Three, or trois as President Bush might say, upcoming events you don’t want to miss. You can see your eduheroes and eduvillains in the flesh:
First, next Tuesday the 29th, from noon until 2 the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is hosting a national standards smackdown! Ed Week’s Lynn Olson gets to be zookeeper as Bob Wise, former West Virginia governor and president, Alliance for Excellent Education, Gene Hickok, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education and senior policy director, Dutko Worldwide, Joan Baratz Snowden, director of educational issues, American Federation of Teachers, and Chester E. Finn, Jr., president, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation fight it out. But, there is a purpose! Fordham’s releasing an interesting paper (disc: I contributed so it’s not 100 percent interesting!) looking at the issues and ways out of the thicket. It’s at the National Press Club and you get a free lunch! By the way, the paper seriously raises the barr for cheesiness in titling these things…bravo!
Then, if that’s not enough, the following Tuesday, Sept. 5th from 3:45 – 6:30, you can meet and actually touch AEI’s I’m Rick Hess Bit*h when he hosts a panel to release his new book on educational entrepreneurism (it’s a good book). And, from 5:30-6:30 you get to drink and eat corporate funded wine and cheese! It’s an all-star panel, KIPP’s Michael Feinberg, NTP’s Michelle Rhee, and Chris Whittle of Edison Schools. The phrase “rose between two thorns” does keep bouncing around my head…
So now you’re reeling from over-stimulation, but the hits keep coming because on September 12th, at the National Press Club, from 1 – 2:30 you can actually see nationally known man-hater Sara Mead debate gender issues in education with Georgetown’s Harry Holzer and USA Today’s Richard Whitmire. That promises to be interesting considering the media circus that greeted Mead’s report on the subject.
It’s all too much, I know! Get your rest now.
Update: There’s more! Friday, September 8, 9:30 – 11 AM. Center For American Progress is hosting an event on weighted student funding based on the manifesto from earlier this summer. Featuring CAP star Cindy Brown, PBS’ John Merrow and a diverse cast of characters: Arlene Ackerman, former superintendent, San Francisco Unified School District and the Christian A. Johnson, Professor at Teacher’s College, Columbia University; Rod Paige, former secretary of education and chairman, Chartwell Education Group; John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress; Michael Rebell, executive director, the Campaign for Educational Equity and Professor of Law and Educational Practice at Teachers College, Columbia University. This one will be very interesting, too.