Matt Gandal, the assistant director of educational issues at the American Federation of Teachers, has stepped down to join the academic-standards group known as Achieve. He began his new job last week as Achieve’s director of standards, assessments, accountability, and technology.
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The independent national clearinghouse for standards, based in Washington, was created to help carry on the work of last year’s national education summit in Palisades, N.Y. It is intended to serve as a resource center for governors and business leaders on education reform, while also playing a leadership role in promoting public engagement in standards-based reform.
At the AFT, Mr. Gandal wrote several reports, including the union’s “world-class standards” reports comparing student tests in foreign countries with those in the United States and its annual report on the quality of states’ academic standards.
The Edison Project has named Christopher Cerf its new executive vice president and general counsel. Mr. Cerf is a former partner in the Washington law firm Wiley, Rein, and Fielding. In his new position, he will be responsible for managing legal issues, state and federal legislative relations, labor issues, and media outreach. The Edison Project, a private, company based in New York City, operates 25 public schools, either in partnership with local school districts or as charter schools. ... James W. Pellegrino, the dean of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody college of education and human development in Nashville, Tenn., has announced his resignation, effective in August 1998. Mr. Pellegrino is taking a one-year leave, after which he will return to teaching and research at Peabody.
Dow Tate, a journalism teacher and publications adviser to students at Hillcrest High School in Dallas, has been chosen the 1997 National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year. The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund’s Teacher Awards Program sponsors the honor. Mr. Tate, who has advised the award-winning Hillcrest Hurricane since 1988, will receive a plaque and speak at the convention of the Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association on Nov. 15 in St. Louis. A senior at Hillcrest will also receive a $1,000 college scholarship to study news-editorial journalism.
--ADRIENNE D. COLES acoles@epe.org
