The venerable hosts of the Education Gadfly show have been winging it for seventeen years. From East to Kanye West, from No Child Left Behind to grade inflation, the show has been chronicling the stories in American education, hashing through the most important debates in ed reform, hosting thought leaders and policy makers, and stumbling through mic checks for 900 episodes now. This year has been no different.
Below are the top 5 episodes from 2023:
1. #859: Eliminating honors classes won’t advance equity, with Scott Peters
In February, the Wall Street Journal ran the head-scratch-inducing headline “To Increase Equity, School Districts Eliminate Honors Classes.” Scott Peters, a senior research scientist at NWEA, joined Mike to discuss the self-contradictory nature of that idea. Drawing from the Fordham-led National Working Group on Advanced Education, they cast a vision for how advanced classes can promote equity and best practices for challenging gifted students.
2. #851: The case for teaching writing in the age of ChatGPT, with Checker Finn
Last year, ChatGPT took the American commentariat by storm. Columnists penned enough ink to fill the Mediterranean, parsing through what this new technology meant and whether our robot overlords would keep us around. Fordham’s president emeritus and OG gadfly, Checker Finn, lays out the case that writing education trains students to do far more than write a five-paragraph essay, and so while SkyNet might destroy the world, the need for writing instruction will survive.
3. #857: The states leading the way in literacy, with Kymyona Burk and Tom Greene
As of July, thirty two states and the District of Columbia have passed science of reading laws. They range from mandatory teacher prep and curriculum directives to accountability measures and early-grade retention policies. Kymyona Burk and Tom Greene, both of ExcelinEd, join Mike to discuss the strengths and pitfalls of these policies, which states are leading, and if phonics will become just another partisan football.
4. #897: Addressing grade inflation, with Tim Daly
For at least a decade now, grades have been trending upwards. Then, with the onset of the pandemic and understandable measures towards leniency that many districts adopted, they spiked. Tim Daly, the chief executive officer of Ed Navigator, joined Mike to discuss practical measures schools and districts could take to arrest this inflation.
5. How much competition public schools face, with Jeanette Luna
Exposing traditional school districts to greater competition has been a central goal of education reform for decades. But quantifying how much competition public schools actually face is a challenging task. Jeanette Luna, Fordham’s development and research associate, joins Mike along with her co-author David Griffith to discuss her report that tries to pin down this very question.
At perhaps not time since the landmark A Nation at Risk has American education faced so many challenges and obstacles. But a quick survey of this year’s Education Gadfly Show gives many reasons for optimism. Namely, there are practitioners, policymakers, and academics working tirelessly to find solutions, implement effective policies, and deliver the education that children so deserve.
