- It’s usually best to make laws after first collecting an abundance of relevant information (though Congress tends to treat research funding about the same way that Dracula treats garlic). Certainly this is true in education, where the institutional opacity of schools and districts can only be penetrated with the help of mounds of student data. But the recent public kerfuffle over privacy, enflamed by widespread concern over domestic surveillance and rogue hackers, is starting to imperil the data that educators need to improve schooling. Senator David Vitter’s proposed FERPA overhaul would effectively shut down information dissemination between schools and researchers, which has fueled some of the most critical educational advances of the last few decades. We’re not really sure why the government would want to blindly construct policy, but Vitter probably understands the virtues of discretion better than most.
- The prolific blogger and education policy poobah Rick Hess, on the other hand, is an open book. In a profile in the latest issue of Ed. Magazine, we get an enthralling look at the career of a reform titan and official Friend of Fordham—from his humble beginnings as a Harvard Ph.D. to the lofty posts he now occupies at AEI and Education Next. In between gobs of slavering praise from various figures in the education community was a sage description from none other than Diane Ravitch: “He has strong opinions, but he’s respectful of people who disagree with him. In the polarized world that we live in, it enables him to be heard across the political spectrum.” Yep, sounds about right.
