Podcast
Governance
School discipline: A new rulebook (again) | Episode 1036 of The Education Gadfly Show
Kimberly Richey, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S.
Topics
Commentary
Wonkathon 2026: What rules should govern the uses of digital technology in schools—and who should set them?
For 12 years now, we at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute have hosted an annual Wonkathon on our Flypaper blog to generate substantive conversation around key issues in education reform. If you’re keen to jump in—and we hope you are—please let us know and indicate when we can expect your draft. Submissions are due by Friday, October 23, 2026.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
It’s not AI vs. human grading. It’s which design choices you make.
During my school years, I was often called a student who “could do better.” I took feedback seriously and tried to act on it. But one teacher had already made up his mind about me. He thought I was lazy and naughty. There was a reason for it, but somehow that single incident became my identity, and it showed up in my grades. I kept wondering how to get out of his bad books. I never did.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Bans aren’t the answer
I have heard a number of leaders start discussions about AI with the question, “Are you for or against AI?”
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
I also sent my children to a nonselective, overwhelmingly minority public school, but it wasn’t a sacrifice
When Nikole Hannah-Jones writes that her daughter finally told her, “Sometimes I wish instead of always thinking about other kids, you would have thought about me,” every parent who works in education should stop and sit with those words. I did.
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
My son may be your child’s teacher this year—and why that should worry you
My son is an NYC Teaching Fellow. This September, he is teaching special education middle school math in the Bronx.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The content opportunity: Prioritizing what we teach as much as how
For decades, teacher professional learning in middle and high school has prioritized one thing above all else: pedagogy.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Teach For America was once a movement. What happened?
This year, Teach For America marks its 35th anniversary. Few organizations have shaped education reform so profoundly. It produced not only achievement gains among students, but also an elite talent pipeline of TFA alumni. In recent years, however, those laudable outcomes have receded as the organization shifted its mission into more ideological terrain. Recent trends present an opportunity for Teach For America to rediscover what once made it so effective.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education
America’s high achievers are doing surprisingly well on PISA
The latest PISA results were mostly grim.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
How long should charter school contract terms be?
A defining feature of charter schools is the oversight structure provided by the authorizer. It is an authorizer’s job to determine whether schools are fulfilling the terms of their charters across numerous areas, not least of which is student outcomes.
Podcast
Standards
Family structure, school choice, and a mother’s regrets | Episode 1035 of The Education Gadfly Show
Ian Rowe, founder of Vertex Partners
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How states can slow the staffing surge
Public school funding is at record levels, but not enough money is making its way to teacher paychecks.
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
We’ve been treating college as a career plan, but it’s failing too many students
In one of Denver’s wealthiest suburbs, where median family income tops $150,000 and nearly every kid is expected to go to college, students are now lining up for trade certifications. Their parents aren’t worried; in fact, most of them are championing the move.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
What teachers should learn: An alternative graduate school curriculum
Earlier this month, I released a report reviewing coursework at ten graduate schools of education across the country. I won’t rehearse the findings at length here.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
College or career? On false positives and negatives
The backlash against “college for all” was overdue, but policymakers shouldn’t replace one flawed approach with another. Academic performance in high school can predict whether students will succeed in college, but it cannot tell us whether college—or another pathway—will leave a particular student better off. Better advising can help teenagers weigh each route’s tradeoffs.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Student AI use is about much more than school rules
“The turbulent AI era is here.
Commentary
Facilities, Governance, Private School Choice
The quickest way to expand school choice is to fill empty private school seats
Private-school choice advocates, particularly in red states, have a lot to be excited about right now.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
What state standards look like on the NAEP scale
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) regularly publishes reports using results from NAEP testing to compare the proficiency standards that states set for their students.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How money and time shape children’s early advantages
The importance of childhood investments to the trajectory of life is commonly accepted, but less is known about the size and sources of disparities in these investments.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
AI in schools: Ban it or embrace it? | Episode 1034 of The Education Gadfly Show
Mike Petrilli is back on the mic solo this week to weigh the case for and against banning AI in scho
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The strange education legacy of 9/11
The strange education legacy of 9/11 was, in many ways, an accident of history. The attacks helped propel an ambitious national education agenda into law, even as the political coalition behind it eventually unraveled. Twenty-five years later, the pandemic revealed just how far the country had moved from the consensus that once united reformers.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Alpha School’s Theranos problem
I was recently walking around Austin, Texas. And a block from the new W Hotel, I passed Alpha School, housed in what looked like a tech office. Outside was a sign reading “Kids crush academics in two hours, build life skills, and thrive,” under a big photo of the founder.
Commentary
School Finance, Governance
An updated agenda for America’s school finance reforms
For decades, education funding equity has been a primary aim of K–12 finance reform efforts.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Screens, AI, and grade inflation are hollowing out the American high school experience
High school students report widespread screen distraction, AI misuse, and grading practices that make it easier to earn high marks without mastering the relevant material. A new Fordham survey suggests that we will only solve these problems by restoring the basic conditions for learning: attention, effort, honest work, and adults willing to hold adolescents to high expectations.
