Beyond test scores: Debating how to measure school quality | Episode 988 of The Education Gadfly Show

This week, Fordham’s president emeritus Checker Finn and Laura Hamilton of the Center for Assessment join us for a polite debate on whether school quality should be judged by more than test scores.

On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner unpacks a massive study of ten million students that tracks how gender gaps in math and reading develop from kindergarten through fifth grade—and what that means for the narrative about boys and school.

Recommended content

• The mixed blessing of new school measures —Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham
• Our assessment systems should reflect the purposes of public education —Laura Hamilton, Center for Assessment
• #971: A “Quality Check” on school accountability, with Tom Toch and Lynn Olson —The Education Gadfly Show
• Do we know how to measure school quality? —Van Schoales, Education Week
• Gender Gaps in the Early Grades: Questioning the Narrative that Schools are Poorly Suited to Young Boys — Megan Kuhfeld and Margaret Burchinal, Annenberg Institute at Brown University (2025)
• Redshirt the boys—Richard V. Reeves for The Atlantic

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for our show? Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org