Can schools keep up with AI? | Episode 1009 of The Education Gadfly Show

Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, joins the Education Gadfly Show to discuss the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and what it could mean for schools. As AI tools grow more powerful, do schools need to fundamentally rethink how they prepare students for the future of work?

Then on the Research Minute, Amber Northern looks at evidence from New Jersey on whether raising teacher salaries improves student outcomes, highlighting research that links salary increases to gains in test scores, graduation rates, and college enrollment.

Recommended content:

• Agentic AI and the Future of Work —Robin Lake, Think Forward: Learning with AI, The Center on Reinventing Public Education
• AI-assisted learning stumbles on the evidence —Daniel Buck and Anna Low, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• What Happens When We Pay Our Teachers More? Evidence from New Jersey Public Schools —Prasiddha Shakya, Institute of Education Sciences, EdWorking Papers (2024)
• Raising the Floor: Teacher Retention Effects of a Statewide Minimum Salary Increase —Gema Zamarro, Andrew M. Camp, Josh McGee, Taylor Wilson, and Miranda Vernon, CALDER (2026)

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