Ronald A. Wolk, the founder of Education Week and for 19 years the president of the organization that publishes it, said last week he is withdrawing from the day-to-day management of Editorial Projects in Education.
Virginia B. Edwards, the newspaper’s editor, was named the new president of the nonprofit corporation, which also publishes Teacher Magazine.
Mr. Wolk, 65, has been elected the chairman of the board of directors and will retain the title of publisher until January 1998.
He said he will continue to oversee Quality Counts, the newspaper’s annual report on education in the 50 states that was first published in January. As chairman, he will work closely with Ms. Edwards on organizational business while spending more time on projects of his own.
“I want to be free from the pressures and deadlines of the day-to-day work so that I can devote more of my time to my own writing,” Mr. Wolk said. “I’ve wanted for some time to be in a position to express views on education that I feel deeply about. But that wasn’t appropriate in the position I held.”
New Directions
His announcement last week to staff members gathered in the company’s Washington offices marked the most dramatic leadership change in the 16-year history of Education Week.
Mr. Wolk, a former Brown University vice president, became the president of Editorial Projects in 1978 and launched the newspaper three years later, becoming its first editor. Since then, its circulation has grown to more than 50,000, and the organization has expanded from a staff of 19 to more than 70 employees.
Ms. Edwards said she expects that growth to continue.
“Our goal remains to provide the kind of information that helps policymakers and educators make sound decisions,” she said, “and we’ll continue to explore new avenues of providing that information.”
Ms. Edwards, 41, a former reporter and editor with The Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisville, Ky., has been with Editorial Projects since 1989. She has been the editor since December 1995.
