Andy Rotherham is moving on, so reported????Ed Week and now confirmed with this press release.. The brain behind uber-blog Eduwonk, who also worked at the White House, founded Education Sector, and served on the VA board of education (he's still in his 30s!!!), is leaving his gig at Ed Sector to take on new things (though he remains committed to K-12 reform).
I have plenty of very good things to say about Rotherham, who I consider a good friend. Though most know him for his sharp, timely, and funny blogging and his frequent expert commentary, Andy R. has done lots behind the scenes to help advance education reform. He was a founding board member of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, to which he provided great counsel. He's given quiet advice to too many policymakers to count and served on the boards of a number of other important organizations.
But what I give Rotherham the most credit for--and which I don't think enough folks appreciate--was his role in pushing the Democratic Party to embrace education reform. Today, with groups like Democrats for Education Reform and a Democratic administration friendly to the reform cause, it's easy to forget that the core of the left was a generally inhospitable place for talk about charters and performance pay only five or ten years ago.
For years, Rotherham was often a lonely voice pushing his party in the right direction. He took lots of heat but kept pushing. That took courage. Though he's not an ED appointee of the Obama administration--still a mystery to me--his fingerprints are all over the ideas they now espouse.
Good luck to Andy R. in his new venture(s) and the Ed Sector team.