Episode Details

Jonathan Plucker, a research professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and Fordham’s own Alicia Anderson, policy and editorial associate, join The Education Gadfly Show to discuss new research on how little states and the federal government invest in advanced education. How much funding goes toward gifted education, AP, IB, and other advanced learning opportunities, and why is it so hard to track where those dollars go?

Then, on the Research Minute, Brian Fitzpatrick examines new research on Algebra I achievement gaps and finds that many are rooted as early as third grade and grew worse during the pandemic.

Recommended content:

• Broad support, barely funded: The paradox of advanced education in America —Jonathan Plucker, Alicia Anderson, Matthew Makel, and Shaun Dougherty for Advance
• The Leaky Pipeline: Assessing the college outcomes of Ohio’s high-achieving low-income students —Stéphane Lavertu, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Building a Wider, More Diverse Pipeline of Advanced Learners —The National Working Group on Advanced Education
• Ohio’s Lost Einsteins: The inequitable outcomes of early high achievers —Scott Imberman, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• A Widening Chasm: The Divergent Paths of High- and Low-Achieving Students in Algebra I After the Pandemic—Benjamin Backes, Michael DeArmond, Elise Dizon-Ross, Dan Goldhaber, and Alejandra Salazar, CALDER (2026)

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