The Education Exchange

Wilfred McClay joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new book, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Society, which he describes as a narrative account of the American story that could be used as a high school history textbook.

There is new interest in giving adult prisoners greater access to education while they are behind bars. One bill in Congress would allow prisoners access to Pell Grants to pay for higher education, something which has not been possible since 1994. Gerard Robinson, Executive Director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the importance of education for men and women in prison and some different kinds of programs that could be offered. Robinson and Elizabeth English Smith are the editors of a new book, Education for Liberation: The Politics of Promise and Reform Inside and Beyond America’s Prisons. The book is available at: https://www.amazon.com/Education-Liberation-Politics-Promise-Americas-ebook/dp/B07L7H2XFN

Americans may like to buy things online, but people who live in neighborhoods with stores, libraries, restaurants, schools, and parks nearby have higher levels of community satisfaction and lower levels of social isolation. That's the finding of a new survey on community and society conducted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Daniel Cox, a research fellow in polling and public opinion at AEI, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his paper, "The Importance of Place: Neighborhood amenities as a source of social connection and trust," co-written with Ryan Streeter. The paper is available at https://www.aei.org/publication/the-importance-of-place-neighborhood-amenities-as-a-source-of-social-connection-and-trust/

Students attending school in big cities made significant gains on NAEP in the years between 2003 and 2013 but those trend lines have flattened in recent years. Paul Peterson talks with Kristin Blagg, a research associate in the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute, about what the data show, and about which districts made the greatest gains. In "Making the Grade in America's Cities: Assessing Student Achievement in Urban Districts," Blagg explains how the NAEP data for students can be adjusted for changes in student demographics to better understand test score growth. The paper is available at: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/making-grade-americas-cities-assessing-student-achievement-urban-districts

In the most recent ratings put out by the state of Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Schools earned an "A" designation and had no "F" rated schools, unusual achievements for a large urban district. Ron Matus, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Step Up For Students, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss some factors behind the school district's success: dynamic and stable leadership, an understanding of how to intervene in and support the most struggling schools, and many different options for families if they are not satisfied.

Families in Milwaukee gained access to the nation's first private school vouchers nearly three decades ago. Today the educational landscape in Milwaukee also includes charter schools and many other forms of public school choice. But standardized test scores are still low and the achievement gap between black and white students remains large. Alan Borsuk of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Marquette University talks with Paul E. Peterson about some of the challenges Milwaukee has faced despite the long history of school choice in the city.

Robin J. Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss what Indianapolis has done to make charter schools work.

Jim Blew, assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the U.S. Department of Education, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss some of the work of the department, including a new federal tax credit initiative and proposed changes to Title IX.

For over 50 years, a limited number of students of color living in Boston have been able to enroll in schools in the suburbs as part of the METCO program, run by the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity. Charles Glenn sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss who benefits from the program and whether it distracts from larger issues related to urban schools.

A new study finds that students who receive vouchers to attend private schools in Louisiana are outperformed by students in a control group. Some argue that regulations in Louisiana that discourage many private school leaders from participating in school choice programs are to blame for the poor results. Paul Peterson talks with Patrick Wolf about two recent studies, one looking at the Louisiana Scholarship Program and one looking at what school leaders say about their willingness to participate in school choice programs when those programs have regulatory strings attached. "Heterogeneous Impacts Across Schools in the First Four Years of the Louisiana Scholarship Program," by Matthew Lee, Jonathan Mills, and Patrick Wolf is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3376234 "The Effects of Regulations on Private School Choice Program Participation: Experimental Evidence from California and New York," by Corey DeAngelis, Lindsey Burke, and Patrick Wolf is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3349453

Jeff Bergner, author of The Vanishing Congress, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how Congress has stopped doing its job and how that could change. The book is available at https://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Congress-Reflections-Politics-Washington/dp/0989040232

What is social and emotional learning, how does it relate to academic learning, and how much should schools focus on it? Chester E. Finn, Jr., a distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss “What Social and Emotional Learning Needs to Succeed and Survive,” a new paper co-written with Rick Hess. The paper is available at https://www.educationnext.org/what-social-emotional-learning-needs-succeed-survive

Some studies have found that schools can get substantial gains in achievement by changing textbooks. But a new analysis by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard finds little evidence of differences in achievement gains for schools using different math textbooks. Paul E. Peterson talks with Thomas Kane, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, about the new study, “Learning by the Book: Comparing math achievement growth by textbook in six common core states.” https://cepr.harvard.edu/files/cepr/files/cepr-curriculum-report_learning-by-the-book.pdf

In a new book, Love Your Enemies, Arthur Brooks describes the rise of a “culture of contempt”—a habit of seeing people who disagree with us not as merely incorrect or misguided, but as worthless--and considers what we can do to bridge divides and mend relationships. Today he talks with Paul E. Peterson about how contempt corrodes our own happiness, about remembering the difference between people we disagree with and the ideas they embrace, and about the role universities can play in repairing our culture.

A decline in birth rates in the U.S. could mean that the school-aged population will spiral downward in the next decade and beyond. Would this be a disaster for schools? Or could there be a silver lining? Mike Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new article, "The Baby Bust Goes to School." https://www.educationnext.org/baby-bust-goes-to-school-falling-birthrates-crisis-opportunity/

What tradeoffs are involved when we choose to spend huge sums of money to slow global warming? Are there more cost-effective ways to do more good in the world? Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research on the impact on global temperatures of goals set in the Paris climate accord and how the funds being used to meet those goals could be better spent. You can read about his research at https://www.lomborg.com/press-release-research-reveals-negligible-impact-of-paris-climate-promises

Researchers studying school choice programs often look at the impact of using a voucher on student test scores or high school graduation. A new study of the longer-term impacts of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program finds that students who used vouchers to attend private school were less likely to be involved with criminal activity and paternity disputes. This week, Paul Peterson speaks with Corey DeAngelis, an education policy analyst at the Cato Institute,and co-author, with Patrick J. Wolf, of the new study, which is described in "Private School Choice Helps Students Avoid Prison and Unplanned Pregnancies." https://www.educationnext.org/private-school-choice-helps-students-avoid-prison-unplanned-pregnancies/

A new study finds that astonishingly high numbers of elementary school teacher candidates fail their professional licensing tests each year, with the highest failure rates among candidates of color. The tests assess subject knowledge in English, science, mathematics, and social studies. The study, conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), also finds that teacher preparation programs give little attention to the content knowledge that teacher candidates need. Kate Walsh, president of the NCTQ, talks with Paul E. Peterson about the new report, "A Fair Chance: Simple steps to strengthen and diversify the teacher workforce," as well as what must change so that more new teachers can enter classrooms with the knowledge they need to do their jobs well. https://www.nctq.org/publications/A-Fair-Chance

When the Supreme Court ruled last year in Janus v. Afscme that unions could no longer collect agency fees from employees who choose not to join, many predicted a major decline in union membership. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public union membership declined less than 1% in 2018. In this episode, Paul E. Peterson talks with Daniel DiSalvo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, the author of a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, “Janus Barely Dents Public-Sector Union Membership," and a new report "Public-Sector Unions After Janus: An Update." https://www.wsj.com/articles/janus-barely-dents-public-sector-union-membership-11550100582?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 https://www.manhattan-institute.org/public-sector-unions-after-janus?mod=article_inline

The Florida Tax Credit (FTC) scholarship program is the nation’s largest private school choice program. A new study finds that students who enroll in private schools through the FTC program are more likely to go to and graduate from college than their public school peers. Matt Chingos talks with Paul E. Peterson about the study, “The Effects of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program on College Enrollment and Graduation," which he co-authored with Tomas Monarrez and Daniel Kuehn. Read the full report here: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/effects-florida-tax-credit-scholarship-program-college-enrollment-and-graduation

Most studies of charter schooling look at how charters compare with traditional schools at one point in time, but the success of the reform depends on whether the charter sector improves over time. So writes Eric Hanushek and his colleagues, the authors of a new study looking at changes over time in the charter school sector in Texas. Hanushek joins Paul E. Peterson this week to discuss the paper, "The Evolution of Charter School Quality," co-written with Patrick Baude, Marcus Casey and Steven G. Rivkin. http://hanushek.stanford.edu/publications/evolution-charter-school-quality

Polling data reveal that when it comes to most debates in education policy, the divide between Republicans and Democrats is not growing. Only on issues like teacher tenure and merit pay is public opinion becoming more polarized. David Houston, a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his latest paper, "Polarization and the Politics of Education: What Moves Partisan Opinion?" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0895904818823745

Nathan Glazer, urban sociologist and scholar of ethnicity, race and education, died recently at the age of 95. On this episode, Peter Skerry, Professor of Political Science at Boston College, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Glazer’s work and the ideas he wrestled with.

As teachers strike or threaten to strike in several cities, one of the key issues is pay. But while teachers want higher salaries, school districts face a number of financial challenges. One source of strain in school district budgets is what economist Ben Scafidi calls the staffing surge, a major increase in non-teaching staff hired over the past few decades. Ben Scafidi joins EdNext senior editor Paul E. Peterson to discuss his report, "Back to the Staffing Surge." https://www.edchoice.org/research/back-staffing-surge/

Many Teach for America corps members remain in the classroom long-term, but a large number move on to careers involving advocacy. A new study looks at how Teacher for America impacts state-level education policy. Leslie Finger of Harvard University joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss her study, “National Youth Service and Policy Feedback: How TFA Shapes Education Policy Working Papers through the Development of Young Advocates,” which was co-written with Carlos Lastra-Anadon.

Many parents choose to wait an extra year before enrolling a child in elementary school, a practice known as redshirting. Does this practice benefit the children who are held back? This week, Paul E. Peterson talks with Phillip Cook of Duke University, the co-author of a new study on the impact of delayed entry on student achievement. The paper, "The School-Entry-Age Rule Affects Redshirting Patterns and Resulting Disparities in Achievement," is co-written with Songman Kang. https://www.nber.org/papers/w24492.pdf

A study based on data from North Carolina finds that grade inflation increased over the last decade and that grade inflation was more severe in schools attended by affluent students than in those attended by lower-income pupils. Seth Gershenson, the author of “Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005-2016),” joined Paul E. Peterson this summer to discuss the study. https://edexcellence.net/publications/grade-inflation-in-high-schools

How do teachers feel about the changes taking place in American education? In this replay episode, Evan Stone, the co-founder and CEO of Educators for Excellence, joined Paul E. Peterson to discuss his organization's survey, “Voices from the Classroom: A Survey of America’s Educators.” https://e4e.org/sites/default/files/2018_voices_from_the_classroom_teacher_survey.pdf

The Florida Legislature created the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program in 2001. Last year, scholarships from the program were awarded to a total of 108,098 students to attend private schools in the state. Jason Bedrick, director of policy for EdChoice, joins Paul E. Peterson to explain how the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program works and to discuss the results of a new survey of participating families. Bedrick and Lindsey Burke co-authored a report on the survey, "Surveying Florida Scholarship Families," and also a blog entry about it for EdNext. https://www.edchoice.org/research/surveying-florida-scholarship-families/ https://www.educationnext.org/survey-says-parents-want-school-choice/

Researchers and policymakers are often puzzled when a policy like high quality preschool or class size reduction is found to have no impact on student test scores but a positive impact on longer-term outcomes like college graduation or future earnings. A new paper by Eric Nielsen can help explain these different findings. It turns out that the way we calculate test scores may be disguising the true impact of these policies. Eric Nielsen joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his paper, “Test Items, Outcomes, and Achievement Gaps.” http://papers.nber.org/conf_papers/f115410/f115410.pdf

Erica Suares, Senior Policy Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss some of the inner workings of legislation in the Senate, including how the tax reform bill came together and what's on the horizon for higher education and school choice.

Clint Bolick, an Associate Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, talks with Paul E. Peterson about how the results of gubernatorial elections will affect the school choice climate in various states. They also discuss the proposed expansion of an education savings account program which was on the ballot in Arizona.

Are parents move likely to want to send their kids to college if they are given accurate information about the costs and benefits of attending college? A new study looks at what happens when parents are given customized information about the cost of going to college and the wage premium for earning a college degree. Albert Cheng, Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss their paper, "Experimental Impacts of Customized Information on College Aspirations," available at: https://appam.confex.com/appam/2018/webprogram/Paper27508.html

Richard Barth, CEO of the KIPP Foundation, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how the KIPP network is adapting to changes in the charter sector.

In Boston, nearly 25% of public middle and high school students attend exam schools, but these schools are much less diverse than the school district as a whole. A new study looks closely at the entrance exam used to select students for these schools and at ways the admissions process could be changed to to make the schools more diverse without sacrificing academic selectivity. Joshua Goodman of the Harvard Kennedy School joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the new study, "Increasing Diversity in Boston's Exam Schools," which he co-wrote with Melanie Rucinski. The study can be found at: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/rappaport/research-and-publications/policy-briefs/increasing-diversity-in-Boston's-Exam-Schools

Hanna Skandera, Editor-in-chief of The Line and former Secretary of Education for New Mexico, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss the four-day school week and Pathway 2 Tomorrow, a call for innovative proposals to broaden education.

There are plenty of college-level online courses available for free, but students who want college credit for an online course may have to pay up to $1,000 per credit, or $30,000 per year. Modern States Education Alliance has come up with a way to combine college-level online learning with free college credit. Students take specially designed courses aligned with tests offered by the College Board. These tests are accepted by over 2,900 U.S. colleges and universities for college credit. Steve Klinksy, founder and CEO of Modern States Education Alliance, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to explain how the organization is able to provide an on-ramp to college with its "Freshman Year for Free" program.

When a school district's discipline policy has a disparate impact on African American students, is that racial discrimination? How about when an elite university uses affirmative action to increase the diversity of its student body? Adam White, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the legal issues involved.

Under the leadership of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Miami-Dade County Public Schools has won numerous awards for student performance. Carvalho sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his strategy of empowering school leaders and reforming teacher compensation.

A new study based on data from North Carolina finds that grade inflation increased over the last decade and that grade inflation was more severe in schools attended by affluent students than in those attended by lower-income pupils. Seth Gershenson, the author of “Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005-2016),” joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the study, which can be read here: https://edexcellence.net/publications/grade-inflation-in-high-schools

The world of education policy has been filled with some nasty battles in the recent years. Hanna Skandera, who formerly served as education secretary in New Mexico, hopes to change that by promoting civil discourse around education. Skandera is the new editor new editor-in-chief of The Line, a publication for state and district superintendents. She joins Paul Peterson on this week's episode.

Education Next and PDK both released the results of major surveys of public opinion about education in recent weeks. Joshua Starr, the president of PDK, joins Paul E Peterson to discuss the results of the two surveys.

Michael Henderson, assistant professor at Louisiana State University and survey director for the EdNext poll, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the nuts and bolts of EdNext's annual survey of public opinion. https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-schools-universal-vouchers-2018-ednext-poll/

School is back in session after one of the hottest summers in recorded history, and many students are now in classrooms without air conditioning. A new study looks at how hotter school days impact. student learning. Josh Goodman of the Kennedy School at Harvard sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his recent working paper, “eat and Learning,” co-written with Michael Hurwitz, Jisung Park and Jonathan Smith. http://www.nber.org/papers/w24639

Last year's EdNext poll revealed a sharp drop in support for charter schools. On today's podcast, Paul E. Peterson and Marty West look at the biggest changes in public opinion revealed by the 2018 EdNext poll, some of which relate to charter schools and vouchers. Read more about the 2018 EdNext Poll here: https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-schools-universal-vouchers-2018-ednext-poll/

The Boston Public Schools will be led by an interim superintendent this fall, since former superintendent Tommy Chang was asked by the mayor of Boston to step down last June. Steve Poftak talks with Paul E. Peterson about some of the challenges that have faced, and will continue to face, the school district, including debates over school start times, diversity levels at exam schools, whether the student assignment system is causing segregation, transportation costs, and what happens next for BPS. Poftak is Executive Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

A new study investigates whether teaching practices differ in effectiveness depending on the students in the class. It finds that the impact of good classroom management and student-centered instruction vary depending on whether the students in the classroom are of high ability or of mixed ability. Jane Cooley Fruehwirth, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss the conference paper,”Teacher Effectiveness and Classroom Composition,” which she co-authored with Esteban Aucejo, Patrick Coate, Sean Kelly and Zachary Mozenter: http://papers.nber.org/conf_papers/f110143/f110143.pdf

Evan Stone, the co-founder and CEO of Educators for Excellence, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his organization’s new survey, "Voices from the Classroom: A Survey of America’s Educators." https://e4e.org/sites/default/files/2018_voices_from_the_classroom_teacher_survey.pdf

Before schools in the southern U.S. were racially integrated, schools for African American students were staffed almost exclusively by African American teachers. After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, southern schools began to be desegregated, and this had a big effect on black teacher employment. Economist Owen Thompsont talks with Paul E. Peterson about his paper, “School Desegregation and Black Teacher Employment," in which he estimates the percentage decline in black teacher employment in the south after desegregation. https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D1811793_87119961_1702858

Michael McConnell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a former Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.