The Education Exchange

When a school district's discipline policy has a disparate impact on African American students, is that racial discrimination? How about when an elite university uses affirmative action to increase the diversity of its student body? Adam White, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the legal issues involved.

Under the leadership of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Miami-Dade County Public Schools has won numerous awards for student performance. Carvalho sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his strategy of empowering school leaders and reforming teacher compensation.

A new study based on data from North Carolina finds that grade inflation increased over the last decade and that grade inflation was more severe in schools attended by affluent students than in those attended by lower-income pupils. Seth Gershenson, the author of “Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005-2016),” joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the study, which can be read here: https://edexcellence.net/publications/grade-inflation-in-high-schools

The world of education policy has been filled with some nasty battles in the recent years. Hanna Skandera, who formerly served as education secretary in New Mexico, hopes to change that by promoting civil discourse around education. Skandera is the new editor new editor-in-chief of The Line, a publication for state and district superintendents. She joins Paul Peterson on this week's episode.

Education Next and PDK both released the results of major surveys of public opinion about education in recent weeks. Joshua Starr, the president of PDK, joins Paul E Peterson to discuss the results of the two surveys.

Michael Henderson, assistant professor at Louisiana State University and survey director for the EdNext poll, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the nuts and bolts of EdNext's annual survey of public opinion. https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-schools-universal-vouchers-2018-ednext-poll/

School is back in session after one of the hottest summers in recorded history, and many students are now in classrooms without air conditioning. A new study looks at how hotter school days impact. student learning. Josh Goodman of the Kennedy School at Harvard sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his recent working paper, “eat and Learning,” co-written with Michael Hurwitz, Jisung Park and Jonathan Smith. http://www.nber.org/papers/w24639

Last year's EdNext poll revealed a sharp drop in support for charter schools. On today's podcast, Paul E. Peterson and Marty West look at the biggest changes in public opinion revealed by the 2018 EdNext poll, some of which relate to charter schools and vouchers. Read more about the 2018 EdNext Poll here: https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-schools-universal-vouchers-2018-ednext-poll/

The Boston Public Schools will be led by an interim superintendent this fall, since former superintendent Tommy Chang was asked by the mayor of Boston to step down last June. Steve Poftak talks with Paul E. Peterson about some of the challenges that have faced, and will continue to face, the school district, including debates over school start times, diversity levels at exam schools, whether the student assignment system is causing segregation, transportation costs, and what happens next for BPS. Poftak is Executive Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

A new study investigates whether teaching practices differ in effectiveness depending on the students in the class. It finds that the impact of good classroom management and student-centered instruction vary depending on whether the students in the classroom are of high ability or of mixed ability. Jane Cooley Fruehwirth, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss the conference paper,”Teacher Effectiveness and Classroom Composition,” which she co-authored with Esteban Aucejo, Patrick Coate, Sean Kelly and Zachary Mozenter: http://papers.nber.org/conf_papers/f110143/f110143.pdf