The Department of Education Twenty-Five Years Later

Public Law 96-88, signed by President Jimmy Carter in October 1979, formally established the U.S. Department of Education in 1980. In recognition of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the department, please join AEI as we examine lessons learned about the crafting of federal education policy from the department’s first quarter century.

What are the structural and political limitations on educational leadership at the federal level? How has education policy evolved in the last twenty-five years? What is the most productive way for a secretary to work with the White House and Congress? These questions and others will be examined by former secretaries of education William Bennett, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Rod Paige. Andrew Rotherham, former education advisor to President Bill Clinton, will join in the conversation. AEI director of education policy studies Frederick M. Hess will moderate.

About the Author

 

Frederick M.
Hess



  • An educator, political scientist and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. He is the author of influential books on education including “The Same Thing Over and Over,” “Education Unbound,” “ Common Sense School Reform,” “ Revolution at the Margins” and “Spinning Wheels,” and he pens the Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, National Affairs, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on education philanthropy, stretching the school dollar, the impact of education research and No Child Left Behind.  He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the review boards for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the Broad Prize for Public School Charters as well as on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.


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  • Email: rhess@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Lauren Aronson
    Phone: 202-862-5904
    Email: lauren.aronson@aei.org
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