Education Week - March 8, 2017 - 11

New Magazine Seeks 'Civil Discourse' on K-12
By Denisa R. Superville
Former Los Angeles superintendent John E. Deasy is heading up
a new magazine for school district
leaders aimed at promoting civil discourse in education.
The magazine, called The Line,
promises to examine some of the
most vexing education issues-from
school funding and school choice to
the impacts of immigration and accountability-but to do so in a way
that will cultivate consensus and
learning rather than calcify differences, according to Deasy. Frontline
Education, a technology company
that markets its software to school
administrators, helped found the
magazine and is providing financial
backing for the publication, which
will be free to educators.
The magazine is neither left, right,
nor center, Deasy said, and, in an increasingly polarized political environment, will endeavor to be a venue
where educators can present ideas
and learn from each other-particularly from those who may hold ideologically different views.
"It's an incredibly challenging
point in the country, and I really
think that without both using and
modeling civil discourse in education, common ground is really going
to erode under our feet," said Deasy,
who is The Line's editor-in-chief.
"And that's going to have a pro-

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foundly detrimental effect on the ...
young people in our public schools."
Deasy resigned from his post as
schools chief in Los Angeles in 2014
after an at-times tumultous tenure
there.
The magazine made its debut in
print and online last week. Some of
its inaugural articles offer a glimpse
into how the magazine intends to
try to bridge divides.

Differing Viewpoints
One article, based on email correspondence between Deasy and Chester E. Finn Jr., a senior fellow and
president emeritus at the conservative, Washington-based Thomas B.
Fordham Institute, shows the two
men discussing whether lawmakers
and everyday Americans fully understand the economic impacts of a
"failing education system," the ways
in which schools need to change,
and how people from different regions-urban and rural, black and
white-can come together to think
about K-12 schooling.
Deasy said he was surprised at
how much they agreed.
Another article looks at a perennial
K-12 concern-school funding-and
approaches districts and states have
taken to maximize their resources.
And the issue includes discussions
of the Every Student Succeeds Act
implementation by Arne Duncan, the

former education secretary; Michael
Mcgee, the CEO of Chiefs for Change;
and Hanna Skandera, the education
secretary in New Mexico.
It also featured a "leader spotlight," with Kaya Henderson, the
former District of Columbia schools
chancellor.
Members of the magazine's editorial advisory board reflect its effort
to represent political and geographic
diversity, as well as the perspectives
of individuals who serve in different education roles. Advisory board
members include Frederick Hess,
resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute;
Tom Boasberg, the Denver superintendent; Paul Toner, the executive
director of Teach Plus Massachusetts
and the former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association;
Vicki Phillips, the former head of
K-12 grants at The Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation; and Allen Grossman, a senior fellow at the Harvard
Business School.
Toner, a longtime union leader, said
the magazine's approach to finding
common ground was similar to the
path that has guided his career.
"I have found throughout my career that the unions that claim all
the education reformers are ill-intentioned are misinformed, and all
the ed-reformers who claim that all
union leaders want to put up road-

blocks and prevent good things from
happening and are only focused on
self-interest, are also incorrect,"
he said. "I really think in a perfect
world we would bring these people
together and have a serious dialogue about how we work together."
William Hite, the Philadelphia
superintendent, is a member of the
editorial advisory board. He said
the publication could be an essential resource.
"This inability ... to be respectful when there is difference in our
country right now is concerning," he
said. "I do think here is an opportunity for everyone to learn from those
differences."

Less Yelling
Hess agreed that there should be
less yelling and more listening in
education debates.
But, he said later, actions are ultimately more important than words.
"It's hard to create policies, routines, and systems that support
teaching and learning when we are
engaged in bitter fights and calling
each other nasty names," he said. "I
think if we can talk about things,
disagree about these questions in
a more responsible, serious fashion,
that lets us tackle things like accountability and choice and virtual
learning and teacher-quality in a
way that doesn't let us get stuck in

The Line magazine, whose debut
print issue is seen above, will
present an array of viewpoints
on pressing K-12 issues.

some of the potholes that we have
been stuck in in recent years."
The Line emerged from several
discussions between Deasy and Tim
Clifford, the CEO of Frontline Education, after the two met at a conference in Boston last year. Frontline
had recently launched a research
arm, Frontline Research & Learning
Institute, and was looking to expand
its role in districts beyond being a
vendor to share insights from data
it had amassed over the years from
working with districts.
The magazine will be published
twice in print this year, but will be
updated more regularly online. Online users will be able to annotate
articles as they read them and participate in discussions in what Clifford calls an online "town green."
The magazine will be available online at TheLineK12.com.

China's Education Market:
What K-12 Companies Should Know
China's education market offers enticing opportunities for K-12 providers. What are the biggest areas
of demand from schools and families, and what are pitfalls that education companies in the United
States and other countries need to avoid, if they're going to find buyers for their products?
GUESTS
* LAURIE CHIU-MAR, Asia Pacific sales director,
PASCO Scientific
* DIANE GLASS, director of business
and higher education, International School Consultancy
MODERATOR
* SEAN CAVANAGH, senior editor,
EdWeek Market Brief
PREMIUM WEBINAR
(FREE FOR MARKET BRIEF MEMBERS)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017
11 A.M. TO 12 P.M. ET
www.edweek.org/go/webinar/
ChinaEdMarketRebroadcast

This webinar is a rebroadcast of an event
that originally aired on Dec. 1, 2016.

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Education Week - March 8, 2017

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