Education Next and PDK both released the results of major surveys of public opinion about education in recent weeks. Joshua Starr, the president of PDK, joins Paul E Peterson to discuss the results of the two surveys.

School is back in session after one of the hottest summers in recorded history, and many students are now in classrooms without air conditioning. A new study looks at how hotter school days impact. student learning. Josh Goodman of the Kennedy School at Harvard sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss his recent working paper, "Heat and Learning."

Michael Henderson, assistant professor at Louisiana State University and survey director for the EdNext poll, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the nuts and bolts of EdNext's annual survey of public opinion.

Last year's EdNext poll revealed a sharp drop in support for charter schools. On today's podcast, Paul E. Peterson and Marty West look at the biggest changes in public opinion revealed by the 2018 EdNext Poll, some of which relate to charter schools and vouchers.

The Boston Public Schools will be led by an interim superintendent this fall, since former superintendent Tommy Chang was asked by the mayor of Boston to step down last June. Steve Poftak talks with Paul E. Peterson about some of the challenges that have faced, and will continue to face, the school district, including debates over school start times, diversity levels at exam schools, whether the student assignment system is causing segregation, transportation costs, and what happens next for BPS.

A new study investigates whether teaching practices differ in effectiveness depending on the students in the class. It finds that the impact of good classroom management and student-centered instruction vary depending on whether the students in the classroom are of high ability or of mixed ability. Jane Cooley Fruehwirth, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss the study,"Teacher Effectiveness and Classroom Composition," which she co-authored with Esteban Aucejo, Patrick Coate and Zachary Mozenter.

How do teachers feel about the changes taking place in American education? Evan Stone, the co-founder and CEO of Educators for Excellence, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his organization’s new survey, "Voices from the Classroom: A Survey of America’s Educators."

Before schools in the southern U.S. were racially integrated, schools for African American students were staffed almost exclusively by African American teachers. After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, southern schools began to be desegregated, and this had a big effect on black teacher employment.

Michael McConnell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a former Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Students in Washington, D.C. have been making large gains on NAEP, and many credit the transformation of the teaching profession that has taken place in DCPS over the past decade. Thomas Toch of FutureEd joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new report, which takes a close look those changes.