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Podcast

Beyond test scores: Debating how to measure school quality | Episode 988 of The Education Gadfly Show

Laura Hamilton Chester E. Finn, Jr. Michael J. Petrilli David Griffith, Ph.D. Adam Tyner, Ph.D.
10.1.2025
Laura Hamilton and Checker Finn
 

This week, Fordham’s president emeritus Checker Finn and Laura Hamilton of the Center for Assessment join us for a polite debate on whether school quality should be judged by more than test scores.

On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner unpacks a massive study of ten million students that tracks how gender gaps in math and reading develop from kindergarten through fifth grade—and what that means for the narrative about boys and school.

Recommended content

  • The mixed blessing of new school measures —Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham

  • Our assessment systems should reflect the purposes of public education —Laura Hamilton, Center for Assessment

  • #971: A “Quality Check” on school accountability, with Tom Toch and Lynn Olson —The Education Gadfly Show

  • Do we know how to measure school quality? —Van Schoales, Education Week

  • Gender Gaps in the Early Grades: Questioning the Narrative that Schools are Poorly Suited to Young Boys — Megan Kuhfeld and Margaret Burchinal, Annenberg Institute at Brown University (2025)

  • Redshirt the boys—Richard V. Reeves for The Atlantic

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for our show? Send them to [email protected]

Laura Hamilton

Laura Hamilton is a senior associate as the Center for Assessment.

Chester E. Finn, Jr., scholar, educator and public servant, has devoted his career to improving education in the United States. At Fordham, he is now Distinguished Senior Fellow and President Emeritus. He’s also a Volker Senior Fellow at…

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President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, executive editor of Education Next, editor in chief of the Education Gadfly Weekly, host of the…

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David Griffith is the National Research Director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where he manages or authors reports on various subjects including charter schools, …

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Adam Tyner was a member of the Fordham Institute's national research team from 2017 to 2025. In 2025 he became executive director of the Oklahoma Center for Education Policy at the University of Oklahoma.

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