Episode Details

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Steven Wilson, senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute, joins Mike to discuss his new book The Lost Decade: Returning to the Fight for Better Schools in America, which argues that the push for so-called Antiracist education derailed reform and harmed marginalized students. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber examines a study on how educators divide their attention during virtual tutoring—and how achievement, gender, race, and English learner status influence those interactions.

Recommended content: 

• Steven Wilson, “The Lost Decade: Returning to the Fight for Better Schools in America,” Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, 2024.
• Wilson, Steven F. “The Promise of Intellectual Joy,” June 4, 2019. 
• Robert Pondiscio, “After a “lost decade,” let’s restore high expectations for students,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (December 12, 2024).
• Michael J. Petrilli, “11 thoughts about the massive layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (March 11, 2025).
• Frederick M. Hess, “Defunding the teacher trainers,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (March 6, 2025).
• Qingyang Zhang, Rose E. Wang, Ana T. Ribeiro, Dorottya Demszky, and Susanna Loe, Educator Attention: How computational tools can systematically identify the distribution of a key resource for students, Annenberg Institute (March 2025)

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