A teacher is always on stage, 180 days a year, with a repeat audience. There is a constant need for lesson plans that are high quality, engaging, and aligned to standards. Today, most teachers turn to the internet to fill that need, and they now have a dizzying and growing array of online materials they can access. But shockingly little is known about the quality of those materials.

In this episode, host Nat Malkus talks with Dr. Morgan Polikoff of the University of Southern California about his most recent report. Co-authored with educational consultant Jennifer Dean and published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, it analyzes online supplemental materials for high school English Language Arts from three of the most popular supplemental websites. They discuss the report’s goals, findings, and implications for policy.

From Varsity Blues to debates over charter schools, 2019 was an eventful year in education news. In the last episode of the year, Erica Green, Alyson Klein, and Josh Mitchell reflect with host Nat Malkus on the top education stories of 2019 and look ahead to stories we should pay attention to in 2020.

The idea of free college isn’t new. In 2014, President Obama proposed free community college in his State of the Union Address. Both Hilary Clinton and Berny Sanders had free college plans in the 2016 election, and 2020 Democratic candidates also have plenty of ideas. However, in 2017, New York was the first state to make all 2 and 4-year public colleges free for families who earn up to $125,000 – with some important caveats.

In this episode, host Nat Malkus talks to Elsa Magee of the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, and Christopher Barto of LIM College, about New York’s Experience implementing free college, how colleges have reacted to the program, trade-offs the state had to make, and implementation lessons that states interested in a similar program can learn.

What does a typical high school classroom look like? For many, it means rote memorization, worksheets, and passing notes under the desk.
It is surface level learning that does not promote mastery or engagement.

In this episode, host Nat Malkus talks to Jal Mehta about his new book, In Search of Deeper Learning: The quest to Remake the American High School (with Sarah Fine). Professor Mehta describes classrooms across the country where deeper learning is taking place, the features that made them distinctive, and why deeper learning is not more common across the country.

When discussing education, policymakers and reformers often focus on urban – and sometimes suburban – schools and communities. But rural schools educate about 20% of America’s students, and urban reforms may not translate well to their unique circumstances.

In this episode, host Nat Malkus talks to Jeff Hawkins of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative and Campbell Scribner at the University of Maryland about the unique challenges and strengths of rural schools, the history of consolidation and local control, and why rural schools perform better than urban and town schools.

In 2000, Charles Best started DonorsChoose.org, a website that allows teachers to request needed materials for classroom projects, and “citizen philanthropists” from across the country could fund their requests.

While DonorsChoose has an impact on individual classrooms, the data it produces creates a map of what materials teachers are requesting in every district of the country, which can be used to push for policy reform. In this episode, host Nat Malkus talks to Charles Best about DonorsChoose, the impact it has had, and how data from the ground can lead to better spending decisions and create systemic change.

By 2024, the economy will create 16 million jobs that require more than a high school education but not necessarily a college degree. However, community colleges’ on time graduation rates are under 20%.

In this episode of the Report Card, on the AEI Education Podcast, host Nat Malkus talks to Grace Suh of IBM about an effort that seeks to address this problem. In P-tech schools, students earn a high school diploma and an Associate’s degree tied to the needs of local industry partners who provide workplace experiences.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education proposed new Title IX regulations that roll back Obama-era rules. And they have generated an extraordinary amount of interest: the Department received more than 124,000 public comments on the proposed regulations. While some argue that the regulations provide necessary due process and correct overreach by the Obama administration, others argue that it will make it more difficult for victims to get justice.

In this special episode of The Report Card, on the AEI education podcast, host Nat Malkus brings you a debate that took place live at AEI on Thursday, June 27th. Experts debated the motion: Devos’ Title IX regulations are a step in the right direction, and the audience voted to decide the winner.

In 2011, the nation’s high school graduation rate was 79%. By 2016, it was 84%. But do these increases mean that more students are achieving academically? Flat test scores during this period suggest not.

One of the ways in which schools are helping more students graduate is credit recovery – allowing students to make up a course without repeating the school year. In this episode of The Report Card, on the AEI Education podcast, host Nat Malkus talks to Nick Sproull, Danielle Cox-Jones, and Adam Tyner about the NCAA’s efforts to put some safeguards on credit recovery programs, how to ensure that credit recovery programs do not water down expectations, and pressures that schools face around accountability for their graduation rates.

Career and technical education used to be a “dumping ground” for low-performing students to be trained for dead-end careers. However, CTE is losing its stigma, with subjects such as engineering, healthcare, and computer science joining its fold. The students concentrating in these new CTE subjects score better than traditional CTE students, raising the concern that as CTE evolves, it will leave the students it was meant to help behind.

In this episode of The Report Card, on the AEI Education Podcast, Nat Malkus turns hosting duties over to Chester Finn, and talks to Scott Stump about how CTE has evolved over time, which students are taking classes, and what policy solutions can ensure that CTE is available to all.