The year 2014 marks the sixteenth year of work by Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. The eleven-member task force first met in 1999 and established as its mission to present pertinent facts about K–12 education, contribute to the debate with constructive commentary, and generate new ideas for education reform.
The task force was feted at the recent Hoover Institution conference on blended learning. John Raisian, the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution, said that he and Tad Taube, with the founding support of the Koret Foundation, “dreamed up the task force idea of teaming fellows together to enhance productivity.” In Raisian’s view, the task force has “made progress at influencing the [education reform] debate, and that’s satisfying.”
The task force has produced more than twenty books; reports to the governors of Texas, Florida, and Arkansas; and countless editorial commentary. The task force members also serve as the editorial board for Education Next, one of the most well respected journals in the education field. A timeline documenting the task force’s activities is available on the task force’s web page.
At the conference, Chester E. Finn Jr., task force chair, thanked the “terrific group [for] a terrific experience” and acknowledged their “stimulating work” during the past sixteen years. The complete video of Finn’s remarks is available below:
The eleven current members of the task force are John Chubb, Williamson Evers, Chester Finn, Eric Hanushek, Paul Hill, Caroline Hoxby, Tom Loveless, Terry Moe, Paul Peterson, Herb Walberg, and Grover “Russ” Whitehurst.
