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The first year of my undergraduate experience was a whirlwind of trying new classes and discovering the path on which I would travel for the next four years. While I took courses with many different focuses, the two most influential classes were a sociology course with a focus on the inequalities that persist in the education system in the United States, and a course on social justice through which I had an opportunity to tutor elementary school students. I learned about the school system through an in depth analysis of overall societal issues and I was then able to watch the effects of the system unfold on the development of young students. These experiences shaped my interest in social issues, and more specifically, spurred my interest in education policy and reform.

Now, as a rising senior at the George Washington University majoring in Sociology and minoring in Human Services and Social Justice, I am ecstatic to have the opportunity to apply all that I have learned over the past few years to my internship at The Center for Education Reform. CER is one of the most experienced leaders in education reform and continues to be an advocate to ensure all students are provided excellent opportunities for their education. CER aims to bridge the gap between policy and education by making sure all schools and teachers have the power to create transformative and substantive reforms in education.

After my first few hours at The Center for Education Reform, I can already see the excitement that backs the work that is done here and I am realizing how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to work alongside and learn from such influential people in the education reform movement. Through this internship, I am excited to gain insight into important issues such as the charter school movement and aid in raising an awareness of the importance of education reform in the nation. As I begin to explore the potential of my position in the education reform movement, I hope that this internship will lead me on that same path that I originally discovered in the first year of my undergraduate experience.

Mandy Leiter, CER Intern

A dozen first graders’ hands shot up in chorus at each question, and I might have concluded that their teacher had simply rehearsed the whole performance for the sake of window dressing the tour. But the enthusiasm and engagement I found in classroom after classroom was backed up with awards and recognitions that put this South Los Angeles charter school in a league of its own. Born from the vision of two former LAUSD teachers, the school had taken students–almost entirely from Hispanic families and low socioeconomic backgrounds–from the surrounding neighborhood, and transformed their educational opportunities. By the time I had become involved with this inner city gem, its students were outperforming those in wealthy district schools of Beverly Hills. And it showed.

The tour’s purpose was not to impress parents or attract new students. It had been designed for educators and administrators from surrounding areas to share with them insights into the school’s success. It aimed to improve quality across schools and ensure that students–regardless of their families’ resources or backgrounds– had access to the environments in which they could thrive.

As an intern with the Center for Education Reform this summer, I am excited to find the organization’s mission so aligned with these same ideals. I look forward to applying the coursework of my Master in Public Affairs program toward the research, outreach, and analysis of education quality and school choice across the country. Through exposure to the issues and debates of the reform movement this summer, I hope to gain a greater appreciation of the challenges facing both parents and policymakers, and ideally, help work toward their solutions.

– Matt Beienburg, CER Intern

The transition from a public school to a charter school was not very difficult for me because, for starters, I was young and did not really understand the difference between the two. Before attending Cesar Chavez PCS: Parkside Campus I attended Burrville Elementary and before that Merritt Elementary.

The two schools shared one thing in common — none of the classrooms were enclosed with walls or doors. Everything was out in the open and once I entered the doors of Chavez I recognized this change. Chavez Parkside Campus has both middle and high school students, which was an adjustment for me mainly due to the fact that there were so many students in one school. Burrville was a big school and those who don’t know their way around could end up getting lost, but at Chavez this wasn’t the case.

It was fairly easy for me to find my way around the school due to how it is structured. When I was in middle school at Chavez the first floor belonged only to high school, the third floor belonged only to middle school, and the second floor was shared among all grade levels. Throughout the years this created a lot of congestion because occasionally a middle school class would collide with some high school students transitioning to their classes. Minor incidents like this still occur to this day.

When entering Chavez I had no idea what to expect. My parents decided to send me there because it was my neighborhood school and it was convenient for them, and I didn’t have a problem with their decision because all my friends were going there as well. Before starting at Chavez, students have to take an online test, which measures their skills in math and reading. My nerves were sky-high while taking the test because I knew that my future at Chavez depended on it.

My parents decided to send me to a charter school rather than a traditional public school because I’ve been at traditional schools all my life, and Chavez met their standards for what type of school where they wanted to send their child. Every child is nervous on the first day of school but since the majority of my classmates from Burrville were attending Chavez my nerves weren’t as bad.

One aspect that Chavez focuses on is discipline. They heavily enforce uniform policies, PAR, which stands for professional, actively engaged, and respectful, and the importance of upholding the school in a positive manner. Also, Chavez tries to focus on public policy here and there. Starting in the ninth grade, students participate in community action projects (CAP) for the last two weeks of school.

During those two weeks students select a public policy topic to focus on and they gather information along the way. Finally, on the last day of school students present their projects. Students earn fifteen hours for community service while participating in CAP. CAP allows students to take an active role solving problems that exist in their communities and society itself.

Even though Chavez is known for being one of the best charter schools in the Northeast Washington, DC area the school still has its flaws. Since Chavez is a “college prep” school I never understood why so many of the students weren’t attending some of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Many of the students are pushed towards colleges in which they are guaranteed acceptance into instead of applying to competitive colleges such as Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University.

The reason why many of our students apply to “mediocre” colleges is mainly due to the fact that they are only used to receiving a mediocre education. Several times this school year I have gone without a teacher. My pre-calculus teacher went on maternity leave during the start of the second quarter and as a result my class went without an adequate substitute teacher for the remainder of the quarter.

We went from teacher to teacher and learned practically nothing that entire quarter. I fell behind and took it upon myself to learn the material the best way that I could. An incident like this discourages students and sets them back from reaching their full academic potential. Pre-Calculus is not a very difficult course, once my teacher taught a new lesson and went over several examples I understood it.

But some improvements or additions that Chavez can add are a variety of Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors courses. Honors courses should start in the middle school portion of Chavez and carry out into high school. If students are introduced to a new level of difficulty in work at an early age, then honors and AP courses would not feel brand new to them once they enter high school. Also every grade level (9-12) should have the opportunity to participate in AP courses; the courses should not start in the eleventh grade, they should start being offered in the ninth. If more AP courses that applied to students’ respective career focus were offered, then the amount of students passing the course would increase. When individuals learn about a topic that they’re interested in they are more likely to remember that information as opposed to information from a topic that they have no interest in at all. Therefore, Chavez should offer a new variety of AP courses, such as AP Biology and Chemistry, in order to increase students’ intellectual capacities.

CER Intern, Imani Jenkins

I am almost two and a half hours into my internship here at CER. I didn’t really think that I would ever return to the DC-metropolitan area after my high school graduation, but here I am. The metro ride was long, but the weather was lovely. I am so excited to be back, and even more so, working within the network of key education policy reformers! It has been a journey looking for an appropriate internship with a public policy focus that suited my interests, but I am looking forward to a productive summer here at CER.

I did not think that my career trajectory would point anywhere near education policy until recently. I am a product of alternative education and academic enrichment programs, and with this background I have been exposed to different pedagogical philosophies; my vision for the widespread recognition of fundamental human rights has led me to an interest in human rights education and education policy.

I am majoring in Anthropology and Human Rights Studies. I intend to focus my future efforts on teacher and curriculum evaluation, but I definitely want to gain exposure to the topic of school choice. I am excited to see how my experience with CER will supplement my coursework, and how the information that I will gather in the these coming eight weeks will help to shape my view of educational institutions.

I look forward to involve the concepts and perspectives on U.S. education policy that I have learned here not only in my future coursework, but specifically in what will (hopefully) be my senior thesis: a comparative analysis of education policy and initiatives in rural versus urban areas in Madagascar (where I will be studying during Spring 2015).

My day has been encouraging insofar that I was pleased to hear what current projects the other staff members are working on during our staff meeting. It will be exciting to get to work with everyone and see how different departments within a nonprofit work to pursue practical education reform. By the summer’s end, I hope to have fully immersed myself in the topics regarding education reform, and to have been exposed to various perspectives within different arguments concerning education policy. I am super excited to see what this summer will bring!

Adiya Taylor, CER Intern

An orientation session at a college can provide you—a new undergraduate—with a lot of information concerning class registration, building locations, and activities to get involved in within your school and the community outside. At Boston University, this case is true. Yet my major takeaway from the student leaders and college deans did not concern logistics, but more so, a memorable quote that provided me with the perspective I have taken on since I began my freshman year.

Howard Thurman, Boston University’s former dean of Marsh Chapel and preacher on the idea of Common Ground, once said: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

As an English Education major, I appreciate literature and short stories, and when words form to create a sentence that resonates with my thoughts, I feel all the more inspired. I sat for a second—or what felt like forever—trying to think about what made me come alive. I don’t think I could fully say back then, but as a rising junior, I will say this: The idea of being an educator makes me come alive.

I love my future students already. I can see Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences at play in the actions and attentiveness of my third graders in Lexington, MA and of my middle-schoolers in Bangkok, Thailand. I can foresee challenges to the profession—how will I make a complicated plot in a novel seem easy to approach? How much time should I put into a vocabulary lesson? How will I design a text that tests each individual student equally? These are issues I must work on as an educator and with due time, I am confident that I will learn how.

Teachers have so much to learn, perhaps plenty more than their students. I am in the middle of my orientation—as a new intern—here at the Center for Education Reform (CER), aware of what makes me come alive and with some issues in mind that I would like to see discussed. Yet I still have so much to learn.

I suppose the big question here is: How does one reform education? I hope to learn about some of the strategies that policy-makers use to push for an issue. I aim to get to know the members of the CER staff and be of assistance to them. I want to learn more about how to research, how to advocate, and how to speak up. I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to intern at the CER. What I will learn here has an impact on my (potential) career and classroom. What a fantastic summer it will be for me to be immersed in a world where I will have the chance to think about news and issues that I care about!

Navraj Narula, CER Intern

Just over two months ago I was selecting various organizations to interview with for my fellowship at Cesar Chavez PCS- Parkside Campus. The list of organizations ranged from the medical field to politics and I had to choose wisely, because this would be my job for the last three weeks of school. Initially, I was drawn towards anything pertaining to the medical field, but several organizations regarding education caught my interest, specifically the Center for Education Reform (CER).

CER grabbed my attention because I was fascinated to learn about an organization whose main goal is to create and implement policies that will enhance the education system for years to come. After selecting my top five organizations, I was notified about which three out of the five organizations I would be interviewing with at the interview fair, which took place on March 28th, 2014.

Walking into the fair I was anxious but excited at the same time. CER was the only interview that was scheduled for me and once I sat down with Tyler Losey, who works for CER as the outreach coordinator, our conversation started to flow. He gave me background information about CER and his job with the organization while I informed him about myself, what interests me about education, and programs that I currently participate in that encourage education.

The interview concluded and I felt confident that the CER fellowship was mine! Two months later, all juniors were placed with a fellowship based off of their personal rankings of the organizations and the organizations rankings of the students. CER was ranked number one on my list and after expressing how interested I was in the organization to my fellowship teacher she placed me with CER. I couldn’t wait to start!

My first day at CER was on June 6^th, 2014 and the office was laid out and organized. I waited in the coffee room until the other two interns arrived and once they did, Mr. Losey started our orientation. He gave us a tour of the office, introduced us to the staff, and we also sat in on a weekly staff meeting. CER has a young office, therefore the other interns and I would fit in perfectly. My experience with CER has just begun and I look forward to maintaining a relationship with the organization once it’s over.

Imani Jenkins, CER Intern, a junior at César Chávez Public Charter School for Public Policy, Parkside HS Campus

When I arrived in DC at the end of April, the city and what role I might play in it were a mystery to me. For the past six weeks, CER provided me a backstage pass to the national narrative of education reform as it plays out in the DC theater. Through my work at CER, I have shared space with major players in the education scene and witnessed both the staging and implementation of effective change.

In my first blog post, I expressed a desire for tangible knowledge and experience, as opposed to theoretical. In every sense, my experience at CER has offered me just such an education. From attending Senate budget hearings inundated with political minutia to interacting with students for whom CER exists and advocates, I have accrued a mass of first-hand experiences and developed a multi-faceted understanding of education policy.

My time at the office has also fostered a deep respect for the work CER does. Equipped with twenty years of experience and expertise in the field, CER gives voice to families directly touched by local, state, and national policies. A few minutes with CER can provide a thorough understanding to policymakers whose decisions bear significant long-term impact. By relying on accuracy, transparency, and loyalty to its mission (rather than back-door dealings and cheaply purchased relationships), CER has developed unparalleled credibility among education reform groups and secured my admiration and support.

With shows like House of Cards informing public perception of DC politics, it is easy to become cynical about the future; but I dare you to attend a school groundbreaking and watch high-ranking officials bend low over a microphone to congratulate children (in their own language) on getting a shot at a brighter future, and not be moved. My experience at CER has taught me that education policy is fertile ground for the kind of incremental bipartisan change that makes for real and gratifying progress, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

CER Intern,  Anna Russell Thornton

Paul Public Charter School (PCS) held a panel discussion among African American education experts, parents, teachers, and community members to inform the public of the educational climate as well as to answer questions.

The panel was composed of African American individuals from diverse backgrounds with a common goal of improving student education. The variety of areas of expertise allowed for multiple perspectives and lenses through which topics were evaluated.

The importance of data and data driven decision-making were key talking points throughout the event. Many questions posed by the moderator Karl Reid, were answered by referring to data and/or stressing its importance. While enjoying my food that Paul PCS had graciously provided, I got a chance to speak with Dr. Bridges, Executive Director of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute. He informed me that data show that parents consider school safety a leading variable when rating school quality.

Submerged beneath the discussion of cut and dry statistics, laid the heartfelt appeals of parents and students. Presenters stressed the importance of setting high expectations and pushing their students to meet them. As I have seen from my tour at BASIS, this appears to be a common guiding principle across charter schools. According to a student at Paul Charter School, pushing students with high expectations may at times cause them to become defensive.  With hesitation in his voice, he asked how the panel might push students but refrain from making students defensive.  The panel stayed quiet for a few seconds, taken back from the honest alternate perspective, and proceeded to explain that setting high expectations was for the student’s own good.

I can only imagine young students and parents alike sitting in the audience with overwhelming potential, stifled by the labels of society, letting their imagination soar and their drives unleash as they gaze upon well-established, intelligent African American individuals.

The intended purpose of this event may have been to engage and inform, but the unspoken message of hope resonated into all hearts.

Tigran Avakyan, CER Intern