This week, Mike Petrilli flies solo to discuss New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to eliminate gifted education in the early grades—and how progressives can be persuaded to champion advanced learning opportunities for all students.

Then, on the Research Minute, Adam Tyner reviews a new study on how parental education shapes excellence gaps among students.

Recommended content:

• How can we depolarize “gifted education”? —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED
• Building a wider, more diverse pipeline of advanced learners — The National Working Group on Advanced Education
• The war against gifted education continues, Zohran Mamdani edition —James Pethokoukis, Faster, Please
• Gifted, talented and Zohran Mamdani —The Wall Street Journal
• Five facts about the first-generation excellence gap —Uditi Karna, John A. List, Andrew Simon and Haruka Uchida, NBER 2025

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show? Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org

This week, Aneesh Sohoni, CEO of Teach for America, joins The Education Gadfly Show to discuss TFA’s impact in the classroom and beyond, why teaching is a compelling opportunity for Gen Z college graduates, what corps members are saying about AI in the classroom.

Then, on a special Research Minute, Adam Tyner shares findings from Who’s on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict, Fordham’s brand new report by David Houston and Michael Hartney surveying school board members across the country.

Recommended content:

• Could an AI-driven “job apocalypse” push the best and brightest into teaching? —Michael J. Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Who’s on Board? School boards and political representation in an age of conflict —David M. Houston and Michael T. Hartney for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (October 2025)

Upcoming webinar on October 14 at 3:00 PM ET:

• Are school boards out of touch with their constituents?

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show? Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org

This week, Fordham’s president emeritus Checker Finn and Laura Hamilton of the Center for Assessment join us for a polite debate on whether school quality should be judged by more than test scores.

On the Research Minute, Adam Tyner unpacks a massive study of ten million students that tracks how gender gaps in math and reading develop from kindergarten through fifth grade—and what that means for the narrative about boys and school.

Recommended content

• The mixed blessing of new school measures —Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham
• Our assessment systems should reflect the purposes of public education —Laura Hamilton, Center for Assessment
• #971: A “Quality Check” on school accountability, with Tom Toch and Lynn Olson —The Education Gadfly Show
• Do we know how to measure school quality? —Van Schoales, Education Week
• Gender Gaps in the Early Grades: Questioning the Narrative that Schools are Poorly Suited to Young Boys — Megan Kuhfeld and Margaret Burchinal, Annenberg Institute at Brown University (2025)
• Redshirt the boys—Richard V. Reeves for The Atlantic

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for our show? Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org