CER’s Annual Holiday & Christmas Convo Guide
‘Tis the season to be jolly, until Aunt Suzie walks in, sets her cookie tray down on the table, and starts railing on the latest political ad or poll she saw. You nod, smile and consider the best way to refocus the conversation. Whatever your holiday of choice, that’s where CER’s Annual Holiday & Christmas Convo tips come in.
Let’s face it. An edreformer’s job is never done. So after you’ve caught up on cousin Bill’s kids, downed some eggnog and have reached a lull in the conversation, it’s time to educate and cultivate some new advocates.
I learned about the most amazing school this year, you blurt out. It is located in one of the hardest hit areas of Washington D.C. (or NY, or Boston, or NOLA) and its kids are 75% more proficient than most other kids in the area.
“What?,” Uncle Frank, asks. “How is that possible?”
Well it’s a successful charter school, and its leaders, educators and parents have the freedom and flexibility to operate – along with having to be accountable for performance – in real time.
“I thought Hillary Clinton said charter schools were bad,” your ‘enlightened’ Sister says.
Actually, Sis, she got her talking points wrong. Evidence shows charter school students in most of the nation’s most deprived areas actually score as much as 8 to 10 percentage points higher in reading and math.
“Now, now,” says Auntie Em. “I was a public school teacher for 40 years and we did a great job. Kids are just different these days.”
They are different, and they have more needs. But we also have more data today than you did, and standards against which students are judged. The reality is that we’re an increasingly global society, and with the U.S. ranking 27th in math and 17th in reading out of 34 countries, even our best-performing kids need better learning opportunities, public, private or charter.
“Well, that might be true, but what can we do about that?” says young cousin Tillie whose three kids are clearly showing signs of fatigue. “That’s not our job.”
Actually it is, you say, calmly. Whether you have 1, 5, 10 or 60 minutes a week to work on this, there is a role for you to play in helping to expand educational opportunity for all children. Educational innovation or reform as some still call it not only transcends most political divides but the reality is that over the past two decades the progress we’ve made in schools and for children is owing largely to the disruptive and challenging presence of charter schools and school choice laws.
The Center for Education Reform has been instrumental in creating and stimulating most of those laws and since most of us don’t have the time to get involved, we should write them a check to keep doing the heavy lifting of leading the charge and challenging the status quo!
#HANDSOFFOURFUTURE. A mother doing laundry says she’s lucky because she found hope and opportunity for her family all because she happened to see a poster for a charter school at the 
WHAT DOES NERO HAVE TO DO WITH EDREFORM? Over the past few weeks, the nation has continued to witness a number of seemingly unrelated but very connected events that point to a real Nero problem, about which all but a few seem relatively unaware, or perhaps unwilling to do something about. In short, we are fiddling while Rome burns.
A Grand Finale
Three months ago I walked into the 7th floor office of the Center for Education with wide eyes and butterflies in my stomach. At that time I thought I knew a good bit about education policy, I am an Ed Wonk, I told myself as I embarked on my semester in Washington. My time at CER has allowed me to put my prior knowledge to work, but it has also taught me just how much I have left to learn.
It was an exciting time to be working in the world of education. I have had the chance to follow education stories as they developed, like the Supreme Court case in Washington state against charter schools and the debate around the Opportunity Scholarship Program here in Washington DC. It was great timing that I also got to witness the historic process of reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). It was especially interesting to observe this process from the dual perspectives of my two internships with CER and the US Senate. Watching as President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law on my 22nd birthday, December 10, 2015, was definitely the highlight of my semester.
I have loved every minute of these past few months. From attending discussion events at Washington think tanks to conducting charter and parent outreach, I am grateful for all of the work I have gotten to do for an organization that is working to pursue meaningful education reform. Each day at CER has been full of new challenges, interesting work, and exciting learning opportunities. And I have thoughtfully crafted my personal opinions on national education issues like school choice, state standards and teacher preparation processes.
Everything I have observed and learned with CER will be important as I pursue future opportunities in the education field. I am certain now that, after my graduation in May, I will continue on to a career committed to improving urban education. Whether I become a teacher in Brooklyn or a policy researcher in Washington, I will never forget my time working in this amazing place.
Lindsay Uhlinger, CER Intern