When Chester E. Finn Jr.鈥攁lready one of Washington鈥檚 best-known education policy entrepreneurs鈥攖ook charge of an unknown foundation in Dayton, Ohio, in 1997, the match quickly blossomed into a fruitful marriage.
Drawing on a nearly $50 million endowment in need of a mission, Mr. Finn, in the decade since, has shaped the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation into one of the most provocative and prolific platforms for education ideas in the country. Scores of manifestos, reports, books, newspaper op-eds, editions of the 91制片厂视频 Gadfly e-mail newsletter, and think tank confabs have widely cast Fordham鈥檚 credo: High academic standards and a robust menu of school choice will reinvent and improve American education.
But what kind of imprint Mr. Finn, known by friends and colleagues as Checker, has made as the president of the foundation is hotly debated.
鈥淧lenty of people knew Checker, but when Fordham appeared on the scene, I think most people said, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 that?鈥� 鈥� said Christopher T. Cross, an education consultant who was an assistant U.S. secretary of education in the first Bush administration.
Now, ask like-minded thinkers, and Fordham gets credit for forcing change in the direction of academic rigor and standards and helping move charter schools into the political mainstream. Ask opponents of Fordham鈥檚 view of the world, and they criticize the foundation鈥檚 ideology, research, and what some believe to be downright hostility toward public schooling.
Becoming a Player
When the Fordham Foundation opened up shop in Washington 10 years ago, its identity was inseparable from that of Mr. Finn. The popular shorthand for the foundation in those early days was 鈥淐hecker. Charters. Choice.鈥�
Mr. Finn first got fired up about education as a young graduate student working on poverty issues in Cambridge, Mass. By the time he was established in Washington, however, his r茅sum茅 reinforced what many believed was, and is, his often traditional and conservative notion of what public education should be, although he prefers the adjective 鈥渞adical鈥� to describe his views.
He鈥檚 a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy and has three degrees from Harvard University. He worked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late Democratic senator from New York, served as an assistant secretary of education in the Reagan administration, and was an education professor for 21 years at Vanderbilt University. He was also a founding partner in the Edison Project, the forerunner to Edison Schools Inc., the noted experiment with for-profit public schooling.
鈥淲hen I first met Checker 12 years ago, I thought he was a right-wing lunatic who talked all the time about privatization and vouchers,鈥� said Kati Haycock, the director of the 91制片厂视频 Trust, a Washington-based advocacy group that pushes for greater academic rigor for disadvantaged students.
In collaboration with the education historian Diane Ravitch, who later served as an assistant education secretary under President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Finn in 1981 created the 91制片厂视频al Excellence Network, a loose-knit collection of scholars and policymakers who shared research and ideas and wrote often about their views of education reform. Typically, they championed strong academic standards and results-based accountability.
With connections to the wealthy Fordham family in his hometown of Dayton鈥攈is grandfather had been the lawyer for Thomas B. Fordham, the industrialist whose fortune was used by his widow to create a charitable foundation in 1959鈥擬r. Finn, 62, saw an opportunity to attach the network鈥檚 education ideas to an institution that could provide a reliable stream of financial support to disseminate them.
He was on the Fordham Foundation鈥檚 board of trustees during the years when Thelma Fordham Pruett, the widow of the industrialist, 鈥渞an it as a checkbook in a desk drawer to give money to her favorite charities,鈥� Mr. Finn said. After she died in 1995, and Fordham鈥檚 endowment ballooned to $50 million, Mr. Finn persuaded the other board members to let him take the reins and brought in his education allies, including Ms. Ravitch, to serve on the board.
鈥淚 said, 鈥楲et鈥檚 work on education in Dayton,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Finn recalled in a recent interview. 鈥淏ut I was also thinking that this is enough money to make us a player in the national debate.鈥�
Carrying the Torch
Fordham operates on a roughly $4 million annual budget; about half comes from the endowment, the rest from outside sources such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Those grants are managed by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the legal entity set up to receive external financing for projects.
With a staff of 13, Fordham churns out at least 12 reports a year, produces the sharply written Gadfly for the free weekly鈥檚 more than 7,000 e-mail subscribers, and is often a host, co-host, or participant in the frequent education policy 鈥渟alons鈥� held in Washington.
Mr. Finn鈥檚 style鈥攕cholarly, yet combative and witty鈥攎akes him a favorite of many policy experts and journalists.
And his policy prot茅g茅 Michael J. Petrilli, 33, who served as an associate assistant deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of 91制片厂视频 during the current President Bush鈥檚 first term, has become almost as ubiquitous in those circles as Mr. Finn in his job as Fordham鈥檚 vice president for national programs and policy. (Earlier in his career, Mr. Petrilli worked as a research assistant for 91制片厂视频 Week鈥檚 Quality Counts report.)
Read the related story,
Fordham鈥檚 mission to push for its brand of school improvement both nationally and in Ohio is unusual.
But it was Fordham鈥檚 unrelenting call for standards-based reform that propelled it into the national spotlight, and high standards remains its marquee issue.
With the July 1998 release of a highly critical, state-by-state evaluation of academic standards, Fordham grabbed the attention of academics, policymakers, state schools chiefs, and editorial writers. With an easy-to-understand letter grading system, 鈥淭he StateofStateStandards鈥� gave more than half the states a D for their overall efforts. The evaluation was a summary of five earlier reports issued by Fordham that had deemed many state鈥檚 content standards for mathematics, science, history, geography, and English unacceptable.
The foundation has kept up its reviews of state standards, and released its latest state-by-state examination this past August.
鈥淚t鈥檚 terribly important for somebody to responsibly carry this torch on standards, and I think that they really have,鈥� said Ms. Haycock of the 91制片厂视频 Trust, who has collaborated with Fordham in recent years on projects to improve standards.
Critics of Fordham, however, argue that the foundation鈥檚 work on standards has not been fair.
Social studies standards have been a favorite target for Mr. Finn, who once likened leaders in the social studies field to 鈥渓unatics鈥� and wrote in a report in 2003 that they 鈥渨ere inclined to view America鈥檚 evolution as a problem for humanity rather than mankind鈥檚 last, best hope. ...鈥�
Richard Theisen, a high school social studies teacher in Minnesota for 35 years and a past president of the National Council for the Social Studies, has tangled with Mr. Finn and his foundation.
鈥淔ordham is in an attack mode that identifies what, in their conservative or neoconservative view, is wrong,鈥� he said, 鈥渞ather than engaging in an honest, one-on-one dialogue about the strengths and limitations of our programs.鈥�
Kenneth R. Howe, an education professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, wrote a review of Fordham鈥檚 latest report on state standards for the Think Tank Review Project, jointly created by the 91制片厂视频 and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado and the 91制片厂视频 Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University.
Fordham鈥檚 research on standards was fatally flawed, he writes, without evidence to back up why it assigned certain letter grades to states and without establishing a positive relationship between the grades it gave to states and the academic performance of students as measured by the National Assessment of 91制片厂视频al Progress.
In an e-mail to 91制片厂视频 Week, Mr. Howe said Fordham 鈥渟hapes research conclusions and policy recommendations to fit with its hidebound, partisan commitments,鈥� and said that without a willingness by the foundation to have its research subjected to peer review, its findings shouldn鈥檛 be taken seriously.
Shunning Predictability
Mr. Finn insists he is no ideologue. 鈥淭he last thing I want to be is predictable,鈥� he said.
Perhaps with that fear in mind, he has forged alliances with politically diverse groups such as the 91制片厂视频 Trust. This year, the foundation recruited three 91制片厂视频 Trust leaders, including Ms. Haycock, and John D. Podesta, who was chief of staff to President Clinton and is now the president of the Center for American Progress, a Democratic-oriented Washington think tank, as signatories to its 鈥淔und the Child鈥� manifesto in support of a new method of school funding. (鈥淐all for 鈥榃eighted鈥� Student Funding Gets Bipartisan Stamp of Approval,鈥� July 12, 2006.)
But Mr. Finn鈥檚 membership on the board of directors of K12 Inc., a company founded in 1999 by former U.S. Secretary of 91制片厂视频 William J. Bennett that develops and sells Web-based curricula for home-schoolers and 鈥渧irtual鈥� charter schools, has drawn scrutiny.
Mr. Finn, who holds stock options in K12, said he takes care to avoid any conflicts of interest between his role with the privately held company and the Fordham Foundation. For example, he said, he turned down an opportunity for Fordham to sponsor a K12 virtual charter school in Ohio.
Alex Molnar, an education professor and the director of the 91制片厂视频 Policy Studies Laboratory who is a frequent critic of Fordham, said there鈥檚 no way to know if there is a conflict of interest.
鈥淭here isn鈥檛 any transparency at all,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e just have to take Mr. Finn鈥檚 word for it.鈥�
Even one of his longest-term colleagues does not agree with Mr. Finn鈥檚 solicitation of outside funding to support Fordham鈥檚 work.
鈥淥ne of Fordham鈥檚 greatest strengths has been its independence, and I don鈥檛 think it should be taking money from other groups,鈥� said Ms. Ravitch, who has been on Fordham鈥檚 board of trustees for 10 years. 鈥淭o be a gadfly means to stand apart and be able to blow the whistle on anybody and everybody.鈥�
With the revamped foundation approaching its 10th anniversary, Mr. Finn ordered up examinations of its work and impact. He hired a former editor at The Christian Science Monitor to write a report and contracted with the 91制片厂视频 Research Center, a sibling of 91制片厂视频 Week, to conduct an 鈥渋nfluence survey鈥� to size up which people, organizations, information sources, and studies have had the most impact on education policy in the past decade. Mr. Finn, the foundation, and the Gadfly made the top 10 lists, but not Fordham鈥檚 reports.
Mr. Finn himself professes to be reluctant to assess the foundation鈥檚 mark. Asked if a superintendent of schools in the Midwest would have heard of Fordham and read its reports and manifestos, Mr. Finn hesitates for a moment.
鈥淗e or she might know of us, but probably isn鈥檛 on our mailing list, which is our mistake,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut even if they were, they probably wouldn鈥檛 read our stuff, which is their mistake.鈥�
