship program, why school transportation matters so much for competitive effects, whether choice programs can be too large, how competition affects school principals, and what effect declining public school enrollments might have on school choice in the coming years.
Sarah Cordes is an associate professor of policy, organizational, and leadership studies at Temple University.
Show Notes:
Competition in Education Markets: Impacts, Perceptions, and Policy Contexts
The Effects of Charter Schools on Neighborhood and School Segregation: Evidence from New York City
In Pursuit of the Common Good: The Spillover Effects of Charter Schools on Public School Students in New York City
Over the past decade, schools increasingly have become a battleground for political fights and culture wars that distract from student learning. But, according to a new book, these political fights and culture wars are just one aspect of a much larger and more longstanding problem: schooling is often shaped by the interests of adults. From school boards to partisan identity, from teacher employment to property values, in No Adult Left Behind, Vlad Kogan traces the many ways in which the concerns of adults get in the way of student outcomes.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these problems, and what to do about them, with Vlad Kogan. Nat and Vlad discuss school boards and state takeovers, how political identity shapes education debates, what the public gets wrong about the Scopes trial and the early twentieth-century push against teaching evolution in schools, why parents seem to undervalue education quality, closing schools with falling enrollments, how racial equity concerns for adults can conflict with racial equity concerns for children, what charter schools can teach us about district governance, and more.
Vladimir Kogan is a professor of political science at The Ohio State University and the author of No Adult Left Behind: How Politics Hijacks Education Policy and Hurts Kids.
Some say AI is the future of education, but there are reasons for skepticism, especially if we limit the conversation to the US and other wealthy countries.
However, for many regions of the world—particularly for many low- and middle-income countries—there is strong reason to believe that AI has the potential to be transformative. At least in theory, AI can democratize access to higher-quality instruction in a wide range of subjects and provide individualized feedback in overly large classrooms.
But does this reasoning hold up in practice? How much of a difference can AI make right now? And how can we ensure that AI produces the outcomes we want? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Martín De Simone.
Martín De Simone is an Education Specialist at the World Bank and, along with Federico Tiberti, Maria Barron Rodriguez, Federico Manolio, Wuraola Mosuro, and Eliot Jolomi Dikoru, is the author of From Chalkboards to Chatbots: Evaluating the Impact of Generative AI on Learning Outcomes in Nigeria.
A lot has happened in education over the last few weeks. Among other things, Congress passed a national school choice program and reshaped the student loan system. The Justice Department pressured the University of Virginia’s president to step down. And the Trump administration began withholding nearly seven billion dollars in education funds that were set to go out by the beginning of July.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess.
Note: Since this episode was recorded, twenty-four states have sued the Trump administration for withholding education funds, and the Supreme Court blocked a May order ruling that the Department of Education must reinstate over one thousand employees who were fired earlier in the year.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
The Impoundment Wars, Begun They Have. Plus, Wait, What Just Happened at UVA?
About one month ago, the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a massive bill aimed at advancing President Trump’s domestic policy agenda. Now, the bill is with the Senate.
Included in the bill are huge changes to student lending. In particular, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would make drastic changes to loan limits, repayment plans, and the rules for which programs are eligible to participate in the student loan program.
What is the rationale behind these changes? How would these changes affect students and schools? And will the One Big Beautiful Bill Act become law?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Preston Cooper.
Preston Cooper is a senior fellow at AEI, where he studies higher education policy. He also serves on the Board of Visitors for George Mason University.
Show Notes:
Senate Embraces “Do No Harm” for Higher Education
The Senate’s Higher Education Reforms Are Strong (But Could Be Stronger)
How The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” Would Hold Colleges Accountable For Outcomes
When schools went remote during the pandemic, internet access became essential, but not all students had access to a high-quality connection. So, in the summer of 2020, Chicago launched Chicago Connected to provide free broadband for students in the city who needed it most. But, according to a recent paper, Chicago Connected did not help all students equally.
In Heterogeneous Effects of Closing the Digital Divide During COVID-19 on Student Engagement and Achievement, authors Jared N. Schachner, Nicole P. Marwell, Marisa de la Torre, Julia A. Gwynne, and Elaine Allensworth find that participation in Chicago Connected actually “reduced engagement and achievement for low-performing pupils.”
What might be going on here? Should this finding influence how schools approach technology more generally? And how can schools ensure that technology use doesn't increase inequality?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with one of the paper's authors, Jared N. Schachner.
Jared N. Schachner is a research scientist at the USC Price School of Public Policy and an affiliated researcher with the UChicago Consortium on School Research and the Los Angeles Education Research Institute.
A lot has happened over the past couple of weeks. The Trump administration announced that it would go after Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. A judge ordered the Department of Education to rehire the employees it had fired. And the Supreme Court split 4–4 on Oklahoma’s religious charter school. —And all of that was just on May 22.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess. Nat, Andy, and Rick discuss the advantages and potential drawbacks of universities enrolling large numbers of international students; what the Trump administration stands to gain by going after Harvard; what we can expect at the Department of Education moving forward; whether religious charter schools will make their way back to the Supreme Court; TACO; pushback against equitable grading in San Francisco; and the Education Writers Association.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
A Bit of Context on Trump v. Harvard
“Equitable Grading” Deserves an F
Kids spend hours a day on their phones scrolling through social media. Many have debated whether all this social media use is bad for mental health, but there’s a more basic question that needs to be asked: Does all this social media use promote healthy development?
Does it help kids develop into well-formed adults? Does it help kids become resilient to the challenges they will face in their lives? And does it help kids learn how to interact constructively with their peers?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Jonathan Haidt. Nat and Jon discuss the importance of imaginative and unstructured play; why parents are so restrictive when it comes to what their children can do in the real world yet so permissive when it comes to what they can do online; what the ideal playground looks like; why a little danger in play is important; whether technology use can explain recent test score trends; whether the social feedback kids get online helps them mature; and what parents and schools can do to push back against the encroachment of technology into kids’ lives.
Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the author of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
Show Notes:
After Babel
Let Grow
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus, Andy Rotherham, and Rick Hess break down the latest on the education policy landscape. Nat, Andy, and Rick discuss budget reconciliation, what the creation of a national tax credit scholarship program would mean for school choice, how potential changes to student lending would affect borrowers and schools, why Republicans are interested in increasing the endowment tax, whether DOGE is done for, and why the education research establishment is struggling to adapt to a changed political landscape.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
All the President’s Ivy League Presidents
And You Thought AERA Couldn’t Get Any More Vacuous?
Why Medicaid Matters for Schools
Massive Changes Are Coming for Student Loans
Five years ago, schools shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic. Schooling was remote for the rest of the year, and many schools would remain remote for much of the following year.
Europe took a different approach.
In many European countries, schools reopened that first pandemic spring, only weeks after closing. Schools, officials determined, were safe to reopen.
So: Why did American schools stay closed so long? Why did America not follow Europe’s lead? And why did Europe and the US respond so differently to the same evidence?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with David Zweig.
David Zweig is a journalist and the author of An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions.
It’s day 107 of the second Trump administration, and a lot has happened over the last two weeks. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases that sit at the intersection of schooling and religious liberty. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a massive ESA bill into law. President Trump signed a raft of executive orders on education. And the Trump administration continued its fight with Harvard.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
Should Democrats Become Pro-Voucher/ESA? Plus Pro-(school) choice Fish.
Caffeine Headache
Trump’s 100 Days: The Good, the Bad, and the Confounding
My Uber Driver Doesn’t Get Trump’s Approach to Education
Drunken Sailors in Our Schools
On April 30, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond, in which a virtual school in Oklahoma is attempting to become the nation’s first religious charter school.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus and four experts discuss and debate the case and the many questions it raises: Can religious charter schools be constitutional? What would religious charter schooling mean for American education? Are religious charter schools good for school choice? And what might Oklahoma’s religious charter school mean for the future of religious education?
Derek Black is a professor of law and the Ernest F. Hollings Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Joshua Dunn is the Executive Director of the Institute of American Civics at the Howard H. Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Kathleen Porter-Magee is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the managing partner of the Leadership Roundtable, a Catholic nonprofit.
Andy Smarick is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where he focuses on education, civil society, and the principles of American conservatism.
Note: This episode is adapted from the most recent installment of the American Enterprise Institute’s Education Policy Debate Series, which was held at AEI on April 16. A video recording of the debate can be found here.
It’s day 93 of the Trump administration, and the education landscape hasn’t yet calmed down. The Trump administration has gone after Harvard, and Harvard is fighting back. The Trump administration has revoked the visas of hundreds of international students. NAEP is being scaled back. Iowa requested a waiver from the Department of Education to exercise more flexibility in how it spends federal funds. And two Supreme Court cases might alter the relationship between religion and public education.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
The Department of Ed Meets Office Space
Trump’s Tariffs Complicate His Ambitious Education Agenda
These Things Happen In Threes, Plus SCOTUS Incoming For Schools.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy. Nat and Eva discuss why COVID learning loss is a misnomer; whether chronically absent students should face consequences for their poor attendance; why, despite its strong academic performance, Success Academy decided to overhaul its curriculum; what Success Academy looks for when hiring new teachers; Success Academy’s potential expansion into Florida and Texas; the challenges Success Academy faced in expanding into high school; whether charter schools have lived up to their original promise; and what’s next for Success Academy.
Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 57 schools in New York City educating 22,000 students. Despite 72% of its students being economically disadvantaged, Success Academy ranked first on the 2024 New York State Grade 3–8 math exam.
A lot has happened in the education world over the last few weeks. President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. The Trump administration has taken aggressive actions targeting elite universities and has threatened to withhold funding from K–12 schools over DEI programming. And the Department of Education said that states would lose nearly $3 billion in COVID relief funds after prior extensions on spending deadlines were rescinded.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
These Things Happen In Threes, Plus SCOTUS Incoming For Schools.
What Did You Expect to Happen? How DEI Wound Up in Trump’s Crosshairs
Higher Ed Is the New Big Oil
A Memo to College Presidents
In the education world over the past few years, a lot of attention has been paid to phonics and balanced literacy and the ways in which reading instruction practices often don’t align with what we know about how students learn to read.
Are there any obvious parallels in math instruction?
Are there bad ideas about how students learn math that prevent students from learning more? Is there a disconnect between math education research and classroom practice? And what does the evidence say about what good math instruction looks like?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Anna Stokke. Nat and Anna discuss common math myths, the quality of math textbooks, whether evidence-based practice is just common sense, mandatory times table tests, the concept of math anxiety, what math professors get wrong about teaching math, and why fads in math education catch on.
Anna Stokke is a mathematics professor at the University of Winnipeg and the host of Chalk & Talk, a podcast about math education.
Last week, more than 1,300 individuals at the Department of Education were laid off, including over 300 at Federal Student Aid, nearly 250 at the Office for Civil Rights, and over 100 at the Institute of Education Sciences. All told, since Trump took office, the workforce at the Department of Education has been cut nearly in half.
What is the operating strategy behind these cuts? What effect will these cuts have on schools? And what do these cuts tell us about the Trump administration’s plans? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess.
Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Show Notes:
Wednesday's Department Of Education Is Full Of Woe. SCOTUS Religious Charter Schools Action. It's OK To Say Diversity. Plus Frozen Fish Pics!
The Incredible Shrinking Department of Education
Running Down DOGE’s Department of Education Receipts
Since the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in NCAA v. Alston paved the way for universities to pay student-athletes, college sports have changed dramatically. Now, the NCAA is asking for an antitrust exemption to help navigate these changes.
The NCAA is surely facing a complex set of challenges, but an antitrust exemption is a big ask. This raises the question: Is an antitrust exemption a reasonable response to the current challenges facing college sports, a uniquely American institution?
Val Ackerman is the commissioner of the Big East Conference. Previously, she was the founding president of the WNBA.
Jim Cavale is the founder of Athletes.org.
Ross Dellenger is a senior college football reporter at Yahoo Sports.
Matthew Mitten is the executive director of National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University.
Katherine Van Dyck is the founder of KVD Strategies.
Note: This episode is adapted from the most recent installment of the American Enterprise Institute’s Education Policy Debate Series, which was held at AEI on February 27. A video recording of the debate can be found here.
Graduation rates have been rising for over a decade. Indeed, even during the pandemic, as students learned less and chronic absenteeism exploded, graduation rates continued to rise.
One important part of this story might be the rise of credit recovery programs. Each year, credit recovery programs help students who have failed a course continue their schooling without repeating a year. But what exactly are credit recovery programs? How do students who participate in online credit recovery programs fare later in life? Can credit recovery courses be improved? And if so, how?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Carolyn J. Heinrich.
Carolyn J. Heinrich is a University Distinguished Professor of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations and Political Science and the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy, Education and Economics at Vanderbilt University.
Show Notes:
Design Principles for Effective Online Credit Recovery
Failing to Learn from Failure: The Facade of Online Credit Recovery Assessments
Does Online Credit Recovery in High School Support or Stymie Later Labor Market Success?
Mapping the Inequity Implications of Help-Seeking in Online Credit-Recovery Classrooms
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Marty West and Mark Schneider about 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results in 4th and 8th grade reading and math. Nat, Marty, and Mark discuss why math scores went up or stayed flat while reading scores declined; potential bright spots in the 2024 results; whether recent score declines should be attributed to factors external to schooling; what makes NAEP the gold standard assessment of US students; what the Florida Commissioner of Education’s recent critique of NAEP gets wrong (and right); how NAEP compares to state assessments; NAEP Proficiency and the increasing number of students performing Below Basic; potential lessons from 2024 NAEP results; and more.
Martin West is the vice chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees NAEP. He is also the academic dean and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the editor-in-chief of Education Next, and a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Mark Schneider is a nonresident Senior Fellow at AEI. Previously, he was commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which administers NAEP, and was later the director of the Institute of Education Sciences, which houses NCES.
Show Notes:
NAEP Math Results
NAEP Reading Results
States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress
Make the National Assessment of Educational Progress Great Again
In 2022, Sold a Story debuted, bringing renewed attention—and scrutiny—to literacy instruction. Indeed, since Sold a Story came out, at least 25 states have passed reading laws.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Emily Hanford, host of Sold a Story. Nat and Emily discuss why Sold a Story took off, the impact Sold a Story has had on the literacy landscape, the state of investigative journalism in 2025, the pros and cons of podcasting, common misunderstandings of Sold a Story, and more.
Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer at APM Reports and the host of Sold a Story, which was the second most shared show on Apple Podcasts in 2023. New episodes of Sold a Story will be coming out in February.
Show Notes:
Sold a Story
'There's a thoughtfulness about reading in the country today'
New Reading Laws Sweep the Nation Following Sold a Story
This past spring, protests over the war in Gaza roiled college campuses across America. But what sort of effect has the war in Gaza had on college campuses in Israel? What is the mood like on campus when many students are called up to fight? Do courses in the liberal arts feel less relevant in the middle of a war? And how do the practicalities of war affect day-to-day academic operations?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions—and more—with Russ Roberts, president of Shalem College in Jerusalem. Nat and Russ discuss how higher education in Israel is different than higher education in America; what makes Shalem College unique; how the war has affected academic life at Shalem College; whether older students are more receptive to a liberal arts education; what it’s like running a startup college; studying under Gary Becker; how campus protests in America appear from Israel; the effects of Israeli dynamism on campus life; the state of economics; educating leaders; and more.
Russ Roberts is the president of Shalem College, the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the author of several books, and the host of EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious.
Show Notes:
The New Normal
A Little Light Amid the Darkness
The Sirens of Israel
We are now coming to the end of another year. What were the biggest stories in education this year? What stories didn’t get as much attention as they should have? And what can we expect from the coming year?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with three education journalists: Dana Goldstein of The New York Times, Linda Jacobson of The 74, and Eric Kelderman of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Show Notes:
The Youngest Pandemic Children Are Now in School, and Struggling
The Death of School 10
Texas Has Big Goals for College Completion. In Places Like the Coastal Bend, How to Get There Is Still Murky.
The Distortions of Joan Donovan
When a Department Self-Destructs
In a State With School Vouchers for All, Low-Income Families Aren’t Choosing to Use Them
Exceptional students often become exceptional adults who help drive scientific progress and economic growth. But without mentors to identify and develop their talents, many of these exceptional students will not make good on their potential. So: How can we make sure that more exceptional students have access to the mentors they need? How exceptional do these mentors need to be? And how many exceptional students are we currently missing out on? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Ian Calaway.
Ian Calaway is a PhD candidate in Economics at Stanford University and the author of the recent paper Early Mentors for Exceptional Students. He is currently on the academic job market.
Show Notes:
Early Mentors for Exceptional Students
Many education researchers spend a lot of time studying how students learn, but if their findings don’t make their way into the classroom, they are only so useful. For example, researchers have known about the benefits of phonics for decades, but despite these benefits, many teachers were not using phonics in their classrooms.
So: Why don’t research-based practices make their way into the classroom? What research-based practices that aren’t currently well-known among teachers should teachers try to implement? And if a school wants to promote a research-backed approach among its teachers, how should it go about doing that?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Greg Ashman. Nat and Greg discuss why many teachers in education programs learn about learning styles, but not phonics or behavior management; the many different meanings of explicit teaching and direct instruction; cognitive load theory and the importance of understanding the constraints of working memory; how schools can approach curriculum and teacher training more systematically; field trips, group work, and spaced repetition; the importance of creating a coherent school culture; and how to get interventions to stick.
Greg Ashman is the Deputy Principal at Ballarat Clarendon College in Ballarat, Australia, and the author of three books on instructional practice. His Substack is Filling the Pail.
Show Notes:
Filling The Pail
A Little Guide for Teachers: Cognitive Load Theory
The Power of Explicit Teaching and Direct Instruction
The Truth About Teaching: An Evidence-Informed Guide for New Teachers
Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know
Putting Students on the Path to Learning: The Case for Fully Guided Instruction
What will last Tuesday’s elections mean for education? Will President Trump actually eliminate the Department of Education? What does the future of school choice look like? Will Democrats and Republicans team up on workforce issues? And who will be the next secretary of education?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Derrell Bradford, Preston Cooper, Ginny Gentles, Heather Harding, and Rick Hess.
Derrell Bradford is the president of 50CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now.
Preston Cooper is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on higher education ROI, student loans, and higher education reform.
Virginia Gentles is the director of the Education Freedom and Parental Rights Initiative at the Defense of Freedom Institute.
Heather Harding is the executive director of the Campaign for Our Shared Future.
Frederick M. Hess is the director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies, where he works on K–12 and higher education issues.
Note: This episode is adapted from an American Enterprise Institute event held on November 6. A video recording of the event can be found here.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with David Figlio about school choice, accountability, and peer effects. Nat and David discuss how school choice programs affect students who remain in traditional public schools; what other choice mechanisms can tell us about universal ESAs; the effects of school accountability on life outcomes; holding students back; the teaching quality of non-tenure-track professors; the importance of cultivating researcher-district relationships; whether peer effects are understudied; and boys named Sue.
David Figlio is the Gordon Fyfe Professor of Economics and Education at the University of Rochester. Previously, he was provost at the University of Rochester and dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.
Show Notes:
Competitive Effects of Charter Schools
Effects of Maturing Private School Choice Programs on Public School Students
School Accountability, Long-Run Criminal Activity, and Self-Sufficiency
Boys Named Sue: Disruptive Children and their Peers
The College Board is one of the most influential education organizations in America: The SAT plays a large role in determining what college many students attend, and the AP program shapes what many students study both in high school and in college.
This is a lot of power for one company to have, and naturally raises some questions. How does the College Board understand its role in the college admissions process, and how does it think about the college admissions landscape? What is the purpose of the AP program, and who determines what gets made into an AP course?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with David Coleman. Nat and David discuss why many colleges are requiring the SAT once again; the effects of test optional policies on boys; how the rise of AI affects the college admissions process; why high school students are so bored; how to make college admissions less cutthroat; whether we should abolish grading and replace it with standardized testing; AP scoring recalibration; whether 6 and 7 should be added to the AP scoring scale; the redesigned SAT; how the AP program balances its goals of promoting access and encouraging excellence; and the extent to which the College Board determines what gets taught in American classrooms.
David Coleman is the CEO of the College Board.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Cass Sunstein about campus free speech. Nat and Cass discuss the legal considerations involved in campus protests, safe spaces, and the removal of sexually explicit books from elementary school libraries; how sectarian colleges should balance religious interests with free speech protections; when it is appropriate for universities to issue statements on world affairs; the difficulty of testifying before Congress; whether governors can intentionally change the ideological character of colleges in their states; designing effective nudges to combat chronic absenteeism; the effects of sludge on academic inquiry; why free speech doesn’t come naturally to people; the complexity of First Amendment law; manipulation; whether we should replace Supreme Court justices with AI; and much more.
Cass Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard, the author of many books on law and behavioral economics, and the most cited legal scholar in America. His most recent book, Campus Free Speech: A Pocket Guide, came out in September.
Show Notes:
Campus Free Speech: A Pocket Guide
Only the First Amendment Can Protect Students, Campuses and Speech
There’s a popular narrative according to which the financial benefits of going to college aren’t what they once were. College is increasingly unaffordable. College doesn’t pay off like it used to. And college is only worth it if you go to the most selective schools.
But is this narrative right? Are college costs going up? How do college costs in the US compare with college costs in other countries? What is the return on investment (ROI) like for students at different schools? How does ROI differ by major? And is there a student loan crisis?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Preston Cooper.
Preston Cooper is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies ROI in higher education, student lending, and higher education reform.
Show Notes:
ROI in Higher Education (Estimates ROI for 53,000 different degree and certificate programs.)
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Brian Jacob about the ways in which the pandemic changed the grammar of schooling. Nat and Brian discuss the pandemic’s effects on student technology use, parent-teacher communication, and individualized instruction; why pandemic-era changes seem more durable in high schools and middle schools than in elementary schools; whether charter schools changed as much during the pandemic as conventional public schools did; what the pandemic’s effects on schools can teach us about how schools will use AI; whether changes to schooling are driven by students’ needs or by other factors; whether teachers are optimistic about the state of schooling; hybrid education, ESSA, and the juvenile detention system; and more.
Brian Jacob is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and Professor of Economics at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
Show Notes:
Did COVID-19 Shift the “Grammar of Schooling”? (coauthored with Cristina Stanojevich)
The Lasting Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on K-12 Schooling: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Teacher Survey
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Carey Wright about her tenure as State Superintendent of Education in Mississippi and the work ahead of her as State Superintendent of Schools in Maryland. Nat and Carey discuss the Mississippi Miracle; how to get teachers to buy in to major interventions; professional development; the purpose of grade retention policies; math instruction; the importance of the education leadership environment in a state; why some state leaders may care less about student achievement than others; state-district relationships; the importance of education data; teacher coaches; the education press; Maryland’s recent NAEP declines; the Blueprint for Maryland's Future; accountability; the relationship between education spending and student achievement; overcoming learning loss; post-pandemic chronic absenteeism; and more.
Carey Wright is State Superintendent of Schools in Maryland. Previously, from 2013 to 2022, she served as State Superintendent of Education in Mississippi.
Note: This episode originally aired in June 2023.
What does a good school look like? How does a good school operate? What does a good school do differently?
There are probably many correct answers to these questions, but on this episode of The Report Card we want to narrow it down and focus on one particular school, Michaela, that has a very particular set of answers to these questions. Located near London’s Wembley Stadium, Michaela is a free school that opened its doors in 2014 and today has the highest GCSE value-added score in all of England. Michaela is known for its strict behavioral practices, its unique school culture, and its unabashed promotion of small-c conservative values.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Katharine Birbalsingh, the founder and head teacher of Michaela Community School. Nat and Katharine discuss school culture, the importance of values in education, school lunches, cell phones in schools, discipline and student behavior, teacher feedback and observation, and more.
Show Notes:
Michaela: The Power of Culture
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way
Britain's Strictest Headmistress
During the pandemic, the federal government sent $190 billion in ESSER relief funding to America’s schools. Among other things, ESSER was intended to help students catch up from pandemic learning loss—but did it work? Did ESSER help kids catch up? Did it help some students more than others? And should the federal government spend more to address COVID learning loss? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Dan Goldhaber.
Dan Goldhaber is the Director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at the American Institutes for Research and the Director of the Center for Education Data & Research (CEDR) at the University of Washington. Along with Grace Falken, he is also the co-author of a new paper: ESSER and Student Achievement: Assessing the Impacts of the Largest One-Time Federal Investment in K12 Schools.
Show Notes:
ESSER and Student Achievement: Assessing the Impacts of the Largest One-Time Federal Investment in K12 Schools
Impacts of Academic Recovery Interventions on Student Achievement in 2022-23
Over the past couple years, the education world has seen a renewed push for phonics instruction, often called “the science of reading.” But how science-based is the science of reading movement? Will the current push for phonics last? And what do kids need so that the reading gains they experience from phonics don’t fade away by the time they reach eighth grade?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Timothy Shanahan. Nat and Tim discuss the differences between balanced literacy and phonics, how much of an improvement balanced literacy is over phonics, previous efforts to promote phonics and why they went by the wayside, whether the current science of reading movement will be durable, textbook reviews, the extent to which practices promoted by science of reading advocates are science-based, the gap between reading instruction research and reading instruction practice, why many students who can decode well nonetheless have poor reading comprehension, grade-level texts and the importance of giving students texts that aren’t too easy, the relationship between love of reading and reading ability, what skills students acquire as they become better readers, disciplinary literacy, the future of reading instruction, the extent to which reading achievement could improve with better instructional practices, and more.
Timothy Shanahan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was Founding Director of the UIC Center for Literacy. Previously, he was Director of Reading for the Chicago Public Schools and a member of the National Reading Panel and the advisory board of the National Institute for Literacy.
Show Notes:
What about the Textbook Reviews?
How Do You Know If It Really Is the Science of Reading?
More on Hanford: Phonics Reform and Literacy Levels
Limiting Children to Books They Can Already Read
What Is Disciplinary Literacy and Why Does It Matter?
In the spring, campuses saw a wave of protests erupt over the war in Gaza. These protests, along with the controversial ways in which universities handled them, raised important questions about free expression on campus, the role that university administrations play in maintaining and fostering a culture of free expression, and the role of university presidents.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with John W. Boyer. Nat and John discuss parallels and contrasts between recent campus protests and Vietnam War protests; the challenges university administrations face in dealing with protests; the Chicago Principles and the origins of the University of Chicago’s culture of free expression; what it takes to actually develop a robust culture of free expression on campus; the extent to which university administrations shape campus culture; the role of university presidents; the presidencies of William Rainey Harper, Robert Maynard Hutchins, and Robert Zimmer; why many university presidents today seem to lack a strong vision for what their universities should look like; why so few universities are started today; donor activism; the politicization of the university; the German research university; core curricula and the aims of liberal education; how the University of Chicago increased enrollments in and applications to the College over the last thirty years; balancing institutional history and institutional change; and more.
John W. Boyer is Senior Advisor to the President and the Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of History at the University of Chicago, where he served as Dean of the College from 1992 through 2023. He is also the author of The University of Chicago: A History, the second edition of which comes out in August.
Show Notes:
The University of Chicago: A History (Note: This is a link to the first edition. A link to the updated second edition will be provided when it becomes available.)
John W. Boyer, Dean of the College for 30 Years, in His Own and His Colleagues’ Words
In March of 2023, shortly after Khan Academy launched Khanmigo, its AI tutor and teaching assistant, Sal Khan came on the podcast to discuss Khanmigo and his hopes for AI in education more generally. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Sal Khan again to hear what he has learned since launching Khanmigo and how his thoughts on AI in education have changed over the last year.
Sal Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit educational organization with over 165 million registered users in more than 190 countries, and the author of Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing).
Show Notes:
GPT-4o Math Demo
Khanmigo Essay Tool
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Mark Schneider, who recently finished up his six-year tenure as Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Nat and Mark discuss the past, present, and future of IES; what’s wrong with the What Works Clearinghouse; student privacy protections; NAEP; the state of special education research; why education research isn’t replicated; scalability; whether most education research is useful, usable, and used; why we need a DARPA for education; whether education research should be profitable; the incentive structures in education research; and more.
Mark Schneider is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at SUNY Stony Brook. He was previously Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, a visiting scholar at AEI, a vice president and Institute Fellow at the American Institutes for Research, and Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
Are smartphones and social media bad for kids’ mental health? According to a number of recent books, articles, and op-eds, the answer is an emphatic yes: The rise of smartphones and social media corresponded not only to a rise in the incidence of mental health problems but to a decline in academic performance. Indeed, in popular media, there almost seems to be a consensus emerging: It’s the phones, stupid.
But is the popular media consensus correct? What does the research say? And what is the state of the research? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Pete Etchells.
Pete Etchells is Professor of Psychology and Science Communication at Bath Spa University in the UK and is the author of Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time (and how to spend it better).
Show Notes:
Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time (and how to spend it better) (Note: Unlocked is not yet available in US stores but can be purchased from UK booksellers and shipped to the US.)
Scroll On: Why Your Screen-Time Habits Aren’t as Bad as You Think They Are
Lost in a Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do for Us
Smartphone Bans, Student Outcomes and Mental Health
Over the past couple weeks, as campus protests and crackdowns on campus protests have captured the nation’s attention, it has become increasingly clear that something is wrong with the civic culture at universities.
But how do we change course? How do we create a healthier civic culture on campus? And how can we train the next generation of Americans both to respect freedom of speech and be respectful in disagreement?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Paul Carrese. Nat and Paul discuss the proper content and aims of civic education, why civic education matters, whether civic education is too boring, how individuals benefit from civic education, whether civic education is conservative, why universities have turned away from civic education, whether civic education is indoctrination, Arizona State University's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, when it is appropriate for state governments to get involved in deciding what courses college students should take, why private universities should create schools of civic thought, and more.
Paul Carrese is a professor in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University and served as its founding director from 2016–2023.
Show Notes:
How Civics Can Remedy Higher Education’s Decline
A New Birth of Freedom in Higher Education: Civic Institutes at Public Universities
Civic Thought and Leadership: A Higher Civics to Sustain American Constitutional Democracy
During the pandemic, the federal government sent $190 billion in COVID relief funds to America’s schools. These funds, known as ESSER (or the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund), changed school budgets across the country. But this September, ESSER will come to an end, meaning that—on average—schools will have to reduce their budgets by over $1,000 per student.
How will schools respond? What will get cut? And what should education leaders know to minimize the impacts of the funding cliff? On this episode ofThe Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Marguerite Roza.
Marguerite Roza is a research professor at Georgetown University and the director of the Edunomics Lab.
Show Notes:
School Boards Face Their Most Difficult Budget Season Ever. Many Are Unprepared
The ESSER Fiscal Cliff Will Have Serious Implications for Student Equity
National Education Resource Database on Schools (NERDS)
How Within-District Spending Inequities Help Some Schools to Fail
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with David Steiner about coherence and fragmentation; why curricula, teacher training programs, and assessments should be aligned (and why they usually aren’t); SEL; where Common Core fell short; E.D. Hirsch and the importance of teaching content; why economics, music, and philosophy should be taken more seriously in secondary education than they usually are; AP exams and CTE; teachers unions, master’s pay premiums, and schools of education; whether school is boring; why American teachers tend to focus more on students and less on subject matter than teachers abroad; the state of the humanities in American education; teaching students Ancient Greek; how not to teach Shakespeare; and more.
David Steiner is Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, Professor of Education at Johns Hopkins University, and the author of A Nation at Thought: Restoring Wisdom in America's Schools. He was previously Dean at the Hunter College School of Education and the Commissioner of Education for New York State.
Show Notes:
A Nation at Thought: Restoring Wisdom in America's Schools
Arguing Identity: Session Three
Make Sense of the Research: A Primer for Educational Leaders
Don’t Give Up on Curriculum Reform Just Yet
Over the last couple years, a number of states have enacted new universal education savings account (ESA) programs. Republicans have led these efforts with near universal opposition from Democrats, but should more Democrats support ESAs, especially because ESAs would seem to more greatly benefit the urban areas that Democrats tend to represent than the rural areas that Republicans tend to represent?
On this episode of The Report Card, four Democrats—Marcus Brandon, Ravi Gupta, Bethany Little, and Graig Meyer—debate whether their fellow Democrats should support ESAs. Nat, Marcus, Ravi, Bethany, and Graig discuss whether ESAs are regressive, whether Democratic voters support ESAs, whether Democrats should focus on private school choice instead of public school choice, and more.
Marcus Brandon is the executive director of CarolinaCAN and was previously a state representative in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Ravi Gupta is founder of The Branch and was previously the founder and CEO of RePublic Schools, a network of charter schools in the South.
Bethany Little is a principal at EducationCounsel. She has spent twenty years working in government and non-profit organizations, including the White House and the U.S. Department of Education.
Graig Meyer is a state senator in North Carolina and previously served in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Note: This episode is adapted from the most recent installment of the American Enterprise Institute’s Education Policy Debate Series, which was held at AEI on February 29. A video recording of the debate can be found here.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Rick Hess and Mike McShane about their new book, Getting Education Right: A Conservative Vision for Improving Early Childhood, K–12, and College. Nat, Rick, and Mike discuss what principles a conservative vision for education should be grounded in, whether No Child Left Behind was conservative, why family policy should be part of a conservative vision for education, why now is an opportune time for conservatives to take the lead on education, the pandemic’s effects on the politics of schooling, the culture wars, where conservatives have come up short on education in the past, the value of bipartisanship in education, where civics education has gone wrong, the state of education research, parental rights and parental responsibilities, and more.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI.
Michael McShane is the Director of National Research at EdChoice.
Show Notes:
Getting Education Right: A Conservative Vision for Improving Early Childhood, K–12, and College
Parents’ Rights, Yes. But Parent Responsibilities, Too
The Party of Education in 2024
Four States That Are Leading the Charge for Conservative Education
During the pandemic, homeschooling rates spiked, reaching unprecedented levels. And although they have fallen some since then, homeschooling rates remain far higher than anything we saw before the pandemic.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Angela Watson about what is driving this change, what we can expect from homeschooling in the coming years, and what we know about homeschooling more broadly.
Angela Watson is a senior research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and an assistant research professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. She is also the creator of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s Homeschool Hub and the director of the Homeschool Research Lab.
Show Notes:
Homeschool Hub
Parent-Created "Schools" in the US
Investigating Declining Trends in Arts Field Trip Attendance
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Tom Richards about the Florence Academy of Art, what serious art instruction looks like, how K–12 art education can be improved, the differences between music and art instruction, whether artistic talent is innate or can be taught, how art instruction has changed over the last 200 years, Velazquez, showing children art documentaries, why it's important to teach fundamentals before higher order skills, drawing with pencil and paper, the Zorn palette, the importance of coherence and consistency in an educational program, the management of Italian art museums, the proper age at which to start rigorous art training, and more.
Tom Richards is a painter and the director of the Florence Academy of Art.
Show Notes:
The Florence Academy of Art: Instagram, Website, Drawing and Painting Program, Student Gallery, Alumni Gallery
Tom Richards: Instagram, Website
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Mike McShane about education savings account (ESA) programs. Nat and Mike discuss the sudden growth in ESA programs over the past year, how ESA programs work, the differences between ESAs and vouchers, the pandemic's effects on school choice, whether interest in ESAs solely comes from the right, the difficulty of starting charter schools, single-sex schools, the quality of education surveys, whether ESAs harm public schools in rural districts, the challenges of implementing ESAs, school choice and Catholic schools, how ESAs affect homeschooling, and more.
Mike McShane is the Director of National Research at EdChoice and the author and editor of a number of books on education policy.
Show Notes:
Implementing K–12 Education Savings Accounts
What is an Education Savings Account (ESA)?
The School Choice Movement Needs To Get Boring
AEI's 2024 Summer Honors Program
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Dylan Wiliam about the latest PISA results, education in the US vs. education in the UK, what tutors might learn that classroom teachers might not, where teacher improvement and professional development tend to go wrong, making learning responsive to students, formative assessment, learning English as a second language, charter schools, why educators should think more about de-implementation, AI in education, and more.
Dylan Wiliam is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London.
Show Notes:
Making Room for Impact: A De-implementation Guide for Educators
The Future of AI in Education: 13 Things We Can Do to Minimize the Damage
Creating the Schools Our Children Need
Inside the Black Box
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus reviews the past year in education with Matt Barnum of The Wall Street Journal, Goldie Blumenstyk of The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Alyson Klein of Education Week. Nat, Matt, Goldie, and Alyson discuss AI in education; DEI in higher education; learning loss, chronic absenteeism, and the ESSER funding cliff; the end of race-based admissions; the state of education journalism; the science of reading; which education stories from the past year were over- and under-reported; the Biden administration's SAVE plan; culture clashes in Florida; the 2024 elections; what to expect from the coming year; and more.
Show Notes:
The Daily Tar Heel; Volume 131, Issue 16
Students Hated ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Their Teachers Tried to Dump It.
This Online Tutoring Company Says It Offers Expert One-on-One Help. Students Often Get Neither.
Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs
The ‘Science of Reading’ in 2023: 4 Important Developments
What I Learned Covering National Education Issues for Chalkbeat
Ready or Not, AI Is Here
AI Can Mimic Students’ Writing Styles. How Are Teachers Supposed to Catch Cheaters Now?
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Brian Jacob and Vladimir Kogan about school board elections. Nat, Brian, and Vlad discuss how effective school board elections are at giving voters local democratic control, whether school board members are rewarded for good performance and punished for bad performance, the margin of victory in school board elections, who runs for school board, how incumbents perform in school board elections, the high rate of school board member turnover, paying school board members, state takeovers, how the pandemic affected school board elections, whether Moms for Liberty has been effective in winning school board elections, school governance, direct democracy, ESSER funding, NCLB, and more.
Brian Jacob is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and professor of economics at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
Vladimir Kogan is a professor in the department of Political Science at The Ohio State University.
Show Notes:
How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Influence School Board Elections? (forthcoming) by Brian Jacob
Democratic Accountability or an Electoral Turnstile? Turnover and Competition in Local School Board Elections (forthcoming) by Vladimir Kogan, Stephane Lavertu, and Zachary Peskowitz
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Brooks Bowden about her recent paper The Unintended Consequences of Academic Leniency, co-authored by Viviana Rodriguez and Zach Weingarten. Nat and Brooks discuss how grading policies influence student effort and engagement, whether academic leniency helps low ability students, why North Carolina's changes to its grading policies led to increased absenteeism, whether making grading policies stricter can ameliorate student achievement, whether increases in academic leniency in the wake of the pandemic are good for students, and more.
Brooks Bowden is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of the Center for Benefit–Cost Studies of Education.
Show Notes:
The Unintended Consequences of Academic Leniency
Lenient Grading Won’t Help Struggling Students. Addressing Chronic Absenteeism Will.
Designing Field Experiments to Integrate Research on Costs
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Ethan Hutt and Jack Schneider about their new book, Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To). Nat, Ethan, and Jack discuss grades, tests, and transcripts; whether grades do a good job of motivating student learning; how our current grading system came into existence; grading abroad; short-haul and long-haul messages; AP exams; the difficulty of narrative grading; whether transcripts should be updated for the digital age; making grades overwritable; the GED; how teachers can improve their grading practices; and more.
Ethan Hutt is Associate Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jack Schneider is the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Show Notes:
Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To)
The big problem(s) with grades
Making the grade: a history of the A–F marking scheme
A History of Achievement Testing in the United States, Or: Explaining the Persistence of Inadequacy
A Thin Line Between Love and Hate: Educational Assessment in the United States
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Melissa Kearney about her new book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind. Nat and Melissa discuss the decline in marriage among non-college-educated parents, why having two parents in the home matters for student outcomes, the stock of marriageable men, whether studying family structure is taboo, what the fracking boom can teach us about the decline in marriage, how marriage became decoupled from raising children, universal basic income for parents, why Asian Americans seem immune from the broader decline in marriage, intergenerational households, the difficulty of parenting, the importance of culture, and more.
Melissa Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland and the Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group.
Show Notes:
The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind
A Driver of Inequality That Not Enough People Are Talking About
The Puzzle of Falling US Birth Rates since the Great Recession
Male Earnings, Marriageable Men, and Non-Marital Fertility: Evidence from the Fracking Boom
The Economics of Non-Marital Childbearing and The “Marriage Premium for Children”
Investigating Recent Trends in the U.S. Teen Birth Rate
Media Influences on Social Outcomes: The Impact of MTV's 16 and Pregnant on Teen Childbearing
Note: This episode originally aired in September 2022.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Doug Lemov about how cellphones and social media harm the academic and social development of students and make schools less inclusive.
Nat and Doug also discuss online learning, school choice, the difficulty of creating schools with a coherent operating philosophy, the state of public schooling, The Scarlet Letter, the pandemic's effects on students, teacher professional development, the relationship between parenting and schooling, the idea that schooling sometimes has to be hard for students, and the role that schools play in shaping students' habits of attention.
Doug Lemov is the author of Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging and Teach Like a Champion.
Show Notes:
Take Away Their Cellphones
Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging
Teach Like A Champion 3.0
Teach Like A Champion
iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us
It Was a Mistake to Let Kids Onto Social Media Sites. Here’s What to Do Now.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Roland Fryer about incentives and opportunity. Nat and Roland discuss paying students, parents, and teachers; the importance of properly structuring incentives; affirmative action; loss aversion; why certain ideas in education get treated as out of bounds; using machine learning to increase diversity in college admissions; COVID learning loss; whether the Ivy League should create feeder schools for disadvantaged students; using data in the classroom; and more.
Roland Fryer is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He was a MacArthur Fellow and is a winner of the John Bates Clark Medal.
Show Notes:
How to Make Up the COVID Learning Loss
Affirmative Action in College Admissions Doesn’t Work—But It Could
Build Feeder Schools (And Make Yale and Harvard Fund Them)
Enhancing the Efficacy of Teacher Incentives through Framing: A Field Experiment
Parental Incentives and Early Childhood Achievement: A Field Experiment in Chicago Heights
On July 12th, the California State Board of Education adopted a new math framework that will affect the way math is taught for the nearly 6 million students in California’s public schools and has the potential to influence the way math is taught at the national level.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with two of the framework’s critics, Jelani Nelson and Tom Loveless, about the framework, its intellectual origins, what they think it gets wrong, whether it is equitable, and what it will mean for California's students.
Jelani Nelson is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley.
Tom Loveless is an education researcher and former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Show Notes:
California Math Framework
California Adopts Controversial New Math Framework. Here’s What’s in It
California’s New Math Framework Doesn’t Add Up
Analysis and Critique of California Math Frameworks Revisions (CMF)
UC Berkeley, Stanford Professors Face Controversy, Debate State Math Curriculum
California Students Are Struggling in Math. Will Reforms Make the Problem Worse?
The Divider: Jo Boaler of Stanford Is Leading the Math-Instruction Revolution. Critics Say Her Claims Don’t Always Add Up.
On the latest episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Laura Meckler about her new book, Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity. Nat and Laura discuss integration, busing, and de-tracking; the Van Sweringen brothers; the limitations of good intentions; the internet's effect on journalism; the racial achievement gap; belonging; what it's like writing about your hometown; what history can teach us about education policy; and more.
Laura Meckler is a national education writer for The Washington Post.
Show Notes:
Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity
What happened when an Ohio school district rushed to integrate classrooms
In May, Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin joined the podcast to discuss their research on Dallas Independent School District’s Accelerating Campus Excellence program and its Principal Excellence and Teacher Excellence initiatives.
The man who implemented these reforms, Mike Miles, was superintendent of Dallas ISD from 2012 through 2015, and, in May, was serving as the CEO of Third Future Schools.
However, on June 1st, following a state takeover of Houston Independent School District, Miles was named the next superintendent of Houston ISD. Since then, he has made quite the splash.
On this episode of The Report Card, Mike Miles joins Nat Malkus to discuss the reforms he is implementing in Houston ISD and his views on district leadership and school reform more broadly.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, selective colleges, and their admissions practices, have received a lot of scrutiny.
Does going to a highly selective college affect long-term outcomes? How much preference are legacy applicants given? To what extent does socioeconomic background influence chances of admission? And how can highly selective colleges improve social mobility and diversify the American elite?
In a new paper, Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges, Raj Chetty, David Deming, and John Friedman consider these questions and many others.
The paper is full of interesting findings, so on this episode of The Report Card, two of the paper's authors, David Deming and John Friedman, join Nat to break it down.
David Deming is the Academic Dean and Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
John Friedman is the Briger Family Distinguished Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs and the Economics Department Chair at Brown University. He is also a founding co-director of Opportunity Insights at Harvard University
Show Notes:
Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges
Study of Elite College Admissions Data Suggests Being Very Rich Is Its Own Qualification
The Future of Highly Selective College Admissions
Forked Lightning
Optimal Gerrymandering in a Competitive Environment
The Lengthening of Childhood
In the Salary Race, Engineers Sprint but English Majors Endure
Getting In
Ever since No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2002, assessments have been a fixture of the education landscape—a very divisive one. But assessments have changed a lot over the last twenty years and are still changing to better meet the needs of students, teachers, schools, districts, and states.
But what do these new assessments look like? What are they capable of that the old ones weren’t? And what can we look forward to next on the assessment front? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Arthur VanderVeen.
Arthur VanderVeen is the CEO and founder of New Meridian, an assessment design and development company that serves over 2,500 school districts. Arthur was previously the executive director of college readiness at the College Board, and the executive director of assessment and chief of innovation for the New York City Department of Education.
Show Notes:
New Meridian
A Right Turn on Assessments: State-Directed Assessments Using an Interstate Test-Item Bank Cooperative
Can State Tests Be Useful for Instruction and Accountability?
At the end of this past November, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, and, since then, there has been a lot of discussion of what AI will mean for education. Will AI render teachers irrelevant? Should AI be banned in the classroom? Will homework ever be the same again?
Often, though, discussions of these questions can feel very abstract and distant, as if AI in education is some problem off in the future. Today’s guest, however, argues that it is anything but.
Ethan Mollick argues that teachers should already be using AI to better their teaching, that we should already be using AI to accelerate student learning, and that we should already be thinking about the threat AI poses to traditional forms of schoolwork such as the essay and the problem set.
Ethan Mollick is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He writes about AI on his Substack, One Useful Thing, and on Twitter. Over the past year, he has co-written three papers with Lilach Mollick on AI in education: Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts; Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies in Classrooms: Five Strategies, Including Prompts; and New Modes of Learning Enabled by AI Chatbots: Three Methods and Assignments.
Show Notes
One Useful Thing
The Homework Apocalypse
Democratizing the Future of Education
Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts
Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies in Classrooms: Five Strategies, Including Prompts
New Modes of Learning Enabled by AI Chatbots: Three Methods and Assignments
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Larry Berger about the science of reading, education technology, curriculum and high-quality instructional materials, for-profit companies in education, and more.
Larry Berger is the CEO and co-founder of Amplify, an education company that creates K–12 assessments, intervention programs, and core curricula. In 2022, Amplify’s materials were used in over 4,000 US school districts and by over 15 million students worldwide.
What does a good school like? How does a good school operate? What does a good school do differently?
There are probably many correct answers to these questions, but on this episode of The Report Card we want to narrow it down and focus on one particular school, Michaela, that has a very particular set of answers to these questions. Located near London’s Wembley Stadium, Michaela is a free school that opened its doors in 2014, and today has the highest GCSE value-added score in all of England. Michaela is known for its strict behavioral practices, its unique school culture, and its unabashed promotion of small-c conservative values.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Katharine Birbalsingh, the founder and head teacher of Michaela Community School. Nat and Katharine discuss school culture, the importance of values in education, school lunches, cell phones in schools, discipline and student behavior, teacher feedback and observation, and more.
Show Notes:
Michaela: The Power of Culture
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way
Britain's Strictest Headmistress
As we move past the pandemic, many are asking, “What’s next?” Some argue that now is the time for reinventing schooling. Others argue that right now we should simply focus on getting back to normal. But Frederick M. Hess argues for a third option.
In his new book, The Great School Rethink, Rick argues that now is the time for educators, school leaders, and policymakers to become more thoughtful and intentional in the way they approach schooling and potential changes to it. Rick isn’t interested in arguing for any particular reform—indeed, he is generally pretty skeptical of big top-down reform. Rather, Rick is interested in freeing students and teachers from established routines and structures that have worn out their welcome so that schools can offer students richer educational experiences.
Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at AEI, an executive editor of Education Next, the author of the Education Week blog “Rick Hess Straight Up,” the founder and chairman of AEI’s Conservative Education Reform Network, and the author of numerous books.
Show Notes:
The Great School Rethink
Spinning Wheels: The Politics of Urban School Reform
Letters to a Young Education Reformer
The Cage-Busting Teacher
Cage-Busting Leadership
The End of School Reform?
This episode is a little different than normal: it’s not directly about education. Instead, it’s about peer review, strong- and weak-link problems, and our biases in how we remember the past and look forward to the future. Nonetheless, even though these topics don’t concern education directly, they shed light on important issues in education practice, research, and policy. In particular, the conceptual framework of strong- and weak-link problems provides a helpful apparatus for thinking about the tradeoffs we make in tackling many of the biggest issues in education: school choice, university admissions, accountability, tracking by ability, teacher licensure, and more.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these topics, and others, with Adam Mastroianni. Adam Mastroianni is an experimental psychologist and the author of the biweekly newsletter Experimental History.
Show Notes:
The Rise and Fall of Peer Review
Science Is a Strong-Link Problem
You’re Probably Wrong about How Things Have Changed
Things Could Be Better
When Should You End a Conversation? Probably Sooner than You Think
Pop Culture Has Become an Oligopoly
Ideas Aren’t Getting Harder to Find and Anyone Who Tells You Otherwise Is a Coward and I Will Fight Them
During the last decade, Dallas Independent School District overhauled its system for evaluating and compensating teachers and began a new program to attract teachers to hard-to-staff schools. The effects of these changes on student outcomes in one of our nation’s largest school districts are attention grabbing and are documented in two new papers.
The first, The Effects of Comprehensive Educator Evaluation and Pay Reform on Achievement, by Eric A. Hanushek, Jin Luo, Andrew J. Morgan, Minh Nguyen, Ben Ost, Steven G. Rivkin, and Ayman Shakeel, looks at Dallas’s Principal Excellence and Teacher Excellence initiatives. And the second, Attracting and Retaining Highly Effective Educators in Hard-To-Staff Schools, by Andrew J. Morgan, Minh Nguyen, Eric A. Hanushek, Ben Ost, and Steven G. Rivkin, looks at Dallas’s Accelerating Campus Excellence Program.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus is joined by two of the papers’ authors, Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin, to discuss these programs. Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the winner of the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Research. Steven Rivkin is the Department Head of Economics at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Shown Notes:
The Effects of Comprehensive Educator Evaluation and Pay Reform on Achievement
Attracting and Retaining Highly Effective Educators in Hard-To-Staff Schools
Does Regulating Entry Requirements Lead to More Effective Principals?
Performance Information and Personnel Decisions in the Public Sector: The Case of School Principals
Dynamic Effects of Teacher Turnover on the Quality of Instruction
Global Universal Basic Skills: Current Deficits and Implications for World Development
We at the Report Card are on break this week, so we are re-upping a conversation from March 2022 that we think is interesting and important.
We've talked a lot on the show about school choice. But it's not often we discuss choice between schools in the same district.
Started in 2012, Los Angeles's Zones of Choice program creates small local markets with high schools in neighborhoods throughout LA, but leaves traditional attendance-zone boundaries in place. In application, this means that about 30-40% of LAUSD is a Zone of Choice.
Here to discuss the success of LA's Zones of Choice program are Christopher Campos and John Deasy.
Show Notes:
The Impact of Neighborhood School Choice: Evidence from Los Angeles' Zones of Choice Program.
Teachers unions are undoubtedly a potent force in American education and politics. But questions about what teachers unions do, and why, are so politicized that the answers you get typically say more about who you ask than about teachers unions themselves.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Michael Hartney, whose new book, "How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education," explores these questions and others. Nat and Michael discuss how teachers unions impact students, affect education policy, and became the political powerhouses they are today.
Michael Hartney is an assistant professor of political science at Boston College, a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Show Notes:
How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education
Teachers’ Unions and School Board Elections: A Reassessment
Revitalizing Local Democracy: The Case for On-Cycle Local Elections
Teachers Unions in the Post-Janus World
Last Tuesday, OpenAI launched GPT 4, a more advanced version of the large language model GPT 3.5 that the original ChatGPT was built upon. To say the least, it’s impressive. For example, whereas GPT 3.5 scores in the 10th percentile on the Bar Exam, GPT 4 scores in the 90th percentile on the Bar Exam. It’s not hard to imagine that GPT 4 and future, even-more-powerful AIs will have a big impact on education. But what sort of effect will they have?
On the same day that OpenAI launched GPT 4, Khan Academy launched an "experimental AI tool" called Khanmigo, which uses GPT 4 to help students and teachers by acting as either a personalized tutor or a personalized teaching assistant. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat speaks with Sal Khan about Khanmigo and AI in education more broadly. Nat and Sal discuss AI's potential benefits for students and teachers, whether AI will replace teachers, which students AI will help the most, how we can make sure that AI doesn't serve as a substitute for critical thinking skills, how Khan Academy developed Khanmigo, and more.
Salman Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, an online learning platform serving over 150 million users across 190 countries. Sal is also the founder of Schoolhouse.world, Khan Lab School, and Khan World School.
Show Notes:
Khanmigo Announcement
Khanmigo Demonstration
Khan Academy Course on AI for Education
Last week, the Supreme Court heard two cases—Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown—concerning the legality of the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan. In this episode, Nat speaks with Beth Akers and Adam White about these two lawsuits and their potential ramifications for our higher education system and American democracy.
Beth Akers is a Senior Fellow at AEI, the author of Making College Pay, and the coauthor of Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt.
Adam White is a Senior Fellow at AEI, where he focuses on American constitutionalism, the Supreme Court, and the administrative state. He is also the co-director of the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Show Notes:
Audio for Oral Arguments
The Biggest Legal Flaw in Biden’s Student Loan Gambit
God Save This Honorable Court—and We Can, Too
Higher-Value Higher Ed
Student Loan Forgiveness Debacle Has Already Cost $255 Billion in Lost Federal Revenue
Biden’s Changes to Student Loans Means the Vast Majority of Borrowers Will Never Repay Their Debt
Student Debt Forgiveness Tracker
Recently, there have been a number of big developments on the choice front. Within the last few weeks alone, Iowa and Utah became the 3rd and 4th states, respectively, to adopt universal education savings accounts, or ESAs, and an Oklahoma charter school board met to consider certifying a Catholic school, which, if approved, would become the first religious charter school in the country.
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat discusses these developments with Nicole Stelle Garnett, the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School, the author of two books, and the co-editor of a new book, “The Case for Parental Choice: God, Family, and Educational Liberty,” coming out in March.
Show Notes:
The Future for Religious Charter Schools
From School Choice to Parent Choice
Supreme Court Opens a Path to Religious Charter Schools
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: https://educationrecoveryscorecard.org/about/ (The Education Recovery Scorecard) https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/thomas-kane (Tom Kane) https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ (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: https://www.poshenloh.com/about/ (Po's Personal Website) https://www.cmu.edu/math/people/faculty/loh.html (Po's Academic Website) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mathematical_Olympiad (International Mathematical Olympiad) https://live.poshenloh.com (Live.PoShenLoh) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/science/quadratic-equations-algebra.html (Po on Quadratic Equations) https://www.novid.org (NOVID) https://www.poshenloh.com/tour (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: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0815739877/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_GPYWY4J6DG4EXJCFW4P8 (Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/boys-delayed-entry-school-start-redshirting/671238/ (Redshirt the Boys) https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Hoarders-American-Leaving-Everyone/dp/081572912X (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) https://www.aei.org/podcast/ilana-horwitz-on-the-impact-of-religion-on-student-outcomes/ (Ilana Horwitz on the Impact of Religion on Student Outcomes) https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Truthfulness-Genealogy-Bernard-Williams/dp/0691117918/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1664914888&sr=1-1 (Truth and Truthfulness)
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat interviews Freeman Hrabowski. Nat and Freeman discuss Black students in STEM, the state of free speech on college campuses, university spending and how to keep costs down, whether high schools are doing a good enough job of preparing students for college, the NCAA tournament, campus culture, the value of collaborative teamwork, how to improve graduation rates, multibillion-dollar university endowments, and more. Freeman Hrabowski served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) from 1992 until earlier this year. Under his leadership, UMBC became the nation’s number one college in terms of the number of Black students it graduates who later earn a Ph.D. in the natural sciences and engineering—an especially impressive feat when you consider that UMBC’s undergraduate enrollment is only about 11,000 and that Black students make up slightly less than 20% of that number. During Hrabowski's tenure, UMBC also more than doubled graduation rates, earned the #1 ranking in US News's list of up and coming universities for six consecutive years, and won the biggest upset in the history of March Madness. Show Notes: https://meyerhoff.umbc.edu (Meyerhoff Scholars Program) https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aar5540 (Replicating Meyerhoff for Inclusive Excellence in STEM) https://umbc.edu/stories/meyerhoff-czi/ (Meyerhoff at Berkeley and UCSD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgTo4tslgwM (Freeman Hrabowski on 60 Minutes) https://www.amazon.com/Empowered-University-Leadership-Culture-Academic/dp/1421432919/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2V7Y62ZWHLOT9&keywords=freeman+hrabowski&qid=1663753753&sprefix=freeman+hr%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-1 (The Empowered University) https://www.amazon.com/Holding-Fast-Dreams-Empowering-Achievement/dp/0807003441/ref=sr_1_3?qid=1663753798&refinements=p_27%3AFreeman+A.+Hrabowski+III&s=books&sr=1-3&text=Freeman+A.+Hrabowski+III (Holding Fast to Dreams) https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Odds-Academically-Successful-American-ebook/dp/B00VRJ3QL8/ref=sr_1_4?qid=1663753855&refinements=p_27%3AFreeman+A.+Hrabowski+III&s=books&sr=1-4&text=Freeman+A.+Hrabowski+III (Overcoming the Odds) https://www.amazon.com/Beating-Odds-Academically-Successful-American/dp/0195102193/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1663753855&refinements=p_27%3AFreeman+A.+Hrabowski+III&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Freeman+A.+Hrabowski+III (Beating the Odds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snISurWcFo8 (UMBC Upsets UVA)
On this episode of The Report Card, Nat interviews Doug Lemov. Nat and Doug discuss cellphones and social media, how they harm the academic and social development of students, how they make schools less inclusive, and what we can do about all of this. Nat and Doug also discuss online learning, school choice, the difficulty of creating schools with a coherent operating philosophy, the state of public schooling, The Scarlet Letter, the pandemic's effects on students, teacher professional development, the relationship between parenting and schooling, the idea that schooling sometimes has to be hard for students, and the crucial role that schools play in shaping students' habits of attention. Doug Lemov is the author of Teach Like a Champion and the founder of the Teach Like a Champion organization. He was previously the managing director and one of the founders of Uncommon Schools. His new book, Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging, hits shelves next month. Show Notes: https://www.educationnext.org/take-away-their-cellphones-rewire-schools-belonging-achievement/ (Take Away Their Cellphones) https://www.amazon.com/Reconnect-Building-Culture-Meaning-Belonging/dp/1119739977/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2JTLDZ6QXSXKT&keywords=doug+lemov&qid=1662498364&sprefix=d%2Caps%2C64&sr=8-5 (Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging) https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Like-Champion-Doug-Lemov/dp/1119712610/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31JKDDNTGQD7E&keywords=teach+like+a+champion&qid=1662578477&sprefix=teach+like+a+champion%2Caps%2C61&sr=8-1 (Teach Like A Champion 3.0) https://teachlikeachampion.org/about/meet-the-team/ (Teach Like A Champion) https://www.amazon.com/iGen-Super-Connected-Rebellious-Happy-Adulthood/dp/1501152017/ref=sr_1_1?crid=320ENJQP1AXK0&keywords=jean+twenge&qid=1662578568&sprefix=jean+twenge%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-1 (iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/opinion/social-media-parents-children.html (It Was a Mistake to Let Kids Onto Social Media Sites. Here’s What to Do Now.)
We are now entering the fourth school year that will be affected by COVID-19. What can we expect? What have we learned so far? And does anyone still care? What should we be keeping our eyes on as another year rolls around? Evolving safety protocols? School spending? Student behavior? Potential teacher shortages? New vaccines? To discuss these questions and more, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) invited https://www.aei.org/profile/john-bailey/ (John Bailey) onto the podcast for a conversation. At AEI, John studies technology and education, and since the start of the pandemic he has written over 550 COVID-19 Policy Updates on his https://covid19policyupdate.substack.com (Substack). Show Notes: https://covid19policyupdate.substack.com (John's COVID-19 Policy Updates) https://www.returntolearntracker.net (Nat's Return to Learn Tracker) https://www.educationnext.org/reset-strategies-now-prepare-for-the-future-forum-covid-19-precautions-in-schools/ (Reset Strategies Now, Prepare for the Future) https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/a-failure-to-respond-public-school-mask-mandates-in-the-2021-22-school-year/ (A Failure to Respond: Public School Mask Mandates in the 2021–22 School Year) https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/pandemic-enrollment-fallout-school-district-enrollment-changes-across-covid-19-response/ (Pandemic Enrollment Fallout: School District Enrollment Changes Across COVID-19 Response) https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/homeland/pandemic-influenza-implementation.html (Bush Pandemic Preparedness Plan) https://ies.ed.gov/schoolsurvey/spp/ (2022 School Pulse Panel: Student Behavior) https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/student-achievement-in-2021-22-cause-for-hope-and-continued-urgency/ (Student achievement in 2021-22: Cause for hope and continued urgency)
We at The Report Card are on summer break this week, so we are re-upping one of our favorite episodes from the past year: Bleakness in American Schooling with Robert Pondiscio. Over the past few years, American schooling has been on a bumpy road. COVID-19 is the most obvious issue here, but it's not only that. As https://www.aei.org/profile/robert-pondiscio/ (Robert Pondiscio) argued in the March edition of https://www.commentary.org/articles/robert-pondiscio/american-schooling-bleak-broken/ (Commentary), American schools have become overcome by bleakness. "We want children to grapple with 'honest history' starting in elementary school and to discover the power of their voices by writing authentic essays about their personal problems. Small wonder, then, that children are more depressed and medicated than ever before. A half-century of psychological research indicates that our beliefs about the world shape behavior and our sense of well-being. Whether one views the world as good or bad, safe or dangerous, enticing or dull, is correlated with outcomes such as life satisfaction or depression. We may think that we are doing children a good service by being 'real' with them, refusing to spare them from the unpleasant facts of the tired world they will soon inherit, thus inspiring them to seize the day and set the world right. But strong evidence is emerging that we are mostly succeeding in creating a generation of overwhelmed young people paralyzed into learned helplessness." In this episode, Nat and Robert discuss this bleakness—its sources, its effects, and how we might overcome it. Show Notes: https://www.commentary.org/articles/robert-pondiscio/american-schooling-bleak-broken/ (The Unbearable Bleakness of American Schooling) https://www.amazon.com/How-Other-Half-Learns-Excellence/dp/0525533737 (How The Other Half Learns: Equality, Excellence, and the Battle Over School Choice) https://thedispatch.com/p/the-changing-face-of-social-breakdown (The Changing Face of Social Breakdown)
On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://sites.google.com/site/christinabrownecon/ (Christina Brown) and https://heatherschofield.net (Heather Schofield), two of the authors of https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30133/w30133.pdf (Cognitive Endurance as Human Capital). Nat, Christina, and Heather discuss what cognitive endurance is and why it's important, PISA, an elaborate field experiment in India, disparities in American schools, shortening standardized tests, students in Pakistan, mazes and tangrams, what schools can do differently to build cognitive endurance in students, AP exams, long medical shifts, whether an extra year of schooling makes a difference for cognitive endurance, the ideal age to build cognitive endurance, and more. Christina Brown is a development economist who will be joining the University of Chicago’s Economics Department as an Assistant Professor in 2023, and Heather Schofield is an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently an Assistant Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and The Wharton School. Their coauthors on Cognitive Endurance as Human Capital are https://www.supreetkaur.com (Supreet Kaur) and https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=GGKIN45 (Geeta Kingdon). Show Notes: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30133/w30133.pdf (Cognitive Endurance as Human Capital) https://christinalbrown.github.io/Christina_Brown_JMP_Teacher_Sorting.pdf (Inducing Positive Sorting through Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from Pakistani Schools) https://heatherschofield.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/revised_sleep_paper-16.pdf (The Economic Consequences of Increasing Sleep Among the Urban Poor) https://heatherschofield.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/schofield-ramadan-and-agricultural-output.pdf (Ramadan Fasting and Agricultural Output)
On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://www.natehilger.com/bio (Nate Hilger), author of https://www.amazon.com/Parent-Trap-Overloading-Parents-Inequality/dp/0262046687/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5MJ2CDZF2A8&keywords=the+parent+trap+hilger&qid=1657735366&sprefix=the+parent+trap+hilger%2Caps%2C42&sr=8-1 (The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis). Prior to writing The Parent Trap, Nate was a professor of economics at Brown University, a Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a lead policy consultant on early childhood and non-K12 child development issues for Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. Nat and Nate discuss why disparities in life outcomes are not mainly attributable to disparities in schools, why relying too heavily on parents to develop skills in children will perpetuate inequalities, big data in education, the lessons of Perry Preschool and Abecedarian, skill transmission in Asian American communities, why we need to spend more on education R&D, Cora Hillis, what a study about the management practices of businesses in India can teach us about parenting, the IRS databank, Childcare with a capital 'C', the decision to have five or more kids, universal pre-k, and more. Show Notes: https://www.amazon.com/Parent-Trap-Overloading-Parents-Inequality/dp/0262046687/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5MJ2CDZF2A8&keywords=the+parent+trap+hilger&qid=1657735366&sprefix=the+parent+trap+hilger%2Caps%2C42&sr=8-1 (The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis) https://thehill.com/opinion/education/3257291-why-do-we-provide-so-much-more-support-to-the-old-than-the-young/ (Why do we provide so much more support to the old than the young?) https://www.natehilger.com/blog/sheppard-towner (The 100-year legacy of America’s first big national investment in families) https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/126/4/1593/1923939?redirectedFrom=fulltext (How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star) https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20150295 (Parental Job Loss and Children's Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from 7 Million Fathers' Layoffs)
On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://excelined.org/people/kymyona-burk-ed-d/ (Kymyona Burk), Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd, and https://www.apmreports.org/profile/emily-hanford (Emily Hanford), Senior Producer and Correspondent at American Public Media. Nat, Kymyona, and Emily discuss the reading wars, what's wrong with balanced literacy, Mississippi's rising reading scores, why reading isn't natural, Lucy Calkins, phonics, HBCUs, the science of reading, spelling bees, three cueing, the importance of proper teacher education, and more. Show Notes: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html (In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat) https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read (Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read?) https://excelined.org/2022/06/22/new-resource-comprehensive-how-to-guide-approaches-to-implementing-early-literacy-policies/ (Comprehensive How-To Guide: Approaches to Implementing Early Literacy Policies) https://www.apmreports.org/story/2022/04/23/reading-recovery-negative-impact-on-children (New research shows controversial Reading Recovery program eventually had a negative impact on children) https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-struggling-readers-need-standards-and-structure-based-on-the-science-of-reading/ (Struggling readers need standards and structure based on the science of reading) https://www.apmreports.org/story/2021/11/19/fountas-pinnell-disproven-childrens-reading-theory (Influential authors Fountas and Pinnell stand behind disproven reading theory) https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2020/08/06/what-the-words-say (What the Words Say: Many kids struggle with reading – and children of color are far less likely to get the help they need)
On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://www.aei.org/profile/ian-rowe/ (Ian Rowe), senior fellow at AEI, cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, and the author of https://www.amazon.com/Agency-F-R-Children-Victimhood-Narrative/dp/1599475839/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LI1G2LP1ML1&keywords=ian+rowe+agency&qid=1655315480&s=books&sprefix=ian+rowe+%2Cstripbooks%2C50&sr=1-1#customerReviews (Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power). Nat and Ian discuss what the "blame the victim" and the "blame the system" narratives get wrong, Teach for America, the importance of mediating institutions in developing agency within the individual, the state of music videos, why young people want to be taught the success sequence, charter schools, Ian's parents' education in Jamaica, what students can learn from investing in the stock market, MLK, why morality must be a part of agency, F.R.E.E., why family and entrepreneurship broadly understood are important for building agency, why it is harmful when teachers overemphasize systemic racism, and much more. Show Notes: https://www.amazon.com/Agency-F-R-Children-Victimhood-Narrative/dp/1599475839/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LI1G2LP1ML1&keywords=ian+rowe+agency&qid=1655315480&s=books&sprefix=ian+rowe+%2Cstripbooks%2C50&sr=1-1#customerReviews (Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power) https://nypost.com/2022/06/04/heres-why-all-students-need-agency-rather-than-equity/ (Here’s why all students need agency rather than ‘equity’) https://www.vertexacademies.org (Vertex Partnership Academies) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NpdwOp9cQ&t=1s (Building Successful High Schools)
On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://www.aei.org/profile/beth-akers/ (Beth Akers), senior fellow at AEI and the coauthor of https://www.amazon.com/Game-Loans-Rhetoric-Reality-Student/dp/0691181101/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28RZCGQCPTQ9S&keywords=game+of+loans&qid=1654109825&s=books&sprefix=game+of+loan%2Cstripbooks%2C63&sr=1-1 (Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt). Nat and Beth discuss student loans, student loan forgiveness, why student loan forgiveness might make college more expensive, whether student loan forgiveness would be a good way to address the racial wealth gap, whether it makes sense to forgive student loans in order to encourage entrepreneurship, the dangers of working during college, how to fix income-driven repayment, the benefits of income share agreements, whether for-profit colleges can be good, and what President Biden should do on student loans. Show Notes: https://www.amazon.com/Making-College-Pay-Economist-Education/dp/0593238532 (Making College Pay: An Economist Explains How to Make a Smart Bet on Higher Education) https://www.amazon.com/Game-Loans-Rhetoric-Reality-Student/dp/0691181101/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28RZCGQCPTQ9S&keywords=game+of+loans&qid=1654109825&s=books&sprefix=game+of+loan%2Cstripbooks%2C63&sr=1-1 (Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt) https://www.educationnext.org/faq-student-loan-cancellation-edition/ (FAQ: Student Loan Cancellation Edition) https://www.aei.org/education/student-loan-cancellation-will-backfire-without-additional-reform/ (Student Loan Cancellation Will Backfire Without Additional Reform) https://www.aei.org/education/anticipated-executive-order-cancelling-student-loans-unpopular-on-right-and-left/ (Anticipated Executive Order Cancelling Student Loans Unpopular on Right and Left) https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/another-extension-of-the-student-loan-repayment-freeze-is-bad-policy/ (Another Extension of the Student-loan-repayment Freeze Is Bad Policy)
On the latest episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://www.emily-morton.com (Emily Morton) and https://caldercenter.org/experts/dan-goldhaber (Dan Goldhaber) about their new paper https://cepr.harvard.edu/files/cepr/files/5-4.pdf?m=1651690491 (The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During the Pandemic), which uses testing data from 2.1 million students in 10,000 schools in 49 states to investigate the role of remote and hybrid instruction in widening achievement gaps. Show Notes: https://cepr.harvard.edu/files/cepr/files/5-4.pdf?m=1651690491 (The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During the Pandemic) https://caldercenter.org/sites/default/files/CALDER%20Working%20Paper%20266-0522_0.pdf (A Comprehensive Picture of Achievement Across the COVID-19 Pandemic Years: Examining Variation in Test Levels and Growth Across Districts, Schools, Grades, and Students) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X20948023?casa_token=cHckFNo2PnIAAAAA%3AIc9J8H2zQ1D7__pYnGCW8g-SbwxzPo8tz3ZLdvMYeQHegjPdq9NPBsTl7oplkN6rcsVcTBN1ndU (Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on School Finance and Achievement: Evidence From Oklahoma) https://www.returntolearntracker.net (Return 2 Learn Tracker) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/briefing/school-closures-covid-learning-loss.html (‘Not Good for Learning’)
On the latest episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) interviews https://www.ilanahorwitz.com (Ilana Horwitz), Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Tulane, about her new book, https://www.amazon.com/God-Grades-Graduation-Religions-Surprising/dp/0197534147 (God, Grades, and Graduation). Nat and Ilana discuss the impact of religion on student outcomes, why religion helps working class kids get better grades and graduate from college at higher rates, the educational benefits of summer camp, Palo Alto, whether the boys are alright, the academy's understanding of American religious life, why religion helps boys academically more than it helps girls, education in the Soviet Union, why atheists also do better in school, how religion combats despair in working class America, why religious kids might not learn more even though they get better grades, religious girls and undermatching, the trajectory of evangelical Christianity in America, the importance of social capital, the logic of religious restraint, and why Jewish girls do well academically. Also in this episode? The debut of Grade It. Show Notes: https://www.amazon.com/God-Grades-Graduation-Religions-Surprising/dp/0197534147 (God, Grades, and Graduation) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/opinion/religion-school-success.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20220315&instance_id=55813&nl=the-morning®i_id=172094392&segment_id=85594&te=1&user_id=eb56b01ecc0b0a97242df1e1887a35c5 (I Followed the Lives of 3,290 Teenagers. This Is What I Learned About Religion and Education.) https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/magazine/winter-2022/future-higher-education-needs-embrace-religion (The Future of Higher Education Needs to Embrace Religion) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00031224221076487 (From Bat Mitzvah to the Bar: Religious Habitus, Self-Concept, and Women’s Educational Outcomes)
It's a challenge for school systems to recruit and retain quality teachers, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This challenge has spurred a number of creative solutions. One, announced earlier this year, is Tennessee's Teacher Occupation Apprenticeship program, also known as Grow Your Own. Tennessee's Grow Your Own program is based on 65 already existing Grow Your Own programs within the state. Here to discuss Grow Your Own with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat) are https://twitter.com/SchwinnTeach (Penny Schwinn), Tennessee Education Commissioner, and https://twitter.com/nctqkate (Kate Walsh), president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. Show Notes: https://www.tn.gov/education/news/2022/1/13/tennessee-pioneers-permanent-program-to-become-a-teacher-for-free--first-state-to-sponsor-registered-teacher-occupation-apprenticeship-.html (Grow Your Own) https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/3/9/22967759/teacher-turnover-retention-pandemic-data (Uptick but no exodus: Despite stress, most teachers stay put)
Two upcoming court cases, one a Supreme Court case on affirmative action at Harvard and the other a federal court case on financial aid price-fixing schemes at many of the nation's top colleges, promise to rock American higher education. https://polisci.uccs.edu/joshua-dunn (Josh Dunn), professor of political science at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and https://www.chronicle.com/author/eric-hoover (Eric Hoover), senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, join https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) to discuss these cases and their potential implications. Show Notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_Fair_Admissions_v._President_and_Fellows_of_Harvard_College (Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College) https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.411049/gov.uscourts.ilnd.411049.1.0.pdf (568 Presidents Group Lawsuit)
Over the course of the pandemic, masking requirements—particularly school masking requirements—have been a flashpoint issue. So: what is going on in schools? Which school districts require masking and which don’t? And what demographic factors might help explain masking policies? Here to discuss is https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus), with https://www.aei.org/profile/john-bailey/ (John Bailey) as guest host. Show notes: https://www.returntolearntracker.net (The Return to Learn Tracker: Mask Edition)
We've talked a lot on the show about school choice. But it's not often we discuss intra-district choice - choice between schools in the same district. Starting in 2012, Los Angeles' Zones of Choice program creates small local markets with High Schools in neighborhoods throuhgout LA, but leaves traditional attendance-zone boundaries in place. In application, this means that about 30-40% of LAUSD is a Zone of Choice. Here to discuss the success of LA's Zones of Choice program is http://www.cqcampos.com/ (Christopher Campos) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Deasy_(educator)#:~:text=John%20Edward%20Deasy%20(%2F%CB%88d,2018%20to%20June%2015%2C%202020. (John Deasy). Shownotes: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3830628 (The Impact of Neighborhood School Choice: Evidence from Los Angeles' Zones of Choice Program.)
American schooling has been on a bumpy road the past few years. COVID-19 is the obvious issues here, but it's not only that. Students have increasingly faced mental health issues and that preceded the pandemic. All the while, we've seen one polarizing issue after another shaking classrooms across the country. This bumpy road has been eloquently summarized in a new piece by Robert Pondiscio in the lead essay for the March issue of https://www.commentary.org/ (Commentary Magazine), titled: https://www.commentary.org/articles/robert-pondiscio/american-schooling-bleak-broken/ (The unbearable bleakness in American schooling.)
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to traditional schooling. In response to the, then, relatively unknown threat of COVID-19, Congress sent emergency relief funding to schools. They did so again, sending much more money. Then, they did so again, sending much much more money. These funds, known as the Elementary and Secondary Schooling Emergency Relief funds, or ESSER for short, totaled nearly $200 billion, making it the largest federal expenditure for public education in American history. So, where did these funds go, and for what? Here to discuss is the https://edunomicslab.org/ (Director of Georgetown University's Edunomics Lab), https://edunomicslab.org/about-us/ (Marguerite Roza. ) Show notes: Marguerite's latest Education Next article: https://www.educationnext.org/punishment-for-making-hard-choices-in-crisis-federal-prison-julia-keleher/ (Punishment for Making Hard Choices in a Crisis: Federal Prison)
The COVID-19 pandemic has seemingly touched everything in education policy, and school choice is no exception. Since the start of the pandemic and, particularly in the 2020-2021 academic year, over 1 million students left their traditional pubic school, charter school enrollment surged, and state-after-state either expanded or created a new school choice programs. The growing enrollment and expansion of these programs over the past year has led some to refer to 2021 as “The Year of School Choice.” So, why was school choice so popular in 2021, and what did its rise look like? Here to discuss is https://www.publiccharters.org/about-us/staff/nina-rees (Nina Rees) and https://edre.uark.edu/people/faculty/uid/pwolf/name/Patrick-Wolf/ (Patrick Wolf. ) Nina is the President and CEO of the https://www.publiccharters.org/ (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools). Previously, Nina served as the first Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement at the Department of Education. Patrick Wolf is a Distinguished Professor of Education Policy and the 21st Century Endowed Chair in School Choice at the https://edre.uark.edu/ (University of Arkansas’ Dept. of Education Reform.)
Done well, Career and Technical Education, better known as CTE, provides articled pathways to post-secondary education and high-demand, high-wage careers within specified career clusters. There's certainty a lot to like about CTE, but we still have much to learn about it in terms of its impact on post-K-12 outcomes and, especially, how those outcomes vary among different career clusters that fall under the CTE umbrella. Here to discuss these issues with Nat are Walt Ecton and Shaun Dougherty. Show notes: Link to Walt and Shaun's report, titled: https://edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai21-492.pdf (Heterogeneity in High School Career and Technical Education Outcomes).
To put it lightly, 2021 has been an eventful year in education. From heated school board meetings over class curriculum to fierce (and currently ongoing) debates regarding mask and vaccine mandates in schools, we’ve certainly had no shortage of education headlines over the past year. For https://www.aei.org/tag/the-report-card-podcast/ (The Report Card with Nat Malkus)' last episode of 2021, Nat looked back at these highlights and discussed 2021's biggest stories in education, what stories didn't get that much attention, and what 2022 has in store for us. Of course, who better to discuss education’s biggest stories in 2021 than those who wrote about them? On this episode, we are joined by three talented reporters, https://www.nytimes.com/by/erica-l-green (Erica Green), https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/laura-meckler/ (Laura Meckler), and https://www.edweek.org/by/eesha-pendharkar (Eesha Pendharkar.)
Every year, it seems, national and local press talk a lot about the "teacher shortage," and the reports are often accompanied with words like "emergency" and "crisis." The frequency of these reports might garner skepticism by some but, this year, talks around the teacher shortage are different. After nearly two years of COVID-19, and with the labor markets currently in flux, could it be that reports around the teacher shortage this year are different than before? Here to discuss is Dan Goldhaber and Gema Zamarro. Gema is a Professor in Education Reform and Economics at the University of Arkansas and the author of a recent report, titled: https://www.slu.edu/research/sinquefield-center-for-applied-economic-research/teacher-turnover-intentions-during-covid-fuchsman.pdf (Understanding how COVID-19 has Changed Teachers’ Chances of Remaining in the Classroom.) Dan is the Director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data (CALDER) in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research and the author of a new report on school district staffing, titled: https://www.cedr.us/_files/ugd/1394b9_7709c1ab926247469c2aa9c076b977bc.pdf (School District Staffing Challenges in a Rapidly Recovering Economy).
Increasingly, political intolerance and polarization is infiltrating college campuses. The impact of these occurrences are growing in prevalence and, to some, are perverting the original purpose of the university: the pursuit of truth. On this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus, Pano Kanelos , a founding trustee of the University of Austin, joins the podcast to discuss.
College is expensive. Despite this, every year, millions of students enroll in college. For many, this decision is primarily based on the expectation that they will receive a positive positive return on their investment. Given this logic, it’d be easy to think that the choice of whether to attend college is the most important predictor of ones’ financial future. But, what if that logic is flawed? What if, instead, which college, and which degree in that college, is actually more important to financial success than the decision to attend college at all? On this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus, Preston Cooper and Carlo Salerno to join Nat to answer this question and more.
School choice is one of the most controversial issues in education, and it has been for some time. Since the 1990s, support for private school choice has become increasingly politicized – with Republicans making it central to their campaign and Democrats largely in opposition. Despite this, Republicans have approached school choice legislation in a bipartisan fashion. But, does school choice legislation need to be bipartisan, and should it? On this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus, Jay Greene discusses the legislative record of school choice legislation, its meaning, and how legislators can and should approach school choice legislation.
Every year, there are a fair few awards and honors handed out in the ed policy space, but none carry the same prestige or repute as the https://yidanprize.org/ (Yidan Prize). On this episode of https://www.aei.org/tag/the-report-card-podcast/ (The Report Card) with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus), https://yidanprize.org/global-community/laureates/eric-a-hanushek/ (Rick Hanushek), winner of the 2021 Yidan Prize, discusses his past and future research and imparts some words of wisdom for young education researchers.
Americans have long viewed education as something that primarily happens in schools, and for good reason; since the introduction of the common school, most formal education has taken place in schools. But that all changed when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered school buildings in March 2020, forcing the locus of education to switch from the classroom to the home. So, how has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted homeschooling? On this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus, Kerry McDonald discusses the homeschooling movement, its rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, and her book, Unschooling: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom.
The school grounds have been the site of many of America’s most contentious debates, and, after the tumultuous year we've had, it’d be easy to think that Americans are more divided than ever on education issues. But are Americans as divided as they seem? On this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus), https://www.aei.org/profile/daniel-a-cox/ (Dan Cox) and Nat discuss their new report on American public opinion about COVID-19 mitigation, race, and religion in the classroom. Read Nat and Dan’s report: https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/controversy-and-consensus-perspectives-on-race-religion-and-covid-19-in-public-schools/ (Controversy and consensus: Perspectives on race, religion, and COVID-19 in public schools).
State assessments from this past spring are slowly coming out and, so far, they’ve all painted a similar picture: students are far behind where they should be in reading and math, and some student groups are further behind than others. On this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus), https://polisci.osu.edu/people/kogan.18 (Dr. Vlad Kogan) and http://glenn.osu.edu/faculty/glenn-faculty/Lavertu/ (Dr. Stéphane Lavertu) discuss their recent report on Ohio student test scores. Read Dr. Kogan and Dr. Lavertu's report, http://glenn.osu.edu/educational-governance/reports/reports-attributes/210828_KL_OST_Final.pdf (How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Student Learning In Ohio: Analysis of Spring 2021 Ohio State Tests.)
As students once again head back to school amid increasing Covid cases and hospilizations, can states and districts legally require eligible students and staff to receive the Covid-19 vaccine? Should they? https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/lawrence-o-gostin/ (Lawrence Gostin), the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Global Health Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and the director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, weighs in on this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus).
In March, state and local governments were given an unprecedented $350 billion in flexible funding to reduce hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. How can these funds best be used to address the needs of America’s students? In particular, how might these funds be used to send direct payments to students and families for private school tuition, tutoring, learning pods, and other educational expenses? John Bailey, a nonresident senior fellow at AEI, weighs in on this episode of “The Report Card with Nat Malkus.” Read John's recent https://www.aei.org/conservative-education-reform-network/ (CERN )report: https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/education-recovery-benefits-using-coronavirus-state-and-local-fiscal-recovery-funds-to-address-childrens-academic-social-emotional-and-mental-health-needs/ (Education recovery benefits: Using coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds to address children’s academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs.)
When the coronavirus pandemic hit late in the 2019-2020 school year, its impact on student learning didn’t take a summer vacation. One year later, with Covid retreating and vaccination efforts well underway, what does summer learning look like? And what effect might summer programing this year have on remediating Covid learning loss? https://www.crpe.org/experts/christine-pitts (Christine Pitts), a resident policy fellow at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, discusses these questions and more on this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus). Shownotes https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-most-students-in-urban-districts-will-have-summer-learning-options-but-schools-plans-may-miss-the-mark/ (Read )Christine's analysis of summer learning programs at The 74. Read CRPE's report on summer learning programs. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K1q9TxYbw0yt3pBJ68K-S_4TqCnapiHQbH4-QRQdSAk/edit#gid=607593381 (Visit )CPRE's school district response tracker.
Back-to-school 2020 didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. Many districts that were slated to offer in-person learning abruptly changed to their reopening plans only weeks before the start of the year, and many of those that did reopen for in-person learning were forced to close for weeks at a time as Covid rates increased. With back-to-school 2021 just around the corner, what should parents and students expect schooling to look like this fall? https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/joseph-allen/ (Dr. Joseph Allen), an associate professor of exposure assessment science at Harvard University, discusses the CDC's recently updated reopening guidance for schools, the importance of ventilation as a Covid mitigation strategy, and solutions for America's "sick" school buildings on this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus).
How did Critical Race Theory (CRT)—once relegated to graduate school seminars and academic journals—become one of the most hotly debated K-12 issues, seemingly overnight? What exactly is CRT? Should states be banning it from K-12 classrooms? AEI's Robert Pondiscio and Ian Rowe join Nat Malkus to discuss these questions and more on the latest episode of The Report Card.
As the Biden administration begins the process of rewriting Title IX regulations and undoing many of the changes to made under Secretary Betsy DeVos, host https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus )dusts off a recording of a debate among leading law experts on the Trump-era changes to Title IX, which took place in front of a live audience at AEI in the summer of 2019.
In just three years, 45 states adopted the Common Core State Standards. By that metric alone, one might argue that the Common Core was a huge success. But on this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus), https://www.brookings.edu/author/tom-loveless/ (Tom Loveless) and https://rossier.usc.edu/faculty/morgan-polikoff/ (Morgan Polikoff) argue that the Common Core has failed to move the needle on student learning and discuss the potential of standards-based reform going forward. Read Tom and Morgan's recently released books on the Common Core and content standards: https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/between-the-state-and-the-schoolhouse (Between the State and the Schoolhouse: Understanding the Failure of Common Core ) (Loveless, Harvard Education Press, 2021) https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/beyond-standards (Beyond Standards: The Fragmentation of Education Governance and the Promise of Curriculum Reform) (Polikoff, Harvard Education Press, 2021)
College is expensive. How can students and parents make sure that it pays off? On this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus), https://www.aei.org/profile/beth-akers/ (Beth Akers), resident scholar in education policy at AEI, discusses her new book, Making College Pay: An Economist Explains How to Make a Smart Bet on Higher Education (Penguin Random House, 2021). You can purchase Making College Pay at https://www.amazon.com/Making-College-Pay-Economist-Education/dp/0593238532 (Amazon), https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/making-college-pay-elizabeth-akers/1138012777 (Barnes & Noble), or your local bookstore.
Why have fewer Black and Hispanic students returned to their classrooms for full-time in-person learning relative to white students? And what effect will this have on the nation’s stubborn racial achievement gaps? https://polisci.osu.edu/people/kogan.18 (Vlad Kogan), associate professor of political science at Ohio State, and https://educationpost.org/network/chris-stewart/ (Chris Stewart), CEO of brightbeam, weigh in on this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus). Read Vlad Kogan's AEI report, "https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/whats-behind-racial-differences-in-attitudes-toward-school-reopening-and-what-to-do-about-them/ (What’s behind racial differences in attitudes toward school reopening (and what to do about them))."
While hybrid education may appear to be an invention of necessity spurred by the pandemic, splitting instruction between traditional brick-and-mortar schooling and homeschooling has been practiced—albeit on a limited scale—for quite some time. On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) talks with Ed Choice's https://www.edchoice.org/our-team/michael-mcshane/ (Mike McShane )about his recent book on hybrid homeschooling, "https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475857962/Hybrid-Homeschooling-A-Guide-to-the-Future-of-Education (Hybrid Homeschooling: A Guide to the Future of Education).” Nat and Mike are also joined by https://www.edchoice.org/our-team/kathaleena-edward-monds-ph-d-edchoice-fellow/ (Kathaleena Edward Monds) (Center for Educational Opportunity), https://classicalalexandria.org/board-of-directors/#allison-morgan (Allison L. Morgan) (Classical Christian Conservatory of Alexandria), and https://antonio-pares.medium.com/about (Antonio Parés) (Walnut Hill Workshop).
Enrollment in preschool and kindergarten programs has dropped significantly over the past year. What's behind Covid enrollment drops and how might they affect students, schools, and systems in the coming years? UVA post-doc https://www.annakshapiro.com/ (Anna Shapiro) and Virginia's Chief School Readiness Officer https://www.doe.virginia.gov/about/school-readiness/ (Jenna Conway) discuss on this episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus). To learn more about Covid enrollment drops, read Daphna Bassok and Anna Shapiro's recent Brookings Institute analysis, "https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/02/22/understanding-covid-19-era-enrollment-drops-among-early-grade-public-school-students/ (Understanding COVID-19-era enrollment drops among early-grade public school students)."
Students are months behind where they should be in their learning. Could a nation-wide tutoring program catch them up to speed? Moreover, what would it take to equalize access to high-quality tutoring over the long term? https://www.brown.edu/academics/population-studies/people/person/matthew-kraft (Matt Kraft) of Brown University and https://www.bu.edu/wheelock/profile/joshua-goodman/ (Josh Goodman) of Boston University discuss on this episode of "The Report Card with Nat Malkus." Read the working papers discussed on this episode: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mkraft/files/kraft_falken_2021_blueprint.pdf ("A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools" )by Matt Kraft and Grace Falken. https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai21-367 ("Kumon In: The Recent, Rapid Rise of Private Tutoring Centers") by Edward Kim, Josh Goodman, and Martin West.
It's been 12 months since the coronavirus pandemic sent the nation's students home. How many have returned to classrooms? That's a straightforward question, but one that's proven exceptionally difficult to answer. On this episode of "The Report Card," https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) discusses his newly launched https://returntolearntracker.net (Return to Learn Tracker (R2L)), which monitors the instructional status of over 8,500 school districts on a weekly basis. https://collegecrisis.org/team/christopher-r-marsicano/ (Chris Marsicano), an assistant professor at Davidson College and the founding director of the https://collegecrisis.org/ (College Crisis Initiative (C2i)), also joins to share his work tracking colleges and universities' responses to Covid.
Over the past several decades, a considerable body of research has looked at whether charter schools benefit students who choose to enroll in them. More recently, researchers have turned their attention to a related question: Is the expansion of the charter school sector harming students who remain in traditional public schools? On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) asks two experts to weigh in: https://www.njpp.org/author/mark-weber/#:~:text=Mark%20Weber%2C%20Ph.,University%20in%20public%20school%20finance. (Mark Weber), a special analyst at the New Jersey Policy Perspective and a public school music teacher, and https://www.bu.edu/wheelock/profile/marcus-a-winters/ (Marcus Winters), an associate professor at Boston University and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/robbers-or-victims-charter-schools-and-district-finances (Read Mark Weber's recent Fordham Institute report), "Robbers or Victims? Charter Schools and District Finances" https://www.manhattan-institute.org/expert/marcus-winters (Read Marcus Winter's recent Manhatten Institute report), "Do Charter Schools Harm Traditional Public Schools? Years of Test-Score Data Suggest They Don’t"
Over the course of a weekend last March, students saw their day-to-day routines completely upended. Now, eleven months into the pandemic, how are students holding up? On this episode of "The Report Card," https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) talks with two school counselors about their work supporting students during the pandemic: 2020 School Counselor of the Year https://www.gcpsk12.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=9939&ModuleInstanceID=49197&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=88463&PageID=20105 (Laura Ross), the lead school counselor at Five Forks Middle School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and 2016 School Counselor of the Year https://www.fusd1.org/domain/1029 (Kat Pastor-Lorents), a school counselor at Flagstaff High School in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Just about any parent could attest that remote learning hasn’t exactly been a one-to-one substitute for in-person learning. But just how far behind have students fallen over the past ten months? On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) talks with two experts: https://www.nwea.org/research/our-researchers/megan-kuhfeld-phd/ (Megan Kuhfeld), a senior research scientist at NWEA, and McKinsey and Company's global education practice manager Emma Dorn.
What does President-elect Joe Biden’s selection of Miguel Cardona suggest about what we might see in education in the next four years? And what are the chances Cardona will be able to accomplish Biden’s agenda? On this episode of the Report Card, Nat Malkus talks with two education mavens about the challenges and prospects facing Secretary-designate Cardona: AEI's own Rick Hess and Andy Rotherham of Bellwether Education Partners.
In just a few short weeks, Joe Biden will take office amid some of the most trying circumstances faced by an incoming president in modern history. What does it take to lead successfully in a time of crisis? Governor Jeb Bush weighs in on this rebroadcasted episode of The Report Card with https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus).
What will President Biden do with respect to free college? Should college be free for all students or only some students? Would a free college program supplant our current system of financial aid and student loans, or merely supplement it? On this episode of The Report Card, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) talks about the ins and outs of free college with two higher education experts: https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/kevin-carey/ (Kevin Carey) of New America and AEI's own https://www.aei.org/profile/jason-delisle/ (Jason Delisle). Have a comment, question, or topic suggestion? Contact us at ed.podcast@aei.org.
As college students around the country wrap up a tumultuous semester, debates about whether colleges should be in-person or remote rage on. About a month ago, https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/ (Nat Malkus) hosted an https://www.aei.org/events/should-college-students-be-back-on-campus/ (AEI web event )centered on this issue. Panelists included https://chrismarsicano.com/ (Christopher Marsicano), assistant professor at Davidson College; https://theuia.org/team/bridget-burns (Bridget Burns) of the University Innovation Alliance; https://www.shu.edu/profiles/robertkelchen.cfm (Robert Kelchen) of Seton Hall University; and https://www.wssu.edu/profiles/robinsonel/index.html (Elwood Robinson) of Winston-Salem State University. You can catch the panel discussion on this episode of The Report Card or watch the web event in its entirety at https://www.aei.org/events/should-college-students-be-back-on-campus/ (AEI.org).
Now that the 2020 elections have (mostly) wrapped up, what’s the education policy forecast for next year and beyond? Will education be a top priority for the Biden administration? Have voters changed the outlook for expanded private school choice? What should accountability look like in 2021? Tony Bennett, who served as Florida and Indiana’s education chief, and Joanne Weiss, who served as Chief of Staff to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, discuss these questions and more on this episode of “The Report Card with Nat Malkus.”
Despite pollsters’ predictions, this election has turned out to be a nail biter. Amid this uncertainty, what’s the post-election outlook for education? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus moderates a discussion with Third Way’s Lanae Erickson, Donna Harris-Aikens of the NEA, Roberto Rodriguez of TeachPlus, and AEI’s own Rick Hess and Jason […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/what-will-the-2020-elections-mean-for-education/ (What will the 2020 elections mean for education?) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
As most schools pass the halfway point of this tumultuous semester, one question continues to loom large: Should schools be reopening for in-person learning? That contentious question was the topic of a recent AEI web event featuring Report Card host Nat Malkus; Emily Oster of Brown University; Sarah Cohodes of Columbia University; Susan Enfield of Highline Public Schools; and Marla Ucelli-Kashyap of the American […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/should-we-be-sending-k-12-students-back-to-school-in-person/ (Should we be sending K–12 students back to school in person?) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
As schools confront massive budget shortfalls in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, it is critical that they examine how they might use existing funding more efficiently. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus talks with Byran Hassel about how districts might rethink their staffing models in a way that will increase students’ access to excellent teachers […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/rethinking-school-staffing/ (Rethinking School Staffing) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Now, more than ever, it’s critical that school districts examine how to make the most of each and every dollar they receive. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus talks with Chad Aldeman about ways states and districts might rethink two of their most significant costs—pensions and healthcare. Chad is a senior associate […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/rethinking-teacher-benefits/ (Rethinking Teacher Benefits) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
As K-12 classrooms remained shuttered in many parts of the country, childcare and early learning centers are reopening—or, in some cases, never closed in the first place. What lessons might they offer to school administrators and policymakers working to bring kids back to school? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus talks COVID […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/reopening-k-12-schools-lessons-from-childcare/ (Reopening K-12 Schools: Lessons from Childcare) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Nat Malkus talks with three superintendents about the planning that went into students’ return to learning and the challenges that lie ahead
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/inside-school-reopening-plans-superintendent-perspectives/ (Inside School Reopening Plans: Superintendent Perspectives) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
The Supreme Court released two decisions this year that could have a significant impact on the nation’s education landscape: Espinoza v. Montana—a case about a small Montana school choice program—and Our Lady of Guadalupe v. Morrissey-Bureau, which considered religious schools’ “ministerial exception” protections. On this episode, Nat Malkus discusses the potential implications of these two […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/a-big-year-for-education-in-the-supreme-court-with-josh-dunn/ (A big year for education in the Supreme Court (with Josh Dunn)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Only six weeks away from the start of the school year, many questions still remain as to what schooling will actually look like come fall. Is it really feasible for schools to reopen for in-person classes as President Trump and others are pushing for? On this episode, Nat Malkus poses that question to John Bailey, […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/how-can-schools-possibly-reopen-this-fall-a-conversation-with-john-bailey/ (How can schools possibly reopen this fall? A conversation with John Bailey) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
When remote learning started up this spring, a number of school districts initially forbade teachers from introducing new content in an effort to prevent achievement gaps from widening. Instead of teaching new knowledge, teachers were told to focus on maintaining previously learned skills. In subjects like reading, this focus on skills over content has long been the […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/the-knowledge-gap-rebroadcast/ (The Knowledge Gap [Rebroadcast]) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Over the past few months, nearly every student in America has gotten a taste of what home-based learning has to offer. As many families have discovered, homeschooling has its ups and downs. On the plus-side, it can allow parents to spend more time with their children, more deeply engage in their children’s schooling, and craft […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/hybrid-homeschooling-with-mike-mcshane/ (Hybrid homeschooling (with Mike McShane)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
In the world of higher education research, “success” is usually defined as a function of two statistics: enrollment and completion. Going by those two checkpoints, students experience very different chances of success based on their backgrounds and family characteristics. Consider, for example, that students who come from families in the top 20 percent of earners […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/degrees-of-freedom-with-seth-andrew/ (Degrees of freedom (with Seth Andrew)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
For years, the charter school sector enjoyed bipartisan support, counting among its advocates Presidents Clinton and Obama, as well as Presidents Bush and Trump. Yet, in 2020, nearly all democratic presidential candidates advertised their opposition to charters and many called for a moratorium on their expansion. Republicans, by some folks’ estimations, also appear to be less enthusiastic […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/the-shifting-politics-of-charter-schooling/ (The shifting politics of charter schooling) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
To say that the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most significant disruptions our education system has ever faced is hardly an understatement. Back in March, without a warning, 50 million students were shut out of school buildings and asked to engage in new modes of learning. Now, with less than a month left of […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/what-will-it-take-to-get-back-to-school-with-rick-hess-and-candice-mcqueen/ (What will it take to get back to school? (with Rick Hess and Candice McQueen)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Gov. Jeb Bush joins to discuss the immense leadership challenges COVID-19 has brought to bear against all leaders, from the White House to the schoolhouse.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/leadership-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic-with-governor-jeb-bush/ (Leadership in the coronavirus pandemic, with Governor Jeb Bush) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
In mere weeks, coronavirus toppled a long-standing pillar of our education system: students receiving in-person instruction from teachers. In the face of this turbulent change, teachers around the country have stepped up to help their students — and their colleagues — adapt to these constraints. Today, Nat talks with three teacher-leaders who are forging a […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/teacher-leadership-amid-coronavirus/ (Teacher leadership amid coronavirus) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Among those whose work has been most impacted by the coronavirus pandemic are teachers. In the course of just a few weeks, nearly all of the nation’s 3.6 million elementary and secondary school teachers have had to reorient their carefully crafted lesson plans for distance learning. What’s more, many of them have had mere days […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/teaching-amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ (Teaching amid the coronavirus pandemic) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
With America's education system upended, school districts are faced with complex concerns. Nat talks with two superintendents about how to confront them.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/superintendents-and-coronavirus-with-josh-starr-and-duncan-klussmann/ (Superintendents and coronavirus (with Josh Starr and Duncan Klussmann)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
COVID-19 has upended America's school system in unprecedented ways. AEI Fellow John Bailey joins to provide insight from his 2005 work combatting influenza
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/coronavirus-and-school-closures-with-john-bailey/ (Coronavirus and school closures (with John Bailey)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
The world of higher education has increasingly come under fire in the past few years. As concerns about rising tuition costs, workplace readiness of graduates, and inequitable admissions practices have become widespread, criticisms of colleges have become more vehement. Minerva is taking these challenges head-on. Founded by former Snapfish CEO Ben Nelson in 2011, the […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/minerva-and-the-future-of-higher-education-with-ben-nelson/ (Minerva and the future of higher education with Ben Nelson) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Liberian Education Minister George Werner and Bridge Int'l VP Steve Cantrell talk about how their partnership has helped transform Liberia's school system.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/liberian-education-and-bridge-international-academies-with-george-werner-and-steve-cantrell/ (Liberian education and Bridge International Academies with George Werner and Steve Cantrell) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
The 2018 Stoneman Douglas shooting was the deadliest school shooting in US history. Author Max Frost offers his take on how to prevent similar tragedies.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/why-meadow-died-with-max-eden/ (Why Meadow Died: with Max Eden) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Dr. Morgan Polikoff of USC joins Nat to discuss the materials teachers use to create engaging lesson plans, much of which is made without oversight
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/evaluating-supplemental-curricula-with-morgan-polikoff/ (Evaluating supplemental curricula with Morgan Polikoff) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Nat and guest Robert Pondiscio discuss NYC's successful - yet contentious - Sucess Academy Charter Schools, what sets them apart, and the lessons from them
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/success-academy-charter-schools-with-robert-pondiscio/ (Success Academy Charter Schools with Robert Pondiscio) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Education news was prevalent in 2019. Join Nat Malkus and guests as they cover the year's biggest stories and look ahead to what 2020 will bring
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/2019-education-year-in-review-with-erica-green-alyson-klein-and-josh-mitchell/ (2019 Education Year in Review: with Erica Green, Alyson Klein, and Josh Mitchell) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Host Nat Malkus talks to former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb about how teen vaping, a growing trend in high schools, affects both students and schools. Substance abuse counselor Milagros Vascones-Gatski and Evie Blad, a reporter from Education Week, also join Nat to discuss ways to address the problem.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/teen-vaping-with-scott-gottlieb-mila-vascones-gatski-and-evie-blad/ (Teen Vaping with Scott Gottlieb, Mila Vascones-Gatski, and Evie Blad) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
The idea of free college isn’t new. In 2014, President Obama proposed free community college in his State of the Union Address. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had free college plans in the 2016 election, and 2020 Democratic candidates also have plenty of ideas. However, in 2017, New York was the first state to […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/free-college-in-new-york-with-elsa-magee-and-christopher-barto/ (Free College in New York with Elsa Magee and Christopher Barto) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Nat Malkus, Jackie Jodl, and Robert Pondiscio discuss the benefits (and possible pitfalls) of American education's growing trend: Social Emotional Learning
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/social-emotional-learning-with-jackie-jodl-and-robert-pondiscio/ (Social emotional learning with Jackie Jodl and Robert Pondiscio) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
How can schols go beyond surface level learning? Nat Malkus and Jal Mehta discuss the benefits of deeper learning and how classrooms can better implement its features nationwide
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/deeper-learning-with-jal-mehta/ (Deeper Learning with Jal Mehta) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Do college rankings help students choose the right college? Nat Malkus talks to Michael Horn about his new book and the roles various people play in students' college decision-making journey
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/choosing-college-with-michael-horn/ (Choosing college with Michael Horn) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
host Nat Malkus talks to Jeff Hawkins of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative and Campbell Scribner at the University of Maryland about the unique challenges and strengths of rural schools, the history of consolidation and local control, and why rural schools perform better than urban and town schools.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/rural-education-with-jeff-hawkins-and-campbell-scribner/ (Rural education with Jeff Hawkins and Campbell Scribner) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
When it comes to teaching reading, most American schools prioritize skill acquisition over background knowledge. Students are asked to find the main idea of a passage without learning the background knowledge that the passage is discussing. However, research shows that background knowledge is more critical to reading comprehension than disembodied skills. In this episode, host […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/is-the-achievement-gap-actually-a-knowledge-gap-with-natalie-wexler-and-ashley-berner/ (Is the achievement gap actually a knowledge gap? (with Natalie Wexler and Ashley Berner)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
In 2000, Charles Best started DonorsChoose.org, a website that allows teachers to request needed materials for classroom projects, and “citizen philanthropists” from across the country could fund their requests. While DonorsChoose has an impact on individual classrooms, the data it produces creates a map of what materials teachers are requesting in every district of the […]
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/citizen-philanthropists-and-education-reform-with-charles-best/ (Citizen Philanthropists and Education Reform with Charles Best) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
In P-TECH schools, students earn a high school diploma and an associate’s degree tied to the needs of local industry partners that provide workplace experiences.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/could-the-p-tech-schools-model-close-the-skills-gap-with-grace-suh/ (Could the P-TECH schools model close the skills gap? (with Grace Suh)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Last year, student loan debt hit $1.5 trillion. From free college to loan forgiveness, there are plenty of ideas to lower student debt.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/can-income-share-agreements-address-college-affordability-and-accountability-concerns-with-beth-akers-and-tonio-desorrento/ (Can income share agreements address college affordability and accountability concerns? (with Beth Akers and Tonio DeSorrento)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
In this special episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus brings you a debate that took place live at AEI on proposed new Title IX regulations that roll back Obama-era rules.
The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/debate-edition-the-right-direction-on-title-ix-sexual-harassment-regulations/ (Debate Edition: The right direction on Title IX Sexual Harassment regulations) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).