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Unlocking the Future

Bold Visions Needed to Solve Pandemic-related Education Setbacks

A new collection of essays by leading education thinkers offers pathways to addressing the devastating impact the pandemic had and continues to have on our nation’s K-12 students.

Released today, Opportunity America’s “Unlocking the Future: Toward a New Reform Agenda for K-12 Education,” is a collection of essays from researchers, advocates and practitioners from across the political spectrum.

Understandably, as a result of pandemic-related regression among many students, parents are angry and want more control over their children’s schools. However, there’s no political consensus about what needs to be done and no left-right coalition in place to drive reform.

While offering different solutions, the essayists agree on the need for bold, dramatic, far-reaching change to produce schools that work for the nation’s children.

The essayists include John Bailey, nonresident senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Derrell Bradford, president, 50CAN;  Denise Forte, president and CEO, The Education Trust;  Paul Herdman, president and CEO, Rodel Foundation of Delaware; Tamar Jacoby, president, Opportunity America; Robin Lake, director, Center on Reinventing Public Education; 

Will Marshall, president and founder, Progressive Policy Institute;  Frances Messano, CEO, NewSchools Venture Fund; Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute; and Keri Rodrigues, founding president, National Parents Union. 

Other essayists are Andrew Rotherham, co-founder and external relations leader, Bellwether; Ian Rowe, founder, Vertex Partnership Academies; Jessica Schurz, research associate, American Enterprise Institute; and Matt Sigelman, president, Burning Glass Institute.

Read the entire essay collection, including:

Let’s Expand Schools’ Thinking about Student Success

Nothing About Us Without Us

Schools Want Engaged Parents in Theory but Ignore Their Reality

Let’s Open A Marketplace of Schools

Mark R. Lowery
Mark R. Lowery is managing editor of Ed Post. He is a veteran journalist who has managed national magazines and worked for major newspapers, including New York Newsday, the Detroit Free Press and the Plain Dealer. He previously served as editorial director of October Research.

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