The Report Card with Nat Malkus

AEI Podcasts
AEI Podcasts
  • 4.7 (18)
  • Education for Kids
  • Updated Semimonthly

The Report Card with Nat Malkus is the education podcast of the American Enterprise Institute. It is a hub for discussing innovative work to improve education – from early childhood to higher education – and the lives of America’s children. It evaluates research, policy, and practice efforts to improve the lives of families, schools and students. The Report Card seeks to engage with everyone who is interested in education in an accessible way. It brings guests that are doing compelling work across a spectrum from high level policy changes to innovations at the classroom level, work that will start conversations about improving education and the lives of children more broadly. Each episode lets listeners – policymakers, teachers, and parents –learn relevant information that they can use in their efforts to improve education.

  1. 2d ago

    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 absenteeism rates back to pre-pandemic levels? Is chronic absenteeism less of a problem for students who weren’t yet in school during the pandemic? And where might chronic absenteeism rates end up when all the dust settles? On this episode of The Report Card, Elli Lucas discusses these questions, and more, with Nat Malkus. Nat Malkus is a senior fellow and the deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies. He is the creator of AEI’s Return to Learn Tracker, which tracked pandemic school closures and masking policies and currently tracks post-pandemic chronic absenteeism, and the host of the podcast The Report Card with Nat Malkus. This episode was produced by Elli Lucas. Show Notes: From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025 Please Excuse My Child: Unexcused Absences in Student Attendance and Achievement Catching Absenteeism Early and Often: Introducing the AEI Absence Forecast AEI Absence Forecast What Stories Does Daily Attendance Tell? Student Attendance Patterns Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic AEI’s Chronic Absenteeism Research Working Group (CARWG) Teacher and Student Absences Before and After the Pandemic The 50% Challenge

  2. Jul 1

    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 time when many worry about the state of our democracy and civic culture. Schools are central to this worry. Many are concerned that civic education in American schools is insufficient or misguided, and that schools are not doing enough to prepare the next generation of Americans for self-governance. But what would better civic education look like? What subject matter should it consist of? What should its aims be? And how much of it should happen in schools? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Yuval Levin. Yuval Levin is a senior fellow at AEI, where he is the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy; Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies; and Editor in Chief of National Affairs. He is also the author of several books, including American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again.

  3. Jun 17

    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 to take on more responsibility? What is the Department doing now to scale back the federal role in education? How does the Department think about its own education agenda as it tries to return education to the states? And are states ready to have education returned to them—whatever that might mean? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Kirsten Baesler. Kirsten Baesler is the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. From 2013 until 2025, she served as the North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction.

  4. Jun 3

    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, Harvard’s new policy—and grade caps in general—are not the right solution. In What Does a Grade Mean? Informativeness and Strategic Manipulation of Grading Systems, Scott Duke Kominers and Joshua S. Gans argue that to create better incentives for students and faculty, we need to change the current grading system itself. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Scott Duke Kominers about Harvard’s new grade inflation policy. Nat and Scott discuss grading at Harvard, how traditional grading creates bad incentives for students, why grade caps might make these incentives worse, the importance of communicating information about course difficulty, how a different grading system can create better incentives and lead to more learning, and more. Scott Duke Kominers is the Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School; a Faculty Affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics and the Harvard Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications; and an a16z crypto Research Partner. Show Notes: What Does a Grade Mean? Informativeness and Strategic Manipulation of Grading Systems. Grade Caps Fail the Game Theory Exam When the Proposal Keeps Changing, It's Clear It Doesn't Make the Grade 70% of Faculty Vote to Overhaul Harvard Grading With A Cap Enigmatic Puzzles

  5. May 20

    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 impressively, Alabama was the only state whose 4th-grade math NAEP scores were higher in 2024 than in 2019, and Alabama reports a chronic absenteeism rate that is the lowest in the nation—and the closest to its pre-pandemic levels of any state. Are these results part of a broader story about how Alabama has changed the way it thinks about education? What changes have helped produce Alabama’s recent education gains? And where might education in the Yellowhammer State be headed next? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey.

  6. May 6

    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 in education over the last several months. The Trump administration has continued its push to dismantle the Department of Education. Elite universities are making efforts to reform campus culture. The Department of Education released a major report on the future of the Institute of Education Sciences. And campaigns to limit phone use and, now, screen time in school continue to gain momentum. To make sense of it all, on this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these developments, and more, with Andy Rotherham and Rick Hess. Andy Rotherham is a co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether and the author of the Eduwonk blog. Rick Hess is a senior fellow and the director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Show Notes: Mend, Don’t End, the Institute of Education Sciences Hope or Hype? What to Make of Yale’s Report on Trust in Higher Ed The Trump Administration Has Mostly Dismantled the Ed. Dept. Should You Care? Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences

  7. Apr 22

    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? Should universities change what and how they teach to strengthen their value proposition? And in the age of AI, how should universities prepare their students for an unpredictable job market? On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Hollis Robbins. Hollis Robbins is a professor of English at the University of Utah, where she was formerly Dean of the College of Humanities. She writes about AI in higher education on her Substack, Anecdotal Value. Show Notes: It's Later Than You Think Last Mile Education Teaching Quality The Two-Minute Mile Problem What Should a University AI Czar Do? My AI Thinks Civics Is Black Studies

  8. Apr 8

    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 and Eva discuss why COVID learning loss is a misnomer; whether chronically absent students should face consequences for their poor attendance; why, despite its strong academic performance, Success Academy decided to overhaul its curriculum; what Success Academy looks for when hiring new teachers; Success Academy’s potential expansion into Florida and Texas; the challenges Success Academy faced in expanding into high school; whether charter schools have lived up to their original promise; and what’s next for Success Academy. Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 57 schools in New York City educating 22,000 students. Despite 72% of its students being economically disadvantaged, Success Academy ranked first on the 2024 New York State Grade 3–8 math exam.

See All (214)

Ratings & Reviews

4.7
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

The Report Card with Nat Malkus is the education podcast of the American Enterprise Institute. It is a hub for discussing innovative work to improve education – from early childhood to higher education – and the lives of America’s children. It evaluates research, policy, and practice efforts to improve the lives of families, schools and students. The Report Card seeks to engage with everyone who is interested in education in an accessible way. It brings guests that are doing compelling work across a spectrum from high level policy changes to innovations at the classroom level, work that will start conversations about improving education and the lives of children more broadly. Each episode lets listeners – policymakers, teachers, and parents –learn relevant information that they can use in their efforts to improve education.

Information

More From AEI Podcasts

You Might Also Like