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The Report Card with Nat Malkus

The Report Card with Nat Malkus is the education podcast of the American Enterprise Institute. It is a hub for discussing innovative work to improve education – from early childhood to higher education – and the lives of America’s children. It evaluates research, policy, and practice efforts to improve the lives of families, schools and students. The Report Card seeks to engage with everyone who is interested in education in an accessible way. It brings guests that are doing compelling work across a spectrum from high level policy changes to innovations at the classroom level, work that will start conversations about improving education and the lives of children more broadly. Each episode lets listeners – policymakers, teachers, and parents –learn relevant information that they can use in their efforts to improve education.

Hosted by Nat Malkus

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Episode length: 1h 26m

American Adolescence in 2026 (with Daniel A. Cox)

On The Report Card, we talk a lot about schools, but in this episode we do something a little different and talk about one of the populations schools serve: adolescents. How are technologies such as social media, AI, and location tracking affecting teenagers? What are gender relations like among high school students? And how do teens today think about family, religion, politics, and America? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Dan Cox. Daniel A. Cox is the director of the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the author of a recent report, A Digital Divide in American Adolescence: Gender, Class, and the New Teenage Experience, and a new book, Generation Uncoupled: America’s New Gender Divide and the Crisis of Human Connection. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas.

Episode length: 59m

Private Tutoring Centers—A Bigger Deal than You Think (with Joshua Goodman)

Kumon, Sylvan Learning, Mathnasium, and Huntington Learning Center—these private tutoring chains are familiar names, but they have received little attention from education researchers. According to recent research co-authored by Josh Goodman, however, this is an oversight. Not only has the number of private tutoring centers tripled since the late 1990s, but private tutoring centers also might have a surprisingly large effect on district achievement trends. To find out more, on this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Josh Goodman. Nat and Josh discuss what instruction looks like at private tutoring centers, which families send their children to private tutoring centers most often, whether tutoring might explain why East Asian countries do better on international assessments, why the number of private tutoring centers peaked in 2015, whether private tutoring centers might be insulating high-achieving students from downward achievement trends, what American schools can learn from private tutoring centers, whether giving families vouchers for private tutoring centers would have been an effective method for fighting pandemic learning loss, why big tutoring chains often outperform other tutoring centers, and why private tutoring centers might be a more cost-effective way to raise student achievement than most other interventions. Joshua Goodman is a professor of education and economics at Boston University and the co-author of Kumon Up: Private Tutoring Centers and Student Achievement and Kumon In: The Recent, Rapid Rise of Private Tutoring Centers. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas.

September 2026

Episode length: 1h 8m

Implementing AI (with Philip Oreopoulos)

Proponents of education technology have often made big promises about its potential to transform schooling, but so far, ed tech has failed to live up to its promise. Will AI also fail to deliver, or will it finally be the education technology that breaks through? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus and Philip Oreopoulos discuss this question and more. Nat and Philip discuss how to make sure ed tech actually gets used, whether schools need dedicated ed-tech staff, the educational benefits of using AI for language instruction, the logistical challenges of using AI for math instruction, how much upside there is for AI tutoring, how AI can affect the amount of time students spend on material, and what teachers should know about effective ed-tech implementation. Philip Oreopoulos is a professor of economics at the University of Toronto and the author of several recent papers on AI and education technology that examine the importance of implementation. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas. Show Notes: One Click Away: AI Tutoring with Khanmigo in a Two-Year School Experiment Making AI Tutoring Productive: Evidence from a Mastery-Based Math Practice Experiment How In-School Supervised Ed-Tech Support Produces Massive Learning Gains: A Khan Academy Field Experiment in India

Episode length: 1h 26m

Should We Close the US Department of Education?

According to many in the Trump administration, closing the US Department of Education would increase efficiency, reduce bureaucracy, and give states more control over education. But according to opponents of the move, closing the Department would create a bureaucratic web that would be confusing for states to navigate, weaken civil rights enforcement, and do little to raise student achievement. Once abstract, these debates are now anything but. Since his second term began, President Trump has signed an executive order directing the Department to begin shutting itself down, the Department has cut about half of its staff, and the Department has announced several interagency agreements to shift certain federal programs to other agencies. Against this backdrop, on this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus and four experts discuss and debate whether we should close the US Department of Education. Note: This episode is adapted from the most recent installment of the American Enterprise Institute’s Education Policy Debate Series, which was held at AEI on September 2.

August 2026

Episode length: 58m

How Schools Should Approach Mental Health (with Carolyn D. Gorman)

Many schools today offer mental health programming, but according to Carolyn Gorman, a lot of school mental health programming is not only wasteful and ineffective but also directionally misguided: School mental health programming often targets students who don’t need help, pathologizes ordinary emotions, and fails to adequately help students with the most severe mental health problems. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Carolyn Gorman about school-based mental health. Nat and Carolyn discuss whether and why student mental health has gotten worse, what we do and don’t know about school-based mental health programming, what K–12 schools should do when it comes to mental health, whether the mental health landscape in higher education is similar to the mental health landscape in K–12 schools, and how schools can promote student mental health through ordinary routines and orderly school environments. Carolyn D. Gorman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where her research examines how policy changes in the U.S. impact individuals with mental illness. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas. Show Notes: School-Based Mental Health Initiatives Challenges and Considerations for Policymakers The Tradition and Limits of Campus Mental Health Congress Is Treating Schools like Mental-Health Clinics It’s Time For Schools To Get Out Of The Mental Health Business

Episode length: 1h 33m

How AI and Screens Are Changing Reading (with Naomi Baron)

AI is transforming not only the way students work but also the way they read. It summarizes readings for students, changing the way they engage with texts, form judgments, and—perhaps—develop cognitively. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Naomi Baron about these changes and more. Naomi Baron is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University and the author of Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas. Show Notes: Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters Who Wrote This? How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing The End of Reading Is Here Is This What a Post-Literate Era Looks Like? Learn more about AEI's The Report Card.

July 2026

Episode length: 1h 15m

Curriculum, Coherence, and Change (with John White)

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with John White about state education leadership, how the education landscape has changed over the last few decades, innovation in education and where it tends to go wrong, the importance of school choice, the Southern Surge, why coherent systems matter, what we know about curriculum, and more. John White is the CEO of Great Minds. Previously, he was the Louisiana State Superintendent of Education, Superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District, Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, and a Teach For America corps member. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas.

Episode length: 1h 23m

The Latest on Chronic Absenteeism (with Nat Malkus)

During the pandemic, national chronic absenteeism rates surged across all demographics, but what has happened to chronic absenteeism rates since then? Are chronic absenteeism rates back to pre-pandemic levels? Is chronic absenteeism less of a problem for students who weren’t yet in school during the pandemic? And where might chronic absenteeism rates end up when all the dust settles? On this episode of The Report Card, Elli Lucas discusses these questions, and more, with Nat Malkus. Nat Malkus is a senior fellow and the deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies. He is the creator of AEI’s Return to Learn Tracker, which tracked pandemic school closures and masking policies and currently tracks post-pandemic chronic absenteeism, and the host of the podcast The Report Card with Nat Malkus. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas. Show Notes: From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025 Please Excuse My Child: Unexcused Absences in Student Attendance and Achievement Catching Absenteeism Early and Often: Introducing the AEI Absence Forecast AEI Absence Forecast What Stories Does Daily Attendance Tell? Student Attendance Patterns Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic AEI’s Chronic Absenteeism Research Working Group (CARWG) Teacher and Student Absences Before and After the Pandemic The 50% Challenge

Episode length: 1h 2m

The Semiquincentennial Edition (with Yuval Levin)

In a few short days, we’ll be celebrating America’s 250th birthday, but rather than feeling uniformly triumphant and celebratory, America’s Semiquincentennial comes at a time when many worry about the state of our democracy and civic culture. Schools are central to this worry. Many are concerned that civic education in American schools is insufficient or misguided, and that schools are not doing enough to prepare the next generation of Americans for self-governance. But what would better civic education look like? What subject matter should it consist of? What should its aims be? And how much of it should happen in schools? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Yuval Levin. Yuval Levin is a senior fellow at AEI, where he is the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy; Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies; and Editor in Chief of National Affairs. He is also the author of several books, including American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again.

June 2026

Episode length: 1h 7m

Inside the Department of Education (with Kirsten Baesler)

The Department of Education has said it is trying to return education to the states, but what does that mean for the federal role in education and for the states expected to take on more responsibility? What is the Department doing now to scale back the federal role in education? How does the Department think about its own education agenda as it tries to return education to the states? And are states ready to have education returned to them—whatever that might mean? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Kirsten Baesler. Kirsten Baesler is the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. From 2013 until 2025, she served as the North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Episode length: 1h 19m

What Harvard’s New Grade Inflation Policy Gets Wrong (with Scott Duke Kominers)

Recently, Harvard faculty voted to push back on grade inflation at the institution by capping the proportion of A’s given to students at 20%. But according to a new paper, Harvard’s new policy—and grade caps in general—are not the right solution. In What Does a Grade Mean? Informativeness and Strategic Manipulation of Grading Systems, Scott Duke Kominers and Joshua S. Gans argue that to create better incentives for students and faculty, we need to change the current grading system itself. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Scott Duke Kominers about Harvard’s new grade inflation policy. Nat and Scott discuss grading at Harvard, how traditional grading creates bad incentives for students, why grade caps might make these incentives worse, the importance of communicating information about course difficulty, how a different grading system can create better incentives and lead to more learning, and more. Scott Duke Kominers is the Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School; a Faculty Affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics and the Harvard Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications; and an a16z crypto Research Partner. Show Notes: What Does a Grade Mean? Informativeness and Strategic Manipulation of Grading Systems. Grade Caps Fail the Game Theory Exam When the Proposal Keeps Changing, It's Clear It Doesn't Make the Grade 70% of Faculty Vote to Overhaul Harvard Grading With A Cap Enigmatic Puzzles

May 2026

Episode length: 1h 13m

A Rising Tide in Alabama (with Eric Mackey)

Historically, many didn’t consider Alabama to be at the forefront of education, but Alabama’s pandemic recovery may be among the best in the nation. Perhaps most impressively, Alabama was the only state whose 4th-grade math NAEP scores were higher in 2024 than in 2019, and Alabama reports a chronic absenteeism rate that is the lowest in the nation—and the closest to its pre-pandemic levels of any state. Are these results part of a broader story about how Alabama has changed the way it thinks about education? What changes have helped produce Alabama’s recent education gains? And where might education in the Yellowhammer State be headed next? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey.

Episode length: 1h 22m

Education and the Second Trump Administration, 471 Days In

Although the Trump administration’s efforts to reform education might not be making national headlines quite as often as they did one year ago, a lot has still happened in education over the last several months. The Trump administration has continued its push to dismantle the Department of Education. Elite universities are making efforts to reform campus culture. The Department of Education released a major report on the future of the Institute of Education Sciences. And campaigns to limit phone use and, now, screen time in school continue to gain momentum. To make sense of it all, on this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess. Andy Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog. Rick Hess is a senior fellow and the director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Show Notes: Mend, Don’t End, the Institute of Education Sciences Hope or Hype? What to Make of Yale’s Report on Trust in Higher Ed The Trump Administration Has Mostly Dismantled the Ed. Dept. Should You Care? Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences

April 2026

Episode length: 1h 13m

What Can AI Replace in Higher Education? (with Hollis Robbins)

This podcast has covered AI in K–12 education a fair amount, but how will and how should AI change higher education? Should any human instructors be replaced with AI? Should universities change what and how they teach to strengthen their value proposition? And in the age of AI, how should universities prepare their students for an unpredictable job market? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Hollis Robbins. Hollis Robbins is a professor of English at the University of Utah, where she was formerly Dean of the College of Humanities. She writes about AI in higher education on her Substack, Anecdotal Value. Show Notes: It's Later Than You Think Last Mile Education Teaching Quality The Two-Minute Mile Problem What Should a University AI Czar Do? My AI Thinks Civics Is Black Studies

Episode length: 57m

Best Of: Eva Moskowitz on Success Academy

Note: This episode originally aired in April 2025. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy. Nat and Eva discuss why COVID learning loss is a misnomer; whether chronically absent students should face consequences for their poor attendance; why, despite its strong academic performance, Success Academy decided to overhaul its curriculum; what Success Academy looks for when hiring new teachers; Success Academy’s potential expansion into Florida and Texas; the challenges Success Academy faced in expanding into high school; whether charter schools have lived up to their original promise; and what’s next for Success Academy. Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 57 schools in New York City educating 22,000 students. Despite 72% of its students being economically disadvantaged, Success Academy ranked first on the 2024 New York State Grade 3–8 math exam.

March 2026

Episode length: 45m

The Effects of Grade Inflation (with Jeff Denning)

Recently, there has been a lot of handwringing over grade inflation both at the higher education and K–12 levels, but how big a problem is it truly? What sort of effect does grade inflation have on student learning? Does grade inflation help or hurt college enrollment? And what impact, if any, does grade inflation have on lifetime earnings? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Jeff Denning. Jeffrey T. Denning is an associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and—along with Rachel L. Nesbit, Nolan G. Pope, and Merrill Warnick—is the author of a new paper: Easy A’s, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation.

Episode length: 1h 4m

Mathematical Flexibility and Teaching Middle School Math (with Jon Star)

Math is one of the subjects that gets the most attention in American education, but how well do we actually understand what good math instruction should look like? Should math classes consist of students solving problem after problem, or should math classes also include opportunities for discussion and group work? Should students learn a topic and then move on to the next topic after they have achieved competency, or should teachers strive to teach each topic deeply, giving students many different strategies for solving problems? And if math education in America were dramatically improved, just how good could it be? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with Jon Star. Nat and Jon discuss conceptual understanding and procedural fluency, whether constructivism has a place in the classroom, the value of worked examples, online curricula and the importance of curricular coherence, what mathematical flexibility is and why it matters, whether students can understand problem-solving strategies more or less well, whether math makes students better problem-solvers more generally, Chinese math education, Jon’s experience teaching middle school math and how being a researcher informs his teaching, whether math education research is sufficiently accessible to teachers, how to improve American math education, and how good American math education could be. Jon Star is the Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr. Professor of Teaching and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a middle school math teacher.

February 2026

Episode length: 1h 22m

Lee Bollinger on Universities and the Trump Administration

Over the past year, the Trump administration has rewritten the playbook for how Washington interacts with higher education, especially elite universities. How should universities respond to the Trump administration’s efforts? Have the Trump administration’s actions been legal? And how can universities better serve the American public? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Lee Bollinger. Nat and Lee discuss the purpose of large university endowments, the meaning of the Ivy League today, university hiring, whether elite universities should double their undergraduate enrollments, the scholarly temperament, whether there is a tension between serving the public and the research missions of universities, the relationship between Washington and universities in the pre-Trump era, how universities can better convey their value to the American people, and the best evidence in favor of affirmative action. Lee Bollinger is the Seth Low Professor at Columbia University and the author of University: A Reckoning. Previously, he was President of Columbia University and President of the University of Michigan.

Episode length: 1h 13m

The Making of America’s Schools: From Revolution to Civil War (with Johann Neem)

To commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, The Report Card will be releasing a few episodes on the history of American education—both to discuss how we arrived at the education system we have today and how our education system has shaped America. On this episode, Nat Malkus and Johann Neem cover the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Nat and Johann discuss civics education in early America, why some educators cared so much about imagination and self-culture, Horace Mann, pushback against education reformers, the difficulties of schooling in the young republic, the spread of the common schools movement, and more. Johann Neem is Professor of History at Western Washington University, editor of the Journal of the Early Republic, and the author of Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America.

January 2026

Episode length: 1h 27m

Randi Weingarten on the Teaching Profession

On the right, teachers’ unions are often treated as the bogeyman, and no one today is more synonymous with teachers’ unions than Randi Weingarten. Indeed, in 2022 former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Weingarten “the most dangerous person in the world.” But who is Randi Weingarten? What does she do on a day-to-day basis? How much power does she actually have? What are her views on topics such as pensions, curriculum, and teacher autonomy? And is she actually the most dangerous person in the world? On this episode of The Report Card, Randi Weingarten joins Nat Malkus for a wide-ranging conversation on many of the biggest topics in American education. Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers and the author of Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.

Episode length: 1h 20m

Math Academy (with Jason Roberts and Justin Skycak)

Can students learn math much faster than they typically do? Can students who feel like they have hit a wall in math instruction make steady progress again? And can math instruction be successfully delivered online through a platform that doesn’t even use video? Math Academy, an online learning platform that is serious about math instruction, is built on the premise that the answer to all of these questions is yes: An adaptive learning platform that carefully determines what students already know and what they don’t know yet can radically improve math instruction for many students—and can do so without many of the bells and whistles that are typical of education technology. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Jason Roberts and Justin Skycak about how Math Academy works, why many of Math Academy’s users are adults, and whether middle school students can really learn calculus. Jason Roberts is the co-founder of Math Academy. Justin Skycak is the chief quant and director of analytics at Math Academy. Show Notes: Math Academy How Math Academy Works

December 2025

Episode length: 48m

2025 in Review

We are now coming to the end of another year. What were the biggest stories in education this year? What stories didn’t get as much attention as they should have? And what can we expect in the coming year? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions, and more, with three education journalists: Sarah Mervosh of The New York Times, Jill Barshay of The Hechinger Report, and Eric Kelderman of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Show Notes: The Improbable Warrior Trump’s Attacks on DEI May Hurt Men in College Admission The Big Fail

Episode length: 1h 22m

Should AI Be Used in Classrooms Today?

In classrooms across the nation, students and teachers are using AI—but should they be? AI’s advocates argue that it can be used to individualize instruction and provide personalized feedback, but its critics contend that the adoption of AI in the classroom will get in the way of students acquiring critical thinking skills. Who is right here? Can AI reverse a decade of falling test scores, or will it only exacerbate this trend? And even if AI in the classroom is the future, does that mean schools should adopt AI in the classroom today? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus and four experts discuss and debate whether maximizing school improvement by 2035 means integrating AI into classrooms today. Note: This episode is adapted from the most recent installment of the American Enterprise Institute’s Education Policy Debate Series, which was held at AEI on December 8. A video recording of the debate can be found here. Shanika Hope is the director of Americas & Knowledge, Skills, and Learning at Google. Alex Kotran is the CEO of the AI Education Project. Dan Meyer is the vice president of User Growth at Amplify. Jake Tawney is the chief academic officer at Great Hearts Academies.

Episode length: 1h 10m

Alpha School (with MacKenzie Price)

One of the hottest names in education right now is Alpha School. A network of high-end private schools founded in Texas but with additional locations elsewhere, Alpha School uses AI to implement mastery learning principles and incentives to accelerate student learning. How well the Alpha model works is an open question: Alpha School graduated its first seniors—a class of 12—just last year, and most of Alpha’s students come from wealthier families. That said, for anyone who complains about a lack of experimentation in the education sector or wonders what it might look like if schools took some of the boldest ideas in education more seriously, Alpha is a welcome antidote. To learn more about the Alpha model, on this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with MacKenzie Price, cofounder of Alpha School.
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