History is often the study of the leaders, the politicians, the generals, the powers that be. But when it comes to telling the story of education in the ‘90s, the usual suspects merit little more than a footnote. Behind each of the dominant trends of the 1990s--the advance of technology, the curriculum wars, the push for teacher quality, to name a few--there was not one person but hundreds. Some were education insiders, of course, but others hadn’t set foot in a classroom for years. Some purposefully sought change, while others inadvertently set the stage for it. And while some influenced policy, others transformed school culture and traditional attitudes toward education.
Here, then, are profiles of 10 such people. Though the ‘90s have seen two “education presidents” and at least a dozen “education governors,” these 10 and others like them are the decade’s most influential people.
