logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2022
1h 13m

Roland Fryer on Educational Reform

RUSS ROBERTS
About this episode

The good news about educational reform, says Harvard economist Roland Fryer, is that we know what it takes to turn a school around. The bad news is that it's hard work--and implementing it won't win you any popularity contests. Listen as the MacArthur Genius Award Winner and John Bates Clark medalist speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how pizza parties revealed the potential of incentives to improve students' test scores, and why he's far more concerned about closing the racial achievement gap than keeping the love of learning pure. He also discusses the five best practices of successful schools, and why it's his failures far more than his successes that keep him in this fight.

Up next
Jul 7
What Is Capitalism? (with Mike Munger)
What is capitalism, really? Drawing on Adam Smith, Douglass North, and his own experience as a teacher and economist, economist Michael Munger of Duke University discusses three stages of economic development with EconTalk's Russ Roberts: voluntary exchange, markets, and capitali ... Show More
1h 19m
Jun 30
The Deceptive Power of Maps (with Paulina Rowinska)
How can the state of Colorado have nearly 700 sides? Why is a country's coastline as long as you want it to be? And how is it that your UPS driver has more routes to choose from than there are stars in the universe? Listen as mathematician Paulina Rowinska talks with EconTalk's R ... Show More
1h 9m
Jun 23
How to Be a Super Ager (with Eric Topol)
What if we could delay--or even prevent--Alzheimer's, cancer, and heart disease? What if much of what you know about aging is wrong? Listen as cardiologist and author Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Institute talks about his new book Super Agers with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. T ... Show More
1h 1m
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2023
Robert Shiller: Encore presentation of Nobel Prize Talks
”Pursuing expertise doggedly can't be the goal for everyone because being specialised means losing some breadth of understanding. We need both kinds of people." – In this podcast episode recorded in 2014 economist Robert Shiller speaks about technology and the role he thinks it w ... Show More
48m 56s
Nov 2022
#285 Knowledge vs Skills Debate with Daniel Buck (pt.1)
Hello everyone! It has never been the goal of this podcast to push one side of the current issues education is facing. I value the complexities of what we do in schools, and as a consequence, value wide ranging opinions from people who care about education's future.  Today is a d ... Show More
32m 32s
Jan 2023
How to fix our education system
Hello! New year, new term and this week Ed and Geoff are going back to school. Too little has changed about our education system since the Victorian times, and for too many young people it can seem an outdated and rigid system - geared simply towards passing exams - which is lett ... Show More
56m 34s
Mar 2021
The Future of Education: Sam Sorbo, Jill Simonian, Corey DeAngelis | ROUNDTABLE
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Sam Sorbo, Jill Simonian, and Corey DeAngelis about the future of education after COVID. The U.S. education system’s failures have been exposed by the pandemic. Whether it was the teachers' union in your district that kept schools closed de ... Show More
31m 27s
Sep 2022
514. Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America
The controversial Harvard economist, recently back from a suspension, “broke a lot of glass early in my career,” he says. His research on school incentives and police brutality won him acclaim — but also enemies. Now he’s taking a hard look at corporate diversity programs. The co ... Show More
59m 54s
Aug 2023
Hava Rachel Gordon, "This Is Our School!: Race and Community Resistance to School Reform" (NYU Press, 2021)
Parents, educators, and activists are passionately fighting to improve public schools around the country. In This Is Our School!: Race and Community Resistance to School Reform (NYU Press, 2021), Hava Rachel Gordon takes us inside these fascinating school reform movements, explor ... Show More
47m 7s
Nov 2023
397. The Heritage Foundation: Responsibility and Meaning | Dr. Kevin Roberts
Dr. Jordan B Peterson sits down with the current president of the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Kevin Roberts. They discuss the operations and practical utility of think tanks, the state of progressivism across academia, how multiple generations of students are now incapable of facing ... Show More
1h 37m
Apr 2021
164. Teaching and the Voice of Conscience | Paul Rossi
This episode was recorded on April 22nd, 2021Paul Rossi and I sit down to discuss the controversy surrounding a recent article Paul wrote. It has become apparent that an anti-racism curriculum is being instituted in schools across the United States and that doesn’t initially soun ... Show More
2h 11m
Dec 2019
Esther Duflo on Management, Growth, and Research in Action
Want to support future conversations? Visit conversationswithtyler.com/donate. Esther Duflo’s advice to students? Spend time in the field. “It's only through this exposure that you can learn how wrong most of your intuitions are and preconceptions are,” she explains. For Duflo, i ... Show More
1h 1m