The Report Card with Nat Malkus
AEI Podcasts
The Report Card with Nat Malkus is the education podcast of the American Enterprise Institute. It is a hub for discussing innovative work to improve education – from early childhood to higher education – and the lives of America’s children. It evaluates research, policy, and practice efforts to improve the lives of families, schools and students. The Report Card seeks to engage with everyone who is interested in education in an accessible way. It brings guests that are doing compelling work across a spectrum from high level policy changes to innovations at the classroom level, work that will start conversations about improving education and the lives of children more broadly. Each episode lets listeners – policymakers, teachers, and parents –learn relevant information that they can use in their efforts to improve education.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 15, 2021 • 40min
What should Covid mitigation in K-12 schools look like this fall?
Back-to-school 2020 didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. Many districts that were slated to offer in-person learning abruptly changed to their reopening plans only weeks before the start of the year, and many of those that did reopen for in-person learning were forced to close for weeks at a time as Covid rates increased. With back-to-school 2021 just around the corner, what should parents and students expect schooling to look like this fall? Dr. Joseph Allen, an associate professor of exposure assessment science at Harvard University, discusses the CDC's recently updated reopening guidance for schools, the importance of ventilation as a Covid mitigation strategy, and solutions for America's "sick" school buildings on this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus.
Jul 1, 2021 • 39min
Should states ban Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools?
How did Critical Race Theory (CRT)—once relegated to graduate school seminars and academic journals—become one of the most hotly debated K-12 issues, seemingly overnight? What exactly is CRT? Should states be banning it from K-12 classrooms? AEI's Robert Pondiscio and Ian Rowe join Nat Malkus to discuss these questions and more on the latest episode of The Report Card.
Jun 17, 2021 • 1h 22min
The right direction on Title IX (rebroadcast)
As the Biden administration begins the process of rewriting Title IX regulations and undoing many of the changes to made under Secretary Betsy DeVos, host Nat Malkus dusts off a recording of a debate among leading law experts on the Trump-era changes to Title IX, which took place in front of a live audience at AEI in the summer of 2019.
Jun 3, 2021 • 42min
Has the Common Core failed?
In just three years, 45 states adopted the Common Core State Standards. By that metric alone, one might argue that the Common Core was a huge success. But on this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus, Tom Loveless and Morgan Polikoff argue that the Common Core has failed to move the needle on student learning and discuss the potential of standards-based reform going forward. Read Tom and Morgan's recently released books on the Common Core and content standards:Between the State and the Schoolhouse: Understanding the Failure of Common Core (Loveless, Harvard Education Press, 2021)Beyond Standards: The Fragmentation of Education Governance and the Promise of Curriculum Reform (Polikoff, Harvard Education Press, 2021)
May 20, 2021 • 31min
How to Make College Worth the Expense
College is expensive. How can students and parents make sure that it pays off? On this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus, Beth Akers, resident scholar in education policy at AEI, discusses her new book, Making College Pay: An Economist Explains How to Make a Smart Bet on Higher Education (Penguin Random House, 2021). You can purchase Making College Pay at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore.
May 6, 2021 • 44min
Racial Achievement Gaps and Covid
Why have fewer Black and Hispanic students returned to their classrooms for full-time in-person learning relative to white students? And what effect will this have on the nation’s stubborn racial achievement gaps? Vlad Kogan, associate professor of political science at Ohio State, and Chris Stewart, CEO of brightbeam, weigh in on this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus. Read Vlad Kogan's AEI report, "What’s behind racial differences in attitudes toward school reopening (and what to do about them)."
Apr 22, 2021 • 47min
Hybrid Homeschooling: The Future of Education?
While hybrid education may appear to be an invention of necessity spurred by the pandemic, splitting instruction between traditional brick-and-mortar schooling and homeschooling has been practiced—albeit on a limited scale—for quite some time. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus talks with Ed Choice's Mike McShane about his recent book on hybrid homeschooling, "Hybrid Homeschooling: A Guide to the Future of Education.” Nat and Mike are also joined by Kathaleena Edward Monds (Center for Educational Opportunity), Allison L. Morgan (Classical Christian Conservatory of Alexandria), and Antonio Parés (Walnut Hill Workshop).
Apr 8, 2021 • 31min
Covid Enrollment Drops and the Class of 2034
Enrollment in preschool and kindergarten programs has dropped significantly over the past year. What's behind Covid enrollment drops and how might they affect students, schools, and systems in the coming years? UVA post-doc Anna Shapiro and Virginia's Chief School Readiness Officer Jenna Conway discuss on this episode of The Report Card with Nat Malkus. To learn more about Covid enrollment drops, read Daphna Bassok and Anna Shapiro's recent Brookings Institute analysis, "Understanding COVID-19-era enrollment drops among early-grade public school students."
Mar 25, 2021 • 37min
Can We Tutor Our Way Out of Covid Learning Loss?
Students are months behind where they should be in their learning. Could a nation-wide tutoring program catch them up to speed? Moreover, what would it take to equalize access to high-quality tutoring over the long term? Matt Kraft of Brown University and Josh Goodman of Boston University discuss on this episode of "The Report Card with Nat Malkus."Read the working papers discussed on this episode:"A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools" by Matt Kraft and Grace Falken. "Kumon In: The Recent, Rapid Rise of Private Tutoring Centers" by Edward Kim, Josh Goodman, and Martin West.
Mar 11, 2021 • 34min
Tracking America's Return to In-Person Learning
It's been 12 months since the coronavirus pandemic sent the nation's students home. How many have returned to classrooms? That's a straightforward question, but one that's proven exceptionally difficult to answer. On this episode of "The Report Card," Nat Malkus discusses his newly launched Return to Learn Tracker (R2L), which monitors the instructional status of over 8,500 school districts on a weekly basis. Chris Marsicano, an assistant professor at Davidson College and the founding director of the College Crisis Initiative (C2i), also joins to share his work tracking colleges and universities' responses to Covid.
