Stefanie Sanford, president of Civic Ventures at Alithi Consulting and Humanitae Philanthropy Advisors and a trustee of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, joins Mike Petrilli to discuss how America’s 250th anniversary could help renew civic life. They explore why civic formation must extend beyond the classroom, how schools can teach both the achievements and failures of American history, and what young people need in order to develop a sense of civic responsibility in an increasingly polarized and digital society.

Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern reviews a new study examining gaps in how schools are adopting artificial intelligence, including differences in training, policies, and guidance for students and teachers.

Recommended content:

• Civic Life in the Information Age —Stefanie Sanford
• Civics, citizenship, and America 250 — Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Civic Profile —Hoover Institution
• America at 250: Surveying Change and Continuity on Civic Values — by Karlyn Bowman and Nicole Penn, AEI
• AI Diffusion Gaps: Unequal Integration of AI Across K-12 Schools —Christopher Campos and John D. Singleton, NBER (2026)

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Charles Barone of the National Parents Union joins Mike Petrilli to debate the Senate’s bipartisan READ Act. Would additional federal funding help states strengthen teacher preparation and expand evidence-based reading instruction, or could a larger federal role politicize the science-of-reading movement and repeat the mistakes of Reading First?

Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern reviews a new study examining why tutoring’s impact on student achievement tends to shrink when programs scale up.

Recommended content:

• Is the Senate’s READ Act a Reading First redux? —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLED
• The READ Act: A National Commitment to Literacy —National Parents Union
• From the Teacher’s Desk: A Science of Reading Progress Report —David Griffith and Brian Fitzpatrick, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Too Good to Last: The True Story of Reading First —Sol Stern, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• What Impacts Should We Expect From Tutoring at Scale? Exploring Meta-Analytic Generalizability —Matthew A. Kraft, Beth E. Schuele, and Grace T. Falken, SAGE Journals (2026)

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Mike Petrilli flies solo to discuss the latest Long-Term Trend NAEP results and why the bounce-back among nine-year-olds deserves more attention. While America’s education recovery is far from complete, especially for older students, Mike argues that the rebound in reading and partial recovery in math suggest that federal dollars, tutoring, economic trends, and perhaps science of reading reforms may be helping younger students regain lost ground.

Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines new evidence from Michigan on which school attendance strategies are associated with better student outcomes.

Recommended content:

• A Surprising Sliver of Hope in New NAEP Scores for the Lowest-Performing Kids Chad Aldeman, The 74
• Declining NAEP Scores Are Flashing Red Lights for the Covid Generation —Michael J. Petrilli, EducationNext
• Anatomy of a ‘Learning Recession’: Academic Losses Began in 2013, Report Finds —Kevin Mahnken, The 74
• Experts say schools could recover pandemic losses by 2028. What then? —Jay Mathews, The Washington Post
• The Learning Legacy of Randi Weingarten —The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal
• Imperfect Attendance: Toward a fairer measure of student absenteeism —Jing Liu, Ph.D., Thomas B. Fordham Institute (2022)
• Identifying Effective Attendance Strategies in Michigan —Jeremy Singer, Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, and Angela Lyle, EdWorkingPapers (2026)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show? We would love to hear them. Send them to thegadfly@fordhaminstitute.org