Member Since 2009


Mike Petrilli is an award-winning writer and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, one of the country’s most influential education-policy think tanks. He is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma: A Parent's Guide to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools, co-editor of Knowledge at the Core: Don Hirsch, Core Knowledge, and the Future of the Common Core, and co-editor of How to Educate an American. Petrilli is also a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and Executive Editor of Education Next. Petrilli has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg View, Slate, and Wall Street Journal and has been a guest on NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, CNN, and Fox, as well as several National Public Radio programs, including All Things Considered, On Point, and the Diane Rehm Show. Petrilli helped to create the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, the Policy Innovators in Education Network, and Young Education Professionals. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland.

Published Articles & Media

College Isn’t For Everyone

Let many 16- and 17-year-olds spend time mostly in workplace apprenticeships, not traditional high school classrooms.
Illustration

The Case for Kindergarten Tests

Starting NAEP in 4th grade is much too late
Painting by Norman Rockwell

On Race in the Classroom, Republicans Risk Overreaching

Few parents may want woke curriculum, but how many want book banning instead?
A series of red lights

Declining NAEP Scores Are Flashing Red Lights for the Covid Generation

My claim that the Great Recession was to blame for lower test scores was met with mockery. Here's the case.
Student copies off classmate's work at school

The College Gender Gap Begins in Kindergarten

More male early-elementary teachers, more challenging books could help.
Third-grade teacher Cara Denison manages students in person and remotely, simultaneously, at Rogers International School in Stamford, Connecticut.

Move to Trash

Five pandemic-era education practices that deserve to be dumped in the dustbin
Two students in a classroom looking at a globe

The Common Ground on Race and Education That’s Hiding in Plain Sight

Five promising practices most of us can get behind, regardless of politics.
Students file off a bus and walk into a school

An Ode to Elementary Schools

These schools have the greatest potential impact on kids’ academic, social, and emotional progress
Illustration

A Post-Covid Case for Classroom Cameras

When the pandemic ends, let’s keep teachers’ cameras on
DNA helix strand

A Utopian Gets Real About the Limits of Schooling

The Cult of Smart sends “educational equity” to the principal’s office.

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