The 10 Most Popular Episodes of EdChoice Chats
Where can you find Harry Potter, a hybrid home school, and first-of-its-kind research? No, this isn’t a punchline. It’s our podcast, EdChoice Chats!
Celebrate National Podcast Day with us by counting down our top 10 most-listened-to tracks of all time.
To subscribe to our podcast for more great episodes, check us out on any of these platforms: iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Player FM, Google Play, or RadioPublic.
10. The Private School Teacher Skills Gap with Mike McShane
In this episode of EdChoice Chats, Mike McShane talks about his report, The Private School Teacher Skills Gap. He reveals how satisfied teachers were with their preparation, how a number of them are learning on the job and more.
9. A School Choice Family’s Story – Ola Alayande
We love hearing stories from families affected by school choice—and it looks like you do, too! Coming in at No. 9 on the list is a story from a Florida mom and school choice advocate. She shares her experience using her state’s tax-credit scholarship program for five of her seven children.
8. Surveying Florida Scholarship Families with Jason Bedrick and Lindsey Burke
As the largest-ever survey of participants in a private school choice program, this report represents some of the strongest evidence to date of the views and educational priorities of parents exercising private school choice. Listen to the authors of this unique report discuss their findings from a survey of more than 14,000 parents.
7. Do-Over or Double Down? – A New Report by Mike McShane and Paul DiPerna
What does it mean to hold schools accountable? How do we measure school performance? Why do we care? We convened focus groups of K–12 stakeholders to wrestle with these tough questions and help us better understand the accountability landscape—where we’ve been as well as where we’re headed.
6. School Choice in Pop Culture – Harry Potter
If you haven’t listened to this episode, you need to sort out your priorities. (And if you get that joke, you’ve made it to the right track on this list.) In our School Choice in Pop Culture series, we dissect school choice themes in popular movies and TV shows. In this episode, two Harry Potter fans on staff discuss the educational themes in one of the most beloved book and movie series of all time. To view the clips reviewed in this episode, click here for its video version.
5. School Choice in Pop Culture – Yes, Prime Minister
We’re sticking with pop culture for No. 5 on our list. Our President and CEO Robert Enlow and our Director of Policy Jason Bedrick discuss one iconic episode of the BBCs Yes, Prime Minister which is about pure school choice policy and government. View the video version here.
4. Cool Schools with Hope Academy
This is the most-recently recorded episode on this list. As part of our Cool Schools series, this track highlights—you guessed it—a pretty cool school. Almost 20 years ago, Russ Greg started a faith-based, inner-city school after realizing he wanted his neighbors to have a better educational option.
Spoiler alert: It’s also not the only Cool Schools episode on this list.
3. Back to the Staffing Surge with Ben Scafidi
In our fifth podcast we ever posted—also the oldest on this list—EdChoice fellow Ben Scafidi talks about his report, Back to the Staffing Surge. He measured U.S. public school employment growth versus student growth as well as teacher salary fluctuations and student outcomes over the past 65 years. The results were shocking.
2. The Threat to Arizona ESAs with Jason Bedrick
Arizona has been a pioneer state in the school choice movement in many ways, and in 2017, they expanded their education savings account (ESA) program to nearly every K–12 student. Since that time, the Arizona ESA expansion legislation unfortunately was repealed. To learn how the program works today, click here.
1. Cool Schools with Regina Caeli Academy
And finally, our most-played podcast is this episode from our first season of the Cool Schools series. And we can see why. Regina Caeli is a hybrid home school. It follows a classic education model. It follows a Catholic education model. At the time of this recording, it served about 1,100 students in 12 cities, in seven states. What isn’t cool about this school?
