The Education Exchange

The chief academic officer of elementary humanities at Amplify, Susan Lambert, and a research director at Amplify, Paul Gazzerro, join Paul E. Peterson to discuss Amplify's research brief, which looks at students in grades K-2, and how they are at greater risk for not learning to read due to the pandemic school shutdowns.

A longtime reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Maureen Downey, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the efforts of Atlanta neighborhood Buckhead to break away and form its own city, how it failed and what it could have meant for Atlanta Public Schools and its students.

Joanne Jacobs, an education reporter and former San Jose Mercury News editorial writer and columnist, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the recent recall of three members of the San Francisco Unified School Board. Jacobs wrote about the effort to recall the board members for Education Next, in "Behind a School Board Recall in San Francisco, a Diverse Coalition." https://www.educationnext.org/behind-school-board-recall-san-francisco-diverse-coalition/

An assistant professor at Tulane University, Ilana Horwitz, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Horwitz's new book, God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion's Surprising Impact on Academic Success.

The founder of Common Good and author of "Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left," Philip K. Howard, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Howard's latest report, "Accountability on Trial," which contends that accountability is being undercut by public union contracts.

The Director of Education Policy at the Goldwater Institute, Matt Beienburg, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how Arizona's allocations of money to education savings accounts could result in a pullback of federal coronavirus relief funds in the state.

A resident fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, Mary Grabar, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Grabar's new book, "Debunking The 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America."

A professor of political science at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Joshua Dunn, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Carson v. Makin case, and what could be in store for religious education and state Blaine amendments. Read Dunn's blog post, "Supreme Court Oral Argument in Carson v. Makin Sends Hopeful Signal for Religious School Aid." https://www.educationnext.org/carson-v-makin-supreme-court/

An an economics professor at Brown University, Emily Oster, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Oster's latest research, which finds that pass rates on standardized tests declined in district schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that those rates were lower in schools with less in-person instruction. Oster's paper, "Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from US States," co-written with Clare Halloran, Rebecca Jack and James C. Okun, is available now. https://www.nber.org/papers/w29497

The Will Skillman Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation, Jonathan Butcher, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the growing controversy over critical race theory and its place in the classroom. Butcher's report, "Critical Race Theory, the New Intolerance, and Its Grip on America," co-written with Mike Gonzalez, is available now. https://www.heritage.org/civil-rights/report/critical-race-theory-the-new-intolerance-and-its-grip-america