Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar at AEI and executive editor of Education Next. Mr. Hess’s books include Revolution at the Margins, Spinning Wheels, School Choice in the Real World, and Bringing the Social Sciences Alive. Mr. Hess’s work has appeared in many publications, including Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Teachers College Record, Policy Studies Journal, Urban Education, Educational Policy, Education and Urban Society, Urban Affairs Review, American Experiment Quarterly, American School Board Journal, Phi Delta Kappan, Education Week, and School Administrator. Mr. Hess currently serves as a faculty associate of the Harvard University Program in Education Policy and Governance, on the National Working Commission on Choice in K-12 Education, on the Review Board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education, and on the Research Advisory Board for the National Center for Educational Accountability. Before joining AEI, Mr. Hess taught as a professor of education and politics at the University of Virginia and served as a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Chester E. Finn Jr. scholar, educator, and public servant, has devoted most of his career to improving education in the United States. As a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and senior editor of Education Next, his main focus is the reform of primary and secondary schooling. From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Finn served as assistant secretary for Research and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education. Author of thirteen books and over 300 articles, his work has appeared in the Weekly Standard, Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, the Public Interest, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Education Week, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Harvard Business Review, and the Boston Globe. He writes a weekly column in the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation’s Education Gadfly.

Marvin H. Kosters is a resident scholar and the director of economic policy studies at AEI and the series editor of the AEI Evaluative Studies. He served as a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and at the White House Office of the Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs. Mr. Kosters held a senior policy position at the U.S. Cost of Living Council and a research position at the RAND Corporation. He is the author of Wage Levels and Inequality (1998). He edited The Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment (1996); Personal Saving, Consumption, and Tax Policy (1992); and Workers and Their Wages (1991). He is also the coeditor of Trade and Wages: Leveling Wages Down? (1994) and of Reforming Regulation (1980). Mr. Kosters has contributed to the American Economic Review and the Public Interest. He is coauthor of Closing the Education Achievement Gap: Is Title I Working?, published by AEI Press (June 2003).

Brent D. Mast is a research fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation. His research focuses on telecommunications, education, crime, and public choice. A former research associate at AEI, he also taught economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, and Miami University of Ohio. He is coauthor of Redistribution from Social Security (forthcoming). He is coauthor of Closing the Education Achievement Gap: Is Title I Working?, published by AEI Press (June 2003).

Jay Mathews is an education reporter and columnist for the Washington Post, where he has been a local, national, foreign, and business correspondent for thirty-two years. He joined the Post as a local reporter in 1971. In 1976 he became the Post bureau chief in Hong Kong. He coauthored a book, One Billion: A China Chronicle (Random House), with his wife Linda Mathews in 1983. From 1981 to 1992, Mr. Mathews was the Post bureau chief in Los Angeles, where he wrote two books, Escalante: The Best Teacher in America, and A Mother’s Touch. He won the National Education Reporting Award in 1984 for a series on job retraining for automobile workers. From 1992 to 1997, he covered financial markets and business news for the Post in New York. Mr. Mathews’ fourth book, Class Struggle: What’s Wrong (and Right) with America’s Best Public High Schools, was published by Times Books in March 1998. His new book on college admissions, Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College that is Best for You, was published by Prima in 2003. His column, "Class Struggle", now appears each Tuesday on the Post’s website http://www.washingtonpost.com. He won the 1999 Benjamin Fine Award for Outstanding Education Reporting for both feature writing and column writing.