@michaelpetrilli.bsky.social
President of the Fordham Institute, executive editor of Education Next, proud father.
In high poverty schools, who else but disadvantage kids will be selected?
16.10.2025 01:31 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Well, I'm OK with that if more of those kids (and parents!) are from disadvantaged backgrounds, which is the point of using local norms.
15.10.2025 21:17 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Well, it's finally getting attention. The hardest part, though, is fixing the phone/screentime problem when kids are NOT at school.
15.10.2025 21:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0An education that meets the true needs of ALL students should be the goal. We would never oppose that for students requiring special education services. We acknowledge many flaws in current identification of SpEd students, but don’t push for abolishing the entire system. Same for gifted services.
15.10.2025 15:02 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0To clarify: Top ten percent in each school. Meaning "local norms" apply. Akin to the University of Texas top-ten percent plan.
15.10.2025 15:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
It's solo @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social on the Gadfly and he's talking about a topic - gifted education - that is near and dear to my heart. A few quick thoughts (not about the Mamdani proposal, but G&T in general) 👇
fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...
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Universal screening is the answer. I don’t believe in taking things away in service of “equity”.
15.10.2025 13:54 — 👍 9 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
abstract: "Send Them Home?" Rethinking What Public Education Owes to Flourishing Children Abstract This essay asks what justice requires for children who are already thriving in school and argues that the dominant frameworks in educational philosophy do not answer the question. Priority, equality of opportunity, adequacy, and capabilities treat public education chiefly as redistribution to the disadvantaged and therefore offer no affirmative reason to continue educating students once thresholds are met. I diagnose two background assumptions that sustain this silence, that no harm occurs when enrichment is withheld from thriving students, and that any remaining responsibility lies with families rather than the state. I then develop a positive account grounded in two ideas. First, democratic equality requires the sustained cultivation of civic capacities as societies grow more complex. Second, following Israel Scheffler, respect for persons requires supporting the development of human potential understood as a noncomparative, path-dependent propensity. Together these yield a principle of sustained development, the claim that every child is owed not only competence for citizenship but also meaningful next steps appropriate to their capacities. I show how this principle reframes policy debates about restricting advanced coursework, standards that become ceilings, and weighted funding formulas that already presume a universal base entitlement. The result is a conception of public education that prioritizes need while refusing to abandon those who thrive.
The key point for me is not about identifying and cultivating the next Einstein, but ensuring that kids who are performing well above their peers are being challenged as well, per this paper
edworkingpapers.com/sites/defaul...
Ugh, it doesn't sound like I'm going to persuade you Conor! This doesn't have to be a zero sum game, right? We've expanded AP access dramatically. Why can't something similar work at the elementary school level too?
15.10.2025 13:56 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Right, but also, any student who is pretty far ahead of his or her peers will need some kind of acceleration/enrichment or will suffer boredom and not learn anything new on many days.
15.10.2025 13:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Well, you can set 10 percent as the floor, not ceiling. Identify AT LEAST 10 percent of students in each school for advanced education/acceleration. But go above that when warranted.
15.10.2025 13:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Still going I think
15.10.2025 13:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I agree with your suggestions. Also, my sense is that some forms of enrichment tied to the gifted label could benefit any student. Jen's suggestion for a subject-specific approach could be helpful in clarifying the need to challenge students and how the opportunity offered addresses that need.
15.10.2025 12:39 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Yes!
15.10.2025 13:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Yes, good addition, and one that the National Working Group on Advanced Education proposed too.
As for your course name, I'm taking that as a sign of my influence. :)
I'm on board with all 3. I'm not sure what the right % is at the school level but applaud the idea of offering everywhere. I'd add a 4th, which is fluidity/continuous re-evaluation (i.e. this is not a "once and for all" decision)
my spring class is called Schooled!
Yikes, thanks, fixing!
15.10.2025 13:51 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I don't know about that, but I like these ideas a lot!
14.10.2025 14:45 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Thoughts? @matthewakraft.com @kevincarey1.bsky.social @mattbarnum.bsky.social @carajackson.bsky.social @laryferlazzo.bsky.social @ingoisphording.bsky.social @anya1anya.bsky.social @chingos.bsky.social @mpolikoff.bsky.social @benjaminjriley.bsky.social @conorpwilliams.bsky.social
14.10.2025 14:40 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 5 📌 0
Hey Bluesky friends, how can we get more folks on the left to support gifted education? Would my 3 ideas help? schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/how-can-we...
14.10.2025 14:39 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 3 📌 3
Education “reform advocates should always want…bipartisan support…[I]t makes for a stronger & more durable coalition,” says @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social True, but sometimes that’s not enough (see NCLB). You need the upper middle class as well. schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com?utm_campaign...
14.10.2025 10:52 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
The Disappearing Black School Board Member
Who sits on your local school board? It’s fewer Black folks than two decades ago. wordinblack.com/2025/10/disa... @alexanderrusso.bsky.social @dmhouston.bsky.social @wordinblacknews.bsky.social
The low numbers for Hispanic school board members are extremely disappointing. I wonder if political scientists find the same underrepresentation on city councils, county councils, state legislatures, etc., or is there something about school board elections driving this? @dmhouston.bsky.social
08.10.2025 14:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Supported by both the Fordham Institute and @wallacefoundation.bsky.social, Michael Hartney and I explored the extent to which U.S. school board members are politically and demographically representative of the communities they serve.
Here's a summary of our main findings:
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New from Fordham, the Wallace Foundation, @dmhouston.bsky.social & Michael Hartney:
Who’s on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...
WATCH NOW: The New Federal Education Tax Credit: Policy and Politics, featuring @progressivepolicy.org's Rachel Canter, @dfer.org's Jorge Elorza, @brookings.edu's Jon Valant, @futureedgu.bsky.social's @thomastoch.bsky.social, and yours truly.
future-ed.org/webinar-the-...
Image for a recent Conversations with Tyler podcast, featuring Harvard professor Steven Pinker.
Steven Pinker on the Harvard admissions department:
"It is terrible. I’ve argued that as much. They use holistic criteria, which is mumbo-jumbo. It’s mysticism."
There have been plenty of takes since last week's #NAEP results showed 12th graders performing at the lowest reading level since the test launched in 1992. This analysis from @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social is esp. disconcerting: that cohort had achieved NAEP’s highest 4th-grade reading scores.
#edusky
The cohort of students who scored at record-low levels in 12th grade reading were part of the same generation of kids who scored at record-high levels in 4th grade.
So what happened? fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...
An example of remedial education done right, courtesy of the U.S. military.
Once these recruits couldn't make the cut. Now they make up a quarter of Army troops.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
