Read through this list and be prepared for a quiz on the other side.
- Maria Bartiromo: Anchor of CNBC’s “Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo” and Anchor and Managing Editor of “Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo”
- Michael Bloomberg: Mayor, City of New York
- Cory Booker: Mayor, City of Newark, New Jersey
- Phil Bredesen: Governor, State of Tennessee
- Steven Brill: Co-founder of Journalism Online
- Tom Brokaw: NBC News Special Correspondent
- Geoffrey Canada: CEO & President of Harlem Children’s Zone Project
- David Coleman: Founder & CEO, Student Achievement Partners; Contributing Author of the Common Core Standards
- Ann Curry: News Anchor, “Today” and Anchor, “Dateline NBC”
- Arne Duncan: US Secretary of Education
- Byron Garrett: CEO of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
- Allan Golston, President, US Program, The Gates Foundation
- Jennifer M. Granholm: Governor, State of Michigan
- David Gregory: Moderator, “Meet the Press”
- Reed Hastings: Founder & CEO of Netflix
- Lester Holt: Anchor, “NBC Nightly News,” Weekend Edition and Co-Host, “Today” Weekend Edition
- Walter Isaacson: President & CEO of the Aspen Institute
- Joel Klein: Chancellor of New York City Schools
- Wendy Kopp: CEO and Founder of Teach for America
- John Legend: Musician; Founder of the Show Me Campaign
- Jack Markell: Governor, State of Delaware
- Gregory McGinity: Managing Director of Policy, The Broad Education Foundation
- Andrea Mitchell: NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and Host, “Andrea Mitchell Reports”
- Janet Murguia: President & CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
- Michael Nutter: Mayor, City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Bill Pepicello, Ph.D.: President of University of Phoenix
- Sally Ride: First Female Astronaut; Vice-chair of Change the Equation
- Michelle Rhee: Chancellor, District of Columbia Public School System of Washington, D.C.
- Edward Rust: Chairman & CEO of State Farm Insurance Companies
- Gwen Samuel, CT delegate to Mom Congress
- Barry Schuler: Former CEO of AOL
- Sterling Speirn: CEO, Kellogg Foundation
- Margaret Spellings: Former US Secretary of Education
- Antonio Villaraigosa: Mayor, City of Los Angeles, California
- Randi Weingarten: President of American Federation of Teachers (AFT-CLO)
- Brian Williams: Anchor and Managing Editor “NBC Nightly News”
From a press release for NBC/Universal’s Education Nation summit taking place later this month, these people are the “experts” they’ve gathered who will “highlight some of the biggest challenges and opportunities in education in this country, jumpstarting a national conversation about one of the most pressing issues of our time”.
Your assignment is to find any current K12 students on that list.
Can you spot any current K12 teachers in there? Principals? Librarians?
How about any non-celebrity parents of K12 students (other than the “CT delegate to Mom Congress”)?
Is there someone with ideas NOT rooted in the traditional, 20th century, pre-internet, teacher-directed, information-delivery, standardized-testing-heavy, college-focused model of public education?
Anyone? Bueller?
Update (later that same day): Brian at Learning is Messy posts an open letter to NBC also asking where are the people actually involved in day-to-day education. I hope he posts the non-response he gets in return.
I can buy the college professors. What happens in high school has a direct effect on their institution. However, what does the CEO of Netflix know about K-12 education, other than what he (or his family) personally experienced?
The fact that so many non-educators have such a large impact on education is frightening. I wonder what state exams would look like if the National Academy of Sciences wrote them. Or if #statename Council for Social Studies had some input. I’d be more interested in their opinion over John Legend’s.
I would presume Lady Gaga gets added later? That is about the extent of this. A publicity stunt to act as if they really care about reforming public education.
Margaret Spellings? Really?
Michelle Rhee? What has she done laudable?
The guy from State Farm? He won’t even tell me why my home owners insurance is the highest in the nation. How can he tell me how to fix public ed?
Arne Duncan? We already know how out of touch he is. Why prove it some more?
President of a teacher union? Get real. We know that agenda. Next.
Maria Bartiromo? If you have to put your Maria Bartiromo name in every Maria Bartiromo show you do, you must not be that Maria Bartiromo important.
CEO of Netflix? That’s just too easy to joke about.
Mayor of Philly? Best thing he can do is call in sick and send Chris Lehmann in to pinch hit.
I should end my diatribe on that note. If they all call in sick and send Chris Lehmann, I’m in. I’ll even DVR it. Otherwise, meh.
I wouldn’t mind Spellings, Duncan and Rhee if this program was also going to give voice to some advocates for genuine school reform like Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravich, Gary Stager and Chris Lehmann. Everyone on the list whose educational philosophy I know (and I’m also puzzled by the likes of Maria Bartiromo who already works for NBC so I guess she’s a cheap addition) think reform is more of the same only in different packages (charters, merit pay, standardized testing to the nth degree).