Harvard Education Expert Speaks in Atlanta on No Child Left Behind
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

January 20, 2004

Contact:
Martha Nunez
Child Policy Initiative
404.463.9563
marthanu@gsu.edu

ATLANTA – As debate rages on the merits and shortcomings of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind education strategy, a leading voice in education policy will assess the effort’s first year with a lecture in Atlanta on January 26.

Gary Orfield, professor of education and social policy and the co-founding director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, will kick off the Child Policy Speaker Series, sponsored by the Child Policy Initiative at Georgia State University. His topic is Can the Federal Government Drive State and Local Education Policy? Lessons of the First Year of No Child Left Behind.

Dr. Orfield has said that the bill enacting No Child Left Behind “was an 1100-page document calling for impossible achievements that have never been accomplished anywhere.” He and his colleagues commissioned and delivered 14 studies to Congress that addressed issues related to the legislation. Yet, the Congress agreed to education reform that “reflected none of what’s known in educational research,” according to Dr. Orfield.

The program is scheduled for Monday, January 26, 2004, at 3:30 p.m. at Central Atlanta Progress, located in downtown Atlanta’s Hurt Building at 50 Hurt Plaza.

Headquartered in the Georgia Health Policy Center of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, the Child Policy Initiative works to improve the quality of child policy in Georgia through the skillful application of current research and analysis.

Additional information and upcoming programs of the Child Policy Speaker Series are online at www. andrewyoungschool.org.
______________________________________________

• Child Policy Speaker Series, sponsored by the Child Policy Initiative at Georgia State University
• Monday, January 26, 2004 at 3:30 p.m.
• Central Atlanta Progress, 50 Hurt Plaza in downtown Atlanta
• Dr. Gary Orfield, co-founding director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard, will present: Can the Federal Government Drive State and Local Education Policy? Lessons of the First Year of No Child Left Behind.

CONTACT:
Martha Nunez, Child Policy Initiative
404.463.9563
marthanu@gsu.edu

###