The Report Card with Nat Malkus

How Schools Should Approach Mental Health (with Carolyn D. Gorman)

Many schools today offer mental health programming, but according to Carolyn Gorman, a lot of school mental health programming is not only wasteful and ineffective but al

How AI and Screens Are Changing Reading (with Naomi Baron)

AI is transforming not only the way students work but also the way they read. AI summarizes readings for students, changing the way they engage with texts, form judgmen

Curriculum, Coherence, and Change (with John White)

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with John White about state education leadership, how the education landscape has changed over the last few decades,

The Latest on Chronic Absenteeism (with Nat Malkus)

During the pandemic, national chronic absenteeism rates surged across all demographics, but what has happened to chronic absenteeism rates since then? Are chronic absent

The Semiquincentennial Edition (with Yuval Levin)

In a few short days, we’ll be celebrating America’s 250th birthday, but rather than feeling uniformly triumphant and celebratory, America’s Semiquincentennial comes at a

Inside the Department of Education (with Kirsten Baesler)

The Department of Education has said it is trying to return education to the states, but what does that mean for the federal role in education and for the states expected

What Harvard's New Grade Inflation Policy Gets Wrong (with Scott Duke Kominers)

Recently, Harvard faculty voted to push back on grade inflation at the institution by capping the proportion of A’s given to students at 20%. But according to a new paper

A Rising Tide in Alabama (with Eric Mackey)

Historically, many didn’t consider Alabama to be at the forefront of education, but Alabama’s pandemic recovery may be among the best in the nation. Perhaps most impress

Education and the Second Trump Administration, 471 Days In

Although the Trump administration’s efforts to reform education might not be making national headlines quite as often as they did one year ago, a lot has still happened i

What Can AI Replace in Higher Education? (with Hollis Robbins)

This podcast has covered AI in K–12 education a fair amount, but how will and how should AI change higher education? Should any human instructors be replaced with AI? Sh

Best Of: Eva Moskowitz on Success Academy

Note: This episode originally aired in April 2025. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy. Nat

The Effects of Grade Inflation (with Jeff Denning)

Recently, there has been a lot of handwringing over grade inflation both at the higher education and K–12 levels, but how big of a problem actually is grade inflation?

Mathematical Flexibility and Teaching Middle School Math (with Jon Star)

Math is one of the subjects that gets the most attention in American education, but how well do we actually understand what good math instruction should look like? Shoul

Lee Bollinger on Universities and the Trump Administration

Over the past year, the Trump administration has rewritten the playbook for how Washington interacts with higher education, especially elite universities. How should uni

The Making of America’s Schools: From Revolution to Civil War (with Johann Neem)

To commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, The Report Card will be releasing a few episodes on the history of American education—both to discuss how we arrived at the ed

Randi Weingarten on the Teaching Profession

On the right, teachers’ unions are often treated as the bogeyman, and no one today is more synonymous with teachers’ unions than Randi Weingarten. Indeed, in 2022 former

Math Academy (with Jason Roberts and Justin Skycak)

Can students learn math much faster than they typically do? Can students who feel like they have hit a wall in math instruction make steady progress again? And can math i

2025 in Review

We are now coming to the end of another year. What were the biggest stories in education this year? What stories didn’t get as much attention as they should have? And wha

Should AI Be Used in Classrooms Today?

In classrooms across the nation, students and teachers are using AI—but should they be? AI’s advocates argue that it can be used to individualize instruction and provide

Alpha School (with MacKenzie Price)

One of the hottest names in education right now is Alpha School. A network of high-end private schools founded in Texas but with additional locations elsewhere, Alpha Sch