The Education Exchange

State interventions to improve struggling local school districts have a mixed record, but in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a state takeover seems to be turning things around. Paul Peterson talks with Beth Schueler about her new report, “School District Turnaround: Learning from Leadership in Lawrence, Massachusetts." https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/rappaport/research-and-publications/policy-briefs/school-district-turnaround%3A-learning-from-leadership-in-Lawrence%2C-Massachusetts

Morris Fiorina, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of “Unstable Majorities: Polarization, Party Sorting, and Political Stalemate,” joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new book, which aims to correct the widespread assumption that Americans today are more polarized than ever.

Gerard Robinson joins Paul Peterson to reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and the work of improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged children. Robinson, who has served as secretary of education in Virginia and Florida, is now executive director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, which supports research-based solutions to the challenges faced by fragile communities throughout the United States.

Some recent studies of the impact of school choice have found only a limited impact on academic achievement but larger positive effects on long-term outcomes like attainment and earnings. What could account for this? In this episode of the podcast, Paul talks with Marty West about his new working paper on the impact of school choice on non-cognitive skills.

Albert Cheng of the Harvard Kennedy School sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his research that looks into whether students with a career and technical education diploma do better than students with a traditional diploma.

The state of New Jersey is returning to the city of Newark the power to run its school system. Chris Cerf, who served as state superintendent of New Jersey and then district superintendent of Newark, joins Paul Peterson to talk about the changes that have taken place in the Newark school district and what lies ahead.

Daniel Hamlin of Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his paper, "Are Charter Schools Safer in Deindustrialized Cities With High Rates of Crime? Testing Hypotheses in Detroit," which investigates whether there's any difference in student perception of safety between district and charter schools in Detroit. Read his full paper here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831217705060

Michael Podgursky, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the role of public sector unions in negotiating and sometimes even selling health care and other benefits to its members.

Josh Goodman of the Harvard Kennedy School sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new master's degree in computer science offered by Georgia Tech. The computer science department, one of the top 10 programs in the country, has set up a flexible, online program for working adults that charges only 1/6 of what an in-person master's degree costs. Read the full paper, co-written with Julia Melkers, and Amanda Pallais, here: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=11348&type=WPN

Martin Lueken of EdChoice and Benjamin Scafidi of Kennesaw State University sit down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss their reasearch on the effect of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program on school district resources.