The Education Gadfly Show
For more than 15 years, the Fordham Institute has been hosting a weekly podcast, The Education Gadfly Show. Each week, you’ll get lively, entertaining discussions of recent education news, usually featuring Fordham’s Mike Petrilli and David Griffith. Then the wise Amber Northern will recap a recent research study. For questions or comments on the podcast, contact its producer, Stephanie Distler, at [email protected].
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 24 minutes
- Episodes
- 505
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
Innovation, regulation, and school choice, with Mike McShane | Episode 984 of The Education Gadfly Show
Mike McShane, Director of National Research for EdChoice, joins us on the Education Gadfly Show to debate tradeoffs when it comes to regulation and innovation in the charter school and private school…
Managing district budgets during uncertain times, with Jonathan Travers | Episode 983 of The Education Gadfly Show
ERS president and managing partner Jonathan Travers joins Mike Petrilli on The Education Gadfly Show to talk about school district budgeting during uncertain times.
Then, on the Research Minute, Adam …
Should all state-funded schools take state standardized tests? | Episode 982 of The Education Gadfly Show
On this week’s solo episode, Mike shares his thoughts on whether it’s ever okay to let schools opt out of state standardized tests and use nationally normed assessments instead.
Then, on a special Re…
Education policy and climate change | Episode 981 of The Education Gadfly Show
This week, Matthew Kraft, professor of education and economics at Brown University, joins The Education Gadfly Show to discuss the intersection of education policy and climate change.
Then, on the Res…
#980: Can education reform help Democrats win again? with Ben Austin
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show, Ben Austin, Founding Director of Education Civil Rights Now, joins us to discuss why the Democratic Party lost its way on education policy—and what it must do to…
#979: Is too much democracy hamstringing our schools? with Vlad Kogan
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show, Vlad Kogan—professor and director of undergraduate studies at The Ohio State University—joins us to discuss his forthcoming book, No Adult Left Behind: How Polit…
#978: Mike on the mic: Regulation in school choice programs
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show, Mike returns for another solo episode, reflecting on the role of regulation in school choice—is it stifling innovation or saving us from bad schools?
Then, on the…
#977: New law, new questions for school choice, with Brian Jodice
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show, Brian Jodice, National Press Secretary for the American Federation for Children joins us for a lively debate on the federal school choice provision embedded in t…
#976: A new hub for smarter education policy, with Doug Harris
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Doug Harris, director of the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH), joins us to discuss a new website aimed at advancing e…
#975: Mike on the mic: On “discrimination” and demagoguery
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike flies solo to reflect on what’s happening across the education reform landscape—from the private school choice debate to the question of whether edu…
#974: The Risks of the Educational Choice for Children Act, with Jon Valant
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jon Valant —director of the Brown Center on Education Policy and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings—joins Mike to discuss his recent anal…
#973: Debunking the teacher experience myth, with Linda Darling-Hammond and Anne Podolsky
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Linda Darling-Hammond and Anne Podolsky of the Learning Policy Institute—authors of our latest Think Again brief, “Do the Returns to Teacher Experience F…
#972: Indiana’s charter strategy: A red-state roadmap? with Brandon Brown
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, joins Mike to explain why charter school advocates keep winning in red states—and how others might follow Indiana’s…
#971: A “Quality Check” on school accountability, with Tom Toch and Lynn Olson
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tom Toch, director of FutureEd, and Lynn Olson, former deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, join Mike and David to discuss Lynn’s ne…
#970: Big moves in the Lone Star state: ESAs come to Texas, with Genevieve Collins
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Genevieve Collins, Texas State Director for Americans for Prosperity, joins us to discuss Texas’s newly passed Education Savings Account bill—an ambitiou…
#969: Charters, church, and the Court with Starlee Coleman
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Starlee Coleman, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, joins Mike and David to discuss the religious charter schools cas…
#968: Are school inspections the accountability tool we’ve overlooked? with Erik Robelen
#968: Are school inspections the accountability tool we’ve overlooked? with Erik Robelen
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, former Education Week reporter Erik Robelen joins Mike and David …
#967: Mississippi’s secret? Twenty years of persistence and progress, with Rachel Canter
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rachel Canter, the founding executive director of Mississippi First and the new director of education policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, joins M…
#966: Is calculus king? Rethinking math pathways, with Matt Giani
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Matt Giani, professor and researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, joins Mike and David to discuss whether there’s a one-size-fits-all math pathw…
#965: Understanding ESSA Waivers, with Anne Hyslop
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Anne Hyslop, Director of Policy Development at All4Ed, joins Mike and David to discuss the evolving federal role in K–12 education—particularly how the S…