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 evidence-based education policy and supporting more effective decision-making in schools.

Then, on the Research Minute, Meredith Coffey examines new data from Massachusetts that reveal lasting post-pandemic shifts in school enrollment, particularly in the middle grades and in higher-income districts.

Recommended content:

• “AEFP Live Handbook of Education Policy Research” —Association for Education Finance & Policy (AEFP)
• “School Enrollment Shifts Five Years After the Pandemic” —Abigail Francis and Joshua Goodman, EdWorkingPapers (June 2025)
• “Analyzing homeschooling demographics and families’ definitions of student success” —Jeff Murray, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• “Fixing IES” —Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.

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 education reform has successfully scaled.

Then, on the Research Minute, Adam shares a study examining four-day school weeks and their (paltry) impact on teacher recruitment and retention.

Recommended content:

• “Maine Case Opens New Battleground for School Choice: The Right to Discriminate” —Linda Jacobson, The 74
• “What Betsy DeVos should say about vouchers, LGBT rights, and religious liberty” —Mike Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• “John Arnold’s Instructive Retreat from Ed Reform” —Mike Goldstein, Education Next
• “Fewer Children Left Behind: Lessons From the Dramatic Achievement Gains of the 1990s and 2000s” —Mike Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• “The Effects of the Four-Day School Week on Teacher Recruitment and Retention” —Andrew M. Camp, J. Cameron Anglum, Cory Koedel, Se Woong Lee, and Tuan D. Nguyen, CALDER (2025)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.

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 analysis of the federal tax credit scholarship initiative included in the Republican budget bill and its potential to open the door to waste, fraud, and discriminatory practices. Then, on the Research Minute, Adam shares a Belgian study comparing the cognitive and non-cognitive effects of work-based learning within different vocational education arrangements.

Recommended content:

• “The Educational Choice for Children Act opens the door to waste, fraud, and abuse” —Jon Valant, Brookings Institution
• “Federal school choice skeptics are tilting at windmills” —Shaka Mitchell, for Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• “The impact of work-based versus school-based learning on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes in vocational secondary education” —Ilse Tobback, Dieter Verhaest, and Kristof De Witte, Economics of Education Review (2025)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.