Expertise: 

Michael J. Petrilli

Visiting Fellow
Biography: 

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 and coeditor of Knowledge at the Core: Don Hirsch, Core Knowledge, and the Future of the Common Core. Petrilli is also a visiting 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 create the US 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.

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Recent Commentary

Analysis and Commentary

The Common Core Sanity Check of the Day: Estimation Is Not a Fuzzy Math Skill

by Michael J. Petrillivia Education Next
Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Those who criticize the Common Core standards for asking kids to estimate the answer to a math problem get a few things wrong.

Analysis and Commentary

Lies, Damned Lies, and the Common Core

by Michael J. Petrillivia Education Next
Tuesday, February 11, 2014

If you want to understand why supporters of the Common Core are frustrated—OK, exasperated—by some of our opponents’ seemingly unlimited willingness to engage in dishonest debate, consider this latest episode.

Analysis and Commentary

Knowledge at the Core

by Chester E. Finn Jr., Michael J. Petrillivia Education Next
Monday, January 27, 2014

For thirty years, Don Hirsch has tried to persuade policymakers to undertake perhaps the one reform we’ve never tried: the widespread adoption of a coherent, sequential, content-rich curriculum. What might change the outcome over the next thirty years?

Analysis and Commentary

How D.C. Schools Can Ward Off the ‘Big Flip’

by Michael J. Petrilli, Richard D. Kahlenberg, Sam Chaltainvia Washington Post
Friday, January 24, 2014

The city has a golden opportunity to use gentrification to its advantage.

Don't Cheat Your Kids

by Michael J. Petrillivia Hoover Digest
Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Attention, parents: if your kids attend a lousy school and all you do is shrug about it, you’re part of the problem.

Analysis and Commentary

The Problem With ‘Bad Voucher Schools Aren’t a Problem’

by Michael J. Petrillivia Education Next
Friday, January 17, 2014
Analysis and Commentary

Can’t Buy Me Love

by Michael J. Petrillivia Education Next
Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The so-called War on Poverty has been fantastically successful at eradicating poverty among the old and devastatingly miserable at eradicating poverty among the young.

Analysis and Commentary

2014: The Year of Universal Proficiency

by Michael J. Petrillivia Education Next
Thursday, January 2, 2014

No, we did not achieve universal proficiency by 2014. But that doesn’t mean that students haven’t benefited from the law and its associated reforms.

Analysis and Commentary

I Refuse to Feel Bad About Letting my Children Watch TV

by Michael J. Petrillivia Atlantic
Friday, December 20, 2013

Pop culture, even "low-brow" entertainment, paves the way for appreciating the classics, and it'll help my kids connect with people who aren't just like them.

Analysis and Commentary

Coming Soon: ‘Car-Key Kids’

by Michael J. Petrillivia Education Next
Friday, December 20, 2013

What autonomous automobiles will mean for adolescence

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