On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Delia Pompa, Senior Fellow for Education Policy at MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, joins Mike and David to discuss how the potential threat of immigration agents at school doors is affecting students—and what can be done to keep them coming to class. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber examines a study on the impact of a Hawaii Public Schools policy that raised special education teacher salaries by $10,000.

Recommended content:

• Alexander Russo, “Threat Assesment: Ice raids in schools,” The Grade (February 5, 2025).
• Ileana Najarro, “How Schools Can Navigate Trump’s Immigration Policies,” Education Week (January 23, 2025).
• Liz Willen, “In just one week, Trump created a new culture of anxiety in education,” The Hechinger Report (January 27, 2025).
• Roddy Theobald, Zeyu Xu, Allison Gilmour, Lisa Lachlan-Hache, Elizabeth Bettini and Nathan Jones, The Impact of a $10,000 Bonus on Special Education Teacher Shortages in Hawai‘i, Sage Journals (2025)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Brian Kisida, Associate Professor at the Truman School of Government & Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, joins Mike and David to discuss his recent Education Next article, which reports on what high school students are hearing from their teachers about racism in America. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber shares a study about how test-optional policies at elite universities hurt high-achieving, disadvantaged students.

Recommended content:

• Brian Kisida, Gary Ritter, Jennifer Gontram, J. Cameron Anglum, Heidi H. Erickson, Darnell Leatherwood, and Matthew H. Lee., “Bridging the Divide over Critical Race Theory in America’s Classrooms,” Education Next (November 1, 2024).
• Frederick Hess, “It’s a Crisis! It’s Nonsense! How Political Are K–12 Classrooms?,” Education Next (Winter 2025).
• Bruce Sacerdote, Douglas O. Staiger & Michele Tine, How Test Optional Policies in College Admissions Disproportionately Harm High Achieving Applicants from Disadvantaged Backgrounds, NBER (2025)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tim Daly, CEO of EdNavigator, joins Mike and David to discuss whether America should refocus its efforts on helping our lowest-performing students and explore the best ways to address this challenge. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber shares a study on how students prepare for tests and the effectiveness of their strategies.

Recommended content:

• Tim Daly, “We’re living through an education depression,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (November 1, 2024).
• Michael J. Petrilli, “Get ready for more bad news from NAEP 2024” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (January 16, 2025)
• Robert Pondiscio, “After a “lost decade,” let’s restore high expectations for students,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (December 12, 2024).
• Fatema Sultana, Richard C. Watkins, Tarek Al Baghal and John Carl Hughes, An Evaluation of Secondary School Students’ Use and Understanding of Learning Strategies to Study and Revise for Science Examinations, Education Sciences (2025)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.