The Education Exchange

Jim Blew, assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the U.S. Department of Education, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss some of the work of the department, including a new federal tax credit initiative and proposed changes to Title IX.

For over 50 years, a limited number of students of color living in Boston have been able to enroll in schools in the suburbs as part of the METCO program, run by the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity. Charles Glenn sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss who benefits from the program and whether it distracts from larger issues related to urban schools.

A new study finds that students who receive vouchers to attend private schools in Louisiana are outperformed by students in a control group. Some argue that regulations in Louisiana that discourage many private school leaders from participating in school choice programs are to blame for the poor results. Paul Peterson talks with Patrick Wolf about two recent studies, one looking at the Louisiana Scholarship Program and one looking at what school leaders say about their willingness to participate in school choice programs when those programs have regulatory strings attached. "Heterogeneous Impacts Across Schools in the First Four Years of the Louisiana Scholarship Program," by Matthew Lee, Jonathan Mills, and Patrick Wolf is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3376234 "The Effects of Regulations on Private School Choice Program Participation: Experimental Evidence from California and New York," by Corey DeAngelis, Lindsey Burke, and Patrick Wolf is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3349453

Jeff Bergner, author of The Vanishing Congress, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how Congress has stopped doing its job and how that could change. The book is available at https://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Congress-Reflections-Politics-Washington/dp/0989040232

What is social and emotional learning, how does it relate to academic learning, and how much should schools focus on it? Chester E. Finn, Jr., a distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss “What Social and Emotional Learning Needs to Succeed and Survive,” a new paper co-written with Rick Hess. The paper is available at https://www.educationnext.org/what-social-emotional-learning-needs-succeed-survive

Some studies have found that schools can get substantial gains in achievement by changing textbooks. But a new analysis by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard finds little evidence of differences in achievement gains for schools using different math textbooks. Paul E. Peterson talks with Thomas Kane, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, about the new study, “Learning by the Book: Comparing math achievement growth by textbook in six common core states.” https://cepr.harvard.edu/files/cepr/files/cepr-curriculum-report_learning-by-the-book.pdf

In a new book, Love Your Enemies, Arthur Brooks describes the rise of a “culture of contempt”—a habit of seeing people who disagree with us not as merely incorrect or misguided, but as worthless--and considers what we can do to bridge divides and mend relationships. Today he talks with Paul E. Peterson about how contempt corrodes our own happiness, about remembering the difference between people we disagree with and the ideas they embrace, and about the role universities can play in repairing our culture.

A decline in birth rates in the U.S. could mean that the school-aged population will spiral downward in the next decade and beyond. Would this be a disaster for schools? Or could there be a silver lining? Mike Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new article, "The Baby Bust Goes to School." https://www.educationnext.org/baby-bust-goes-to-school-falling-birthrates-crisis-opportunity/

What tradeoffs are involved when we choose to spend huge sums of money to slow global warming? Are there more cost-effective ways to do more good in the world? Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research on the impact on global temperatures of goals set in the Paris climate accord and how the funds being used to meet those goals could be better spent. You can read about his research at https://www.lomborg.com/press-release-research-reveals-negligible-impact-of-paris-climate-promises

Researchers studying school choice programs often look at the impact of using a voucher on student test scores or high school graduation. A new study of the longer-term impacts of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program finds that students who used vouchers to attend private school were less likely to be involved with criminal activity and paternity disputes. This week, Paul Peterson speaks with Corey DeAngelis, an education policy analyst at the Cato Institute,and co-author, with Patrick J. Wolf, of the new study, which is described in "Private School Choice Helps Students Avoid Prison and Unplanned Pregnancies." https://www.educationnext.org/private-school-choice-helps-students-avoid-prison-unplanned-pregnancies/