This week on The Education Gadfly Show, we’re joined by Elliot Regenstein, partner at Foresight Law + Policy and author of Readiness: Preparing State Early Childhood Systems for a Brighter Future, to talk about early childhood education and care—and why state systems are so often fragmented and hard to navigate. We discuss who makes key decisions, why coordination is so difficult, and what it would take to build more coherent early childhood systems going forward.

Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern shares new evidence on achievement gaps across different types of schools, showing that inequality has grown fastest in traditional public schools, while charter schools show more positive trends over time.

Recommended content:

• Readiness: Preparing State Early Childhood Systems for a Brighter Future —Elliot Regenstein
• The Best American School System —Tim Daly, The Education Daly
• The Nation’s Achievement Inequality Report Card: An Assessment of Test Score and Equality Trends in Traditional Public, Charter, Catholic, and Department of Defense Schools —M. Danish Shakeel, Misty Gallo, and Patrick J. Wolf, EdWorkingPapers (2026)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show in 2026? We would love to hear them. Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org

This week on The Education Gadfly Show, we’re joined by Karin Chenoweth, founder of Democracy and Education and author of Schools that Succeed, to talk about what she’s learned from years of visiting successful classrooms, schools, and districts across the country. We explore a deceptively simple question: Why don’t educators, policymakers, and researchers spend more time studying success?

Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern highlights new evidence from New York City showing that small public high schools significantly boost graduation rates and college enrollment, especially for disadvantaged students.

Recommended content:

• Schools that Succeed —Karin Chenoweth
• Learning from greatness: The conversation continues —Holly Korbey, The Bell Ringer
• Best practices are the worst —Jay P. Greene, Education Next
• Effects of New York City’s small schools of choice on postsecondary degree attainment and employment —Rebecca Unterman and Miki Shih, MDRC (2026)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show in 2026? We would love to hear them. Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org

This week on The Education Gadfly Show, we’re marking National School Choice Week with a conversation with Shelby Doyle of the National School Choice Awareness Foundation. We talk about why the movement emphasizes school choice rather than educational choice—and whether the growing focus on education savings accounts is a good development for the movement.

Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern breaks down new evidence on how disability identification varies by student family income, raising important questions about equity, access to services, and how schools classify and support students.

Recommended content:

• National School Choice Week 2026 — National School Choice Awareness Foundation
• Education savings accounts: Boffo or bonkers? | Episode 1002 of The Education Gadfly Show
• Educational choice is giving new hope to Catholic schools —Mike McShane for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• School-based disability identification varies by student family income — Nicholas Ainsworth, Christopher Cleveland, Leah R. Clark, Jacob Hibel, Quentin Brummet, Andrew Saultz, Emily Penner, Michelle Spiegel, Paul Yoo, Juan Camilo Cristancho, Paul Hanselman, and Andrew Penner, EdWorking Papers (2026)
• Minorities Are disproportionately underrepresented in special education —Morgan, Paul L.; Farkas, George; Hillemeier, Marianne M.; Mattison, Richard; Maczuga, Steve; Li, Hui; Cook, Michael, Educational Researcher (2015)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show in 2026? We would love to hear them. Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org