Education Next

James Burrows directed over 100 sitcoms during his career, including some of the most iconic series in television history. Among hits like Cheers and Friends were also a few flops like Teachers., which was canceled after just six episodes in 2006. Perhaps the cast didn’t play enough poker together. The world of TV and film is rich with insight for education.

Transcript PAUL PETERSON, HOST: This is the Education Exchange with Paul Peterson. I am the director of the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance. Thank you for joining us. Every month, several new books written by talented teachers explaining their successes in the classroom arrive at my desk. I also get books by principals about school management within a particular building regularly, and I’ve had books from online providers and chief executive officers.

The Trump administration’s proposal to transfer the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice has generated predictable opposition. Critics argue that the move would weaken civil rights enforcement by divorcing it from the education expertise that has long distinguished the office. These concerns deserve respectful consideration. OCR has protected the rights of millions of students.

Howard Gardner, the Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, which—despite the qualms of skeptics like me—has profoundly shaped schooling for decades. He’s authored 30 books, translated into 32 languages, and been named one of the world’s 100 most influential public intellectuals by both Foreign Policy and Prospect.

Last year, Timothy Shanahan published Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives to broad acclaim in education circles (including in this publication). His book’s central argument is that confining students to prescribed reading levels in school has contributed to slow progress—and lately, deterioration—in students’ reading comprehension, as demonstrated in national reading assessments.

Transcript PAUL PETERSON, HOST: This is the Education Exchange with Paul Peterson. I am the director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University. Thank you for joining us. Public opinion surveys can be wildly inaccurate. A week ago, two polls told the public that Abdul El-Sayed would win the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate by an overwhelming margin. One predicted a 13-percentage point victory. The other said it was going to be 15 points.

I hadn’t spoken to 22nd-Century Skills guru Paul Banksley for a few months. But with AI looming so large in the future of education, I wanted to get the celebrated innovator’s take on where things are headed as the new school year dawns. The former vacuum salesman and founder of Tomorrows Are for Tomorrow had been in Paris to collect another prestigious award and was on his way to Qatar, but he made a few minutes to chat with me from his hotel. “So, AI?” he said. “Yep, it’s top of mind.

Mike Miles has been superintendent of Houston Independent School District since 2023, when he was appointed following a state takeover. With earlier stints in Dallas and the Harrison School District in Colorado Springs, and some promising early results in HISD, Miles may be the closest thing we have to a superstar superintendent today. Now, he’s ready to share the secrets of his success, which he has done in By Design: How to Transform School Systems.

Washington Leadership Academy students Drake, David, Terrance, and Bryan collaborate to construct an AI bot that has real-world application during the D.C. charter high school’s annual “Hackathon” last winter.

Ian V. Rowe, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Rowe’s latest research, which investigates the role of family culture in student achievement. “Family Structure, a Key Factor Hidden in Plain Sight: The Case for Federal Reporting in Education,” co-written with Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey, is available now at AEI. Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or here on Education Next.