# Nat Malkus

> Nat Malkus is a senior fellow and deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he turns national datasets into arguments that policymakers can act on. He built the Return to Learn Tracker that mapped pandemic school closures and now follows the chronic absenteeism crisis it exposed, and he hosts The Report Card, AEI's education podcast. A former middle school teacher who once graded papers in Prince George's County, he now does his grading on the whole American school system - with the data to back it up.

- **Role:** Senior Fellow & Deputy Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute
- **Organizations:** American Enterprise Institute (AEI), American Institutes for Research, Prince George's County Public Schools, University of Maryland, College Park, Covenant College
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA in Historical Studies, Covenant College, PhD in Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park
- **Known for:** Created the Return to Learn Tracker, which monitored the remote instructional status of roughly 8,600 school districts covering 88% of US public school students, Return to Learn data were used in White House and US Department of Education briefings, and by the CDC, Federal Reserve, and state leaders, Documented that pandemic-related school closures fueled an enrollment exodus of more than 1.3 million students from public schools

## Career timeline

- **2000-2004** — Public middle school teacher, Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland
- **2005-2007** — Research assistant on the High Quality Teaching Project, University of Maryland, College Park
- **2009-2015** — Senior Research Analyst at the American Institutes for Research
- **2015** — Joined the American Enterprise Institute as a research fellow in education policy
- **2019** — Published 'The Evolution of Career and Technical Education, 1982-2013'
- **2020** — Launched the Return to Learn Tracker to monitor pandemic school closures and masking policies
- **2024** — Testified before the House on public school pandemic response and post-pandemic challenges
- **2026** — Senior fellow and deputy director of education policy studies at AEI; host of The Report Card podcast

## Achievements

- Created the Return to Learn Tracker, which monitored the remote instructional status of roughly 8,600 school districts covering 88% of US public school students
- Return to Learn data were used in White House and US Department of Education briefings, and by the CDC, Federal Reserve, and state leaders
- Documented that pandemic-related school closures fueled an enrollment exodus of more than 1.3 million students from public schools
- Host and creator of The Report Card with Nat Malkus, AEI's flagship education podcast
- Congressional witness on public school pandemic response (House testimony, January 2024)
- Work featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, National Affairs, and National Review

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Spoke at the Vail Symposium on 'Education in America: Standards, Access and Outcomes.'
- **2025-12** — Released a '2025 in Review' episode of The Report Card podcast.
- **2024-01** — Testified before the House on public school pandemic response and post-pandemic challenges.

## Links

- Website: https://www.aei.org/profile/nathaniel-n-malkus/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nat-malkus-2641008/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/NatMalkus
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLytTJqkSQqtrBg_eGv3zInJA8w6PiAZzl

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nat-malkus
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-02