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Podcast

How the Left can learn to love gifted education | Episode 990 of The Education Gadfly Show

Michael J. Petrilli David Griffith, Ph.D. Adam Tyner, Ph.D.
10.15.2025
 

This week, Mike Petrilli flies solo to discuss New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to eliminate gifted education in the early grades—and how progressives can be persuaded to champion advanced learning opportunities for all students.

Then, on the Research Minute, Adam Tyner reviews a new study on how parental education shapes excellence gaps among students.

Recommended content: 

  • How can we depolarize “gifted education”? —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED
  • Building a wider, more diverse pipeline of advanced learners — The National Working Group on Advanced Education
  • The war against gifted education continues, Zohran Mamdani edition —James Pethokoukis, Faster, Please
  • Gifted, talented and Zohran Mamdani —The Wall Street Journal
  • Five facts about the first-generation excellence gap —Uditi Karna, John A. List, Andrew Simon and Haruka Uchida, NBER 2025

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

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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