Ednext Podcast

An associate professor of higher education at Boston College, Angela Boatman, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss new research that investigates the effectiveness of two Tennessee policies that offered alternatives to traditional remediation requirements for college math. Her article, "Is College Remediation a Barrier or Boost?," co-written with Thomas J. Kane, Whitney Kozakowski, Christopher Bennett, Rachel Hitch, and Dana Weisenfeld, is available now. https://www.educationnext.org/college-remediation-barrier-boost-evidence-from-tennessee/

The founder of the Charles Sposato Graduate School of Education, Mike Goldstein (pictured), sits down with Education Next editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss how "fixed" income share agreements have made the school an attractive destination, reducing risk for students and increasing transparency of outcomes. Goldstein and Scott McCue wrote the recent Education Next blog post, "How Income Share Agreements Helped our Education School Grow." https://www.educationnext.org/how-income-share-agreements-helped-education-school-grow

An associate professor at the School of Public Affairs at American University, Seth Gershenson, joins Education Next editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss Gershenson's new article, "End the Easy A," which explores how grade inflation affect student success. The full article is available here: https://www.educationnext.org/end-easy-a-tougher-grading-standards-set-students-up-success/

A group from Excel Academy in Boston joined Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss how the charter network works to accommodate students with special needs, including English language learners and those with disabilities, into their program. Included in the discussion are chief executive officer Owen Stearns, network director of student supports Sarah Kantrowitz, and ELL specialist Lucero Castillo. Excel Academy was featured in the article "Inclusion in Action" by E. B. Solomont. https://www.educationnext.org/inclusion-action-expectations-for-all-excel-academy-boston/

Robin J. Lake, the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at University of Washington Bothell, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss how school choice has succeeded in Indianapolis. Read Lake's full article, "The Hoosier Way: Good choices for all in Indianapolis." https://www.educationnext.org/hoosier-way-good-choices-for-all-indianapolis/

Joshua Dunn, a professor of political science at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the Supreme Court case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which challenges Montana’s ban on tax-credit scholarships to religious schools. Dunn broke down the oral arguments further in "Burying Blaine?," available here: https://www.educationnext.org/espinoza-v-montana-oral-arguments-blaine-supreme-court/

Michael J. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and an executive editor at Education Next, joins Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the Common Core State Standards Initiative and why there is still time to see positive results from the shift to national standards. Read his full essay, as well as two alternate stances, in our forum, “A Decade On, Has Common Core Failed?” https://www.educationnext.org/stay-course-on-national-standards-forum-decade-on-has-common-core-failed/ https://www.educationnext.org/decade-on-has-common-core-failed-impact-national-standards-forum-polikoff-petrilli-loveless/

Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West and Managing Editor Ira Stoll sit down to review the Top 20 articles and Top 10 blog posts of 2019. https://www.educationnext.org/top-20-education-next-articles-2019/ https://www.educationnext.org/top-10-education-next-blog-entries-2019/

Morgan Polikoff, an Associate Professor at the Rossier School of Education at USC, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss a new report which studies the quality of online curriculum materials available to teachers. Polikoff recently wrote a blog post "The Supplemental Curriculum Bazaar" for Education Next, and his full report, co-authored with Jennifer Dean, is available. https://www.educationnext.org/supplemental-curriculum-bazaar-is-whats-online-any-good/ https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/supplemental-curriculum-bazaar

Michael B. Horn, the co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, sits down with EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss how to juggle the different paths through college, from the options in traditional higher education to certificate first programs. Horn and co-author Clark G. Gilbert explored this further in an article for Education Next, "A Certificate, Then a Degree." https://www.educationnext.org/certificate-then-degree-programs-help-tackle-college-completion-crisis/

Robert Maranto, the 21st Century Chair in Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, joins EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss why school reformers and administrators should try to work with teachers unions in an effort to improve schools. Read "Strange Bedfellows? Why School Reformers Should Rethink Teachers Unions" here: https://www.educationnext.org/strange-bedfellows-school-reformers-should-rethink-teachers-unions/

Greg Toppo, an education journalist and author of The Game Believes in You, joins EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the continuing calls for making the SAT untimed for everyone. Toppo explored this topic in a recent article for Education Next, "Support Builds For Making the SAT Untimed For Everyone: A possible solution to the "Gaming the System" problem." https://www.educationnext.org/support-builds-making-sat-untimed-for-everyone-possible-solution-gaming-the-system/

Paul Tough, author of "The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us," sits down with EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the book, and how the higher education admissions process tends to work to the benefit of affluent students at the expense of those from lower-income backgrounds. Matthew Chingos recently reviewed the book for Education Next in "Privilege Worth Perpetuating." https://www.educationnext.org/privilege-worth-perpetuating-book-review-the-years-that-matter-most-tough/

Clare Sealy, the head of curriculum and standards for the States of Guernsey and a primary school teacher of 30 years, joins EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the differences between episodic memory and semantic memory, and the keys to each one in helping children remember their lessons in school. Read "The Best Way to Help Children Remember Things? Not 'Memorable Experiences'," which is excerpted from "The researchEd Guide to Educational Myths." https://www.educationnext.org/best-way-to-help-children-remember-things-not-memorable-experiences-excerpt/

Ron Matus, director of policy and public affairs at Step Up For Students and a former state education reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, joins EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the turnaround of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, including the tenure of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the prevalence of choice options in the district. Matus profiled the district for EdNext in "Miami's Choice Tsunami: Carvalho, competition, and transformation in Miami-Dade." https://www.educationnext.org/miami-choice-tsunami-carvalho-competition-transformation-miami-dade/

Elisa Villanueva Beard, the CEO of Teach For America, joins EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the organization and a new study by Katharine M. Conn, Virginia S. Lovison and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, which details how the organization impacts the beliefs of its teachers. Read "How Teach for America Affects Beliefs about Education: Connecting classroom experience to opinions on education reform," here: https://www.educationnext.org/how-teach-for-america-affects-beliefs-education-classroom-experience-opinions/

David Loewenberg joins EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss how online credit recovery has changed the landscape of high school graduations, and what's being done to make sure that credit recovery programs can maintain their legitimacy. Read the full article, "A Digital Path to a Diploma," here: https://www.educationnext.org/digital-path-to-diploma-online-credit-recovery-classes/

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, joins EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss his new book, "How the Other Half Learns," and his observations of a Success Academy school at work in the Bronx. Read an excerpt from the book, "Come to Jesus: Effort parties, data walls, reading logs, and “warm/strict” — a look inside Success Academy," here: https://www.educationnext.org/come-to-jesus-look-inside-success-academy-excerpt-how-the-other-half-learns/

Kevin Stange, associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, joins Marty West to discuss his article, "Depth Over Breadth: The value of vocational education in U.S. high schools," and how vocational education impacts students and their college and career aspirations. Read the full article, co-written with Daniel Kreisman, here: https://www.educationnext.org/depth-over-breadth-value-vocational-education-u-s-high-schools/

Patrick J. Wolf, professor at the University of Arkansas, joins EdNext Editor-in-Chief Marty West to discuss the effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program, the statewide school-voucher initiative, including its impact on student test scores and which schools participated in the program. Read "What Happened in the Bayou? Examining the Effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program," here: https://www.educationnext.org/what-happened-bayou-examing-effects-louisiana-scholarship-program/