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On Tuesday, interns from various public policy organizations piled onto a 7^th floor conference room where CER’s interns organized a panel discussion titled, CER Interns Present: The Next Generation in Education Reform. Preceding the panel, interns from The Center for Education Reform, the U.S. Department of Education, The Fund for America Studies, The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, The Brookings institution, and many other organizations mingled and shared stories of their experiences within their respective organizations.

Panelists sat before the future reformers to discuss current policy issues along with providing any insights that they may have concerning working in education. There was a full house of reformers featuring Kara Kerwin, President of The Center for Education Reform, Daniel Lautzenheiser, Education Policy Program Manager for the American Enterprise Institute, Jack McCarthy, President and CEO of AppleTree Institute of Education Innovation, Michael Musante, Senior Director of Government Relations for FOCUS DC, and Amber Northern, Vice president of Research for The Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The event covered a multitude of topics ranging from common criticisms of charter schools to the return on investment in education spending. The panelists also engaged in a fruitful discussion on the use of technology in the classroom and opinions on teacher tenure and union involvement in reform.

After the panel, the audience members posed challenging questions on political philosophy and bipartisan efforts, career trajectories, and classroom strategies.

Here are some of the important messages that I took away from the event

• When discussing the achievement gap, Michael Musante mentioned that a “classroom can feel like a prison” for a ninth grader who reads at a third-grade level. This really spoke to the importance of standards and expected outcomes for all students.
• Amber Northern commented that, “Technology is at its best when it questions the assumptions of what we’ve been doing in classrooms, and actually then enhances teaching and learning.” At an event speaking about reform, it was beneficial to discuss the available directions to steer the reform movement.
• Daniel Lautzenheiser spoke to how the changing policy landscape has the potential to enhance research in the future; specifically, he commented on how education savings accounts may make it easier to track the flow of spending.
• Jack McCarthy on the “humbling” experience of being an intern: “You are idealistic and naïve, and trusting and believing, and energetic and passionate. You’re sort of throwing yourself into these situations, and sometime you get bruised, and your feelings get hurt, and you feel diminished. But it’s sort of like that process of the tide coming in and cleaning up the beach every twelve hours…You will work in dysfunctional environments, but you may get the opportunity to create your own environment with your own values in the future.”
• Kara Kerwin added an insightful point towards the end of the panel, “If you know what you really believe in or stand for, you will find a career path that will make your life much more enriched.”

In the end, I found the event to be inspiring and informative.

Adiya Taylor, CER Intern