The Education Exchange

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.

Students in Washington, D.C. have been making large gains on NAEP, and many credit the transformation of the teaching profession that has taken place in DCPS over the past decade. Thomas Toch of FutureEd joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his report, A Policymaker’s Playbook: Transforming Public School Teaching in the Nation’s Capital, which takes a close look those changes. Read the full report here: https://www.future-ed.org/a-policymakers-playbook-for-transforming-teaching/

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) faces a debt of between $11-15 billion. How did the school district get itself into such a financial hole and what might it do to get out of it? Lisa Snell of the Reason Foundation joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the challenges faced by the district and its options. Snell is a co-author of A 2018 Evaluation of LAUSD’s Fiscal Outlook: Revisiting the Findings of the 2015 Independent Financial Review Panel. https://reason.org/policy-study/2018-evaluation-of-lausd-fiscal-outlook/

On the last day of its 2017-2018 term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus vs. AFSCME that public employee unions can no longer collect agency fees from non-members. Clint Bolick, an associate justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss why the U.S. Supreme Court felt it was necessary to overrule a decision from the 1970s allowing agency fees.

Charter schools have been in the news lately, as supporters and opponents have debated whether they are expanding opportunities for students most in need or whether they are increasing segregation. Earlier this month, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on charter schools and EdNext's Marty West was invited to testify. Today, Marty West joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his testimony and these debates over charter schools Watch the full hearing here. http://educationnext.org/watching-hearing-power-charter-schools/

In San Diego, one in ten students attends a magnet school, and because admission is sometimes determined by lottery, researchers have been able to study the impact of attending a magnet school on long-term outcomes. In this episode, Julian Betts of the University of California, San Diego joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research on magnet schools in San Diego. Betts is the co-author of "The Long-Term Effects of Public School Choice: Lottery Evidence from San Diego," with Sam M. Young, Andrew C. Zau and Karen Volz Bachofer, available at https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/conferences/learning-from-longterm-effects-2018/papers/panel-i-betts-et-al.pdf

Are graduates of private schools as active in the public sphere as graduates of public schools? David Sikkink, an associate professor of sociology at Notre Dame, finds that when it comes to volunteering and charitable giving, graduates of private religious schools are more likely to be engaged. He joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research. Read the full paper, co-written with Jonathan Schwartz, here: https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/conferences/learning-from-longterm-effects-2018/papers/panel-iii-sikkink.pdf

A new analysis by Education Next finds that the state that has raised its proficiency standards the most over the past 10 years is Tennessee. In this episode, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how her state has raised its standards and made other changes to advance student learning. Read the full report here: http://educationnext.org/have-states-maintained-high-expectations-student-performance-analysis-2017-proficiency-standards/

Dan Hamlin, a postdoctoral fellow at the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at the Harvard Kennedy School, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss their new article, "Have States Maintained High Expectations for Student Performance? An analysis of 2017 state proficiency standards." http://educationnext.org/have-states-maintained-high-expectations-student-performance-analysis-2017-proficiency-standards/

Schools are paying increasing attention to the problem of truancy, and many states are including an indicator measuring chronic absenteeism in their accountability plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act. In this episode, Paul E. Peterson talks with Peter Bergman about the phenomenon of joint absences, when students have a peer with whom they systematically skip class. Peter Bergman, Assistant Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, is the co-author, with Magdalena Bennett, of "Better Together? Social Networks in Truancy and the Targeting of Treatment," available at http://papers.nber.org/conf_papers/f104327/f104327.pdf

The Trump administration may undo regulations that punish for-profit colleges if their graduates are unable to earn enough money to repay their student loans. In this episode, Paul Peterson is joined by the authors of a new study that examines the impact on student enrollment in for-profit colleges and community colleges when the federal government cracks down on for-profit colleges with high rates of students defaulting on their loans. Stephanie R. Cellini and Lesley J. Turner, who are guests on the podcast, are the authors of "Where Do Students Go when For-Profit Colleges Lose Federal Aid?," along with Rajeev Darolia: http://papers.nber.org/conf_papers/f104339/f104339.pdf

A little over a decade ago, a new government in the United Kingdom issued a report recommending that early reading instruction include phonics. What has been the impact of that change in approach to teaching reading? Martina Viarengo, the author of a study on this topic, joins Paul Peterson to discuss her research. The study, "'Teaching to Teach' Literacy," was co-written with Stephen J. Machin and Sandra McNally. It is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2786039

After a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, thousands of Haitians moved to the U.S. and enrolled their children in school here. David Figlio, Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research on the impact these Haitian refugee students had on the non-refugee students who were already attending those schools. Read the full article, "Influx of Haitian Refugees in Florida Didn’t Hurt Student Outcomes," co-written with Umut Ozek, here: http://educationnext.org/influx-haitian-refugees-florida-didnt-hurt-student-outcomes/

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss efforts to bring education savings accounts and full-day kindergarten to his state.

Instead of just looking at the effect teachers have on the test scores of their students, researchers have expanded their focus to include the impact of teachers on student attendance and the long run outcomes of their students. Seth Gershenson joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the latest findings on the impact teachers have on their students.

In Colombia, a voucher program has awarded over 125,000 poor children scholarships to help them attend private high schools. Eric Bettinger of Stanford University talks with Paul Peterson about the program, which has been found to have positive long-term impacts on participating students, including better labor market outcomes.

Results from a survey released last week showed that support for charter schools has come back up after a sharp drop last year. In this week's episdode, Nina Rees of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss what might have caused support for charters to dip and then rise and to consider the results of some recent studies on charter schools.

School choice researchers are finding that vouchers may impact student test scores and later attainment outcomes in different ways. In this episode, Patrick Wolf joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss why researchers should consider other outcomes besides test scores when evaluating school choice programs. Wolf is the co-author of a new report, "Do Impacts on Test Scores Even Matter? Lessons from Long-Run Outcomes in School Choice Research." The report was co-authored by Michael Q. McShane and Collin Hitt and was recently published by AEI. http://www.aei.org/publication/do-impacts-on-test-scores-even-matter-lessons-from-long-run-outcomes-in-school-choice-research/

In this episode, David L. Leal, professor at the University of Texas, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss how Latinos vote, what Latinos think of their kids’ schools, and whether the views of Latinos differ significantly from the views of other Americans.

Three new studies released by the Urban Institute look at how private school choice has affected nearly 13,000 students in three different states. Matt Chingos of the Urban Institute joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss what we're learning about how school choice participants do when it comes to college enrollment and graduation. Chingos wrote about these studies in "What Have We Learned From Three Studies of Private School Choice?" http://educationnext.org/learned-three-studies-private-school-choice/ Read his latest report, The Effect of the DC School Voucher Program on College Enrollment, here: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/effect-dc-school-voucher-program-college-enrollment

Paul DiPerna, the vice president of research and innovation for EdChoice, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his report, "The ABC's of School Choice," which can be ordered here: https://www.edchoice.org/what-we-do/research/get-copy-2018-abcs-school-choice/

The number of states with school choice programs and the number of students who are able to take advantage of these programs have roughly doubled since 2010, and we now have a U.S. Secretary of Education who supports school choice. What will happen on the school choice front in 2018? In this episode, Paul E. Peterson talks with John Schilling of the American Federation for Children, which promotes school choice by promoting legislation and trying to help elect candidates who support choice.

Do teens need a sense of purpose? William Damon of the Stanford Center on Adolescence says that developing a sense of purpose is one of the most important but overlooked aspects of adolescent development. He talks with Paul Peterson about his his work on how we develop a sense of purpose and what schools can do to help.

Boston Collegiate Charter School is the most diverse school in Boston. Paul E. Peterson talks with Richard Whitmire, whose article, "Why Boston’s Most Racially Diverse School Could Also Be the Country’s Most Interesting School Integration Story," looks at what makes the school so special and how the school has managed to attract such a diverse population. Read his full feature in The 74 here: https://www.the74million.org/article/whitmire-why-bostons-most-racially-diverse-school-could-also-be-the-countrys-most-interesting-school-integration-story/

Ashley Jochim, a senior research analyst at the Center on Reinventing Public Conflict between school districts and charter schools is not inevitable, argues Ashley Jochim. Paul Peterson talks with Jochim about the factors that allow some school districts to collaborate with charter schools. This is the topic of her new paper, “Collision Course: Embracing Politics to Succeed in District-Charter Collaboration." Jochim, a senior research analyst at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, co-authored the paper with Sarah Yatsko and Alice Opalka. https://www.crpe.org/publications/collision-course-embracing-politics-succeed-district-charter-collaboration

State interventions to improve struggling local school districts have a mixed record, but in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a state takeover seems to be turning things around. Paul Peterson talks with Beth Schueler about her new report, “School District Turnaround: Learning from Leadership in Lawrence, Massachusetts." https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/rappaport/research-and-publications/policy-briefs/school-district-turnaround%3A-learning-from-leadership-in-Lawrence%2C-Massachusetts

Morris Fiorina, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of “Unstable Majorities: Polarization, Party Sorting, and Political Stalemate,” joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new book, which aims to correct the widespread assumption that Americans today are more polarized than ever.

Gerard Robinson joins Paul Peterson to reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and the work of improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged children. Robinson, who has served as secretary of education in Virginia and Florida, is now executive director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, which supports research-based solutions to the challenges faced by fragile communities throughout the United States.

Some recent studies of the impact of school choice have found only a limited impact on academic achievement but larger positive effects on long-term outcomes like attainment and earnings. What could account for this? In this episode of the podcast, Paul talks with Marty West about his new working paper on the impact of school choice on non-cognitive skills.

Albert Cheng of the Harvard Kennedy School sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research that looks into whether students with a career and technical education diploma do better than students with a traditional diploma.

The state of New Jersey is returning to the city of Newark the power to run its school system. Chris Cerf, who served as state superintendent of New Jersey and then district superintendent of Newark, joins Paul Peterson to talk about the changes that have taken place in the Newark school district and what lies ahead.

Daniel Hamlin of Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his paper, "Are Charter Schools Safer in Deindustrialized Cities With High Rates of Crime? Testing Hypotheses in Detroit," which investigates whether there's any difference in student perception of safety between district and charter schools in Detroit. Read his full paper here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831217705060

Michael Podgursky, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the role of public sector unions in negotiating and sometimes even selling health care and other benefits to its members.

Josh Goodman of the Harvard Kennedy School sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new master's degree in computer science offered by Georgia Tech. The computer science department, one of the top 10 programs in the country, has set up a flexible, online program for working adults that charges only 1/6 of what an in-person master's degree costs. Read the full paper, co-written with Julia Melkers, and Amanda Pallais, here: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=11348&type=WPN

Martin Lueken of EdChoice and Benjamin Scafidi of Kennesaw State University sit down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss their reasearch on the effect of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program on school district resources.

Demand for seats in charter schools remains high among families but public enthusiasm for continued growth of the charter sector seems to be slipping. Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss where the opposition to charter schools is coming from.