October, 1996. No. 30. This month looks closely at the rhetoric in the school reform wars, and ask readers for help in solving a few ed reform mysteries.
Goldberg, Milton
January 22, 2015 By
Milton Goldberg is a recognized leader and consultant on education policy, research and practice. He began his career as a teacher and administrator with the Philadelphia Public Schools and received his BA and MA in English literature and his Doctorate in Education from Temple University. He then taught education courses at Temple University and Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.
From 1975 to1995, Mr. Goldberg held various leadership positions in the U.S. Department of Education. In 1983 he served as the Executive Director of the National Commission on Excellence in Education which issued the landmark report, A Nation at Risk—a report generally credited with starting the nation-wide education reform movement. As Director of the Office of Research in 1989, he was instrumental in the development of the national education goals for President George H. W. Bush’s education summit with the governors. In 1994 he served as the Executive Director of the National Education Commission on Time and Learning which released the report, Prisoners of Time, exploring ways to improve student learning in and out of school.
Dr. Goldberg served as a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Education Commission of the States (ECS) from 2002 through 2005 and from 1995 – 2002, he was the Executive Vice President of the National Alliance of Business, an organization of business leaders dedicated to the improvement of American education.
He has served on the boards of the Albert Shanker Institute, the National Center for Adult Literacy at the University of Pennsylvania, the National Center on Time and Learning, the George Lucas Education Foundation, the National Research Center on Evaluation and Assessment at UCLA and was previously Chairman of the Board for Jones International University.
Williams, Polly
January 22, 2015 By
The late Annette “Polly” Williams, the “Mother of School Choice”, was an early leader in the education reform movement, fighting for choice in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Polly later served as a member of the Wisconsin Assembly and went on to become the longest-serving woman in the state legislature. Before her retirement in 2010, she helped found the African American Education Council, an organization that brought black residents to the table in reform efforts throughout Milwaukee schools. She has been credited as the author of the very first school choice legislation and galvanized support for its implementation from then- Governor Tommy Thompson and the former mayor of Milwaukee, John Norquist. So awe-inspiring were Williams’ legislative efforts that, during his time as Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton sent a letter in 1990 urging Williams to “keep up the good work” against the status quo in education. Williams was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including recognition from the New York Times as one of the “13 innovators who changed education in the 20th century”.
Known for placing conviction ahead of politics, Williams once said, “And it really doesn’t matter who’s in the White House, the statehouse, the court house, or city hall. It doesn’t matter who controls any of those houses. It matters who controls our house. Parents have got to be in control of their own home and their own children, and then parents make those decisions. All these other houses [should] respond and respect what parents want for their children.” Sadly, Williams passed away in late 2014 at the age of 77.