Hello, coalition members! Many of you noticed the critical role that superintendents across America play in their students' lives, as demonstrated in Episode 2: Implications for Schools and Districts in the Post-Civil Rights Era by the wonderful Wilmer Chavarria of Winooski School District in Winooski, Vermont. We are glad to spotlight a podcast that dives into the many situations and roles that superintendents navigate - and the leadership skills they gain - An Imperfect Leader: The Superintendents and Leadership Podcast by Peter Stiepleman and Jamie Almanzán. In this series, leaders look back at decisions they made and ask themselves…

• What happened?
• What got overlooked?
• What did you learn about relationships or what new relationships were formed?
• What frustrated you?
• What could you have done differently?
• And in the end, what was something good that came out of the experience – because it is through our mistakes where our greatest learning takes place.

Please check out An Imperfect Leader: The Superintendents and Leadership Podcast by visiting https://imperfectleader.com/podcasts or looking it up wherever you watch or listen to podcasts. And we hope you have been enjoying and discussing Season 1 of The Politics of Possibility - be sure to give us a 5 star review and a warm rating, and check out The Debrief, our companion publication and more at https://gordon.tc.columbia.edu/all-events/education-equity-series.

The views expressed in this episode are solely those of the speaker to whom they are attributed. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the faculty, administration, staff or Trustees either of Teachers College or of Columbia University.

Are we witnessing the total abandonment of federal leadership in American public education? In this powerful inaugural episode of The Politics of Possibility, co-hosts Dr. Ezekiel Dixon-Román and Dr. Sonya Douglass sit down with two heavyweights in educational policy and research: Dr. Peggy G. Carr (former Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics) and Dr. Pedro A. Noguera (Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education). Together, they unpack a deeply troubling inflection point in U.S. education. Despite the U.S. spending roughly 40% more per student than its peer OECD countries, national (NAEP) and international assessment data show widening achievement gaps and stagnant adult literacy. The panel delivers a candid critique of the current political landscape, discussing the sudden hollowing out of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the erasure of decades of critical data infrastructure, and what the retreat of federal civil rights oversight means for our most vulnerable students. Shifting from critique to strategy, they discuss how an AI-powered data ecosystem, stronger partnerships with R1 universities and HBCUs, and a cultural shift toward actionable, practitioner-focused research can help us build an educational landscape centered on true equity and systemic resilience.

Key Takeaways:

• The Systemic Disconnect: The U.S. spends significantly more on public education than its global peers, yet persistent inequities and pandemic setbacks continue to widen the gap between high- and low-performing students.
• The Loss of "Statistical Memory: Dr. Peggy Carr details the historic role of the NCES (dating back to Reconstruction in 1867) and warns that dismantling federal data collections leaves the nation blind to ongoing inequities and vulnerable to misinformation.
• Civil Rights & Federal Abandonment: Dr. Pedro Noguera provides historical context on the federal government’s essential role as a defender of civil rights (from Little Rock to Title I) and critiques the current push to delegate total educational accountability to the states.
• Reimagining the Federal Role:Why reporting data isn't enough. The panel argues for a "public health model" where data triggers immediate, targeted federal and state intervention for struggling schools, drawing parallels to high-performing systems like Ontario, Canada.
• Grassroots Bright Spots: How districts like Compton, California, and states like Alabama and Louisiana are showing remarkable post-pandemic resilience without waiting for federal direction.

Featured Guest Experts:

• Dr. Peggy G. Carr: Commissioner of the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) from 2021 to 2025, with over 35 years of experience ensuring data accuracy and trust in American education.
• Dr. Pedro A. Noguera: Dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California (USC), sociologist, and leading authority on school reform and educational equity.

About Your Hosts:

• Dr. Ezekiel Dixon-Román: Professor of Critical Race, Media and Educational Studies, and Director of the Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Advanced Study at Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Dr. Sonya Douglass: Professor and Chair of the Department of Organization and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, and founding director of the Black Education Research Center (BERC).

Resources & Links Mentioned in This Episode:

RSVP for upcoming episodes and access full community resources at The Politics of Possibility Series Page: https://gordon.tc.columbia.edu/all-events/education-equity-series

Learn More:

Read up on the Founding Mandate of the NCES at https://nces.ed.gov and the foundations of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Title III) at https://www.congress.gov.

If you enjoyed this conversation, please rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help us build this community and drive meaningful change in educational equity.

The views expressed in this episode are solely those of the speaker to whom they are attributed. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the faculty, administration, staff or Trustees either of Teachers College or of Columbia University.