Farewell

Looking back on it, I wish my first post on the Quick and the Ed had been some tour de force of intellectual creativity–some carefully crafted argument whose themes I could latch on to for some sort of retrospective look-back that could suggest a deeper meaning. Instead, I wrote a critique of the Princeton Review rankings, something that isn’t winning awards, but at least it’s not looking at graduation rates for schools based on their ranking of alcohol loving or hating in the Princeton Review. (Everyone gets a few mulligans, right?)

In the absence of a grand unified blog post of my time at the Quick and the Ed, I would like to announce some personal news that is both sad and exciting. Starting next week, I will be leaving Education Sector to take a position in the Department of Education. I’m sad because Education Sector is a truly wonderful place to work and is full of some of the most intelligent and creative thinkers in education policy today, but I’m also excited to enter a new chapter of public service where I can hopefully contribute to improving our nation’s schools, colleges, and universities. I will be checking my Education Sector e-mail for the next few days, but if you want to reach me after Monday, my name should eventually appear in the department’s personnel directory.

I would also like to issue a brief disclaimer. All of the posts I’ve written here, from flagships to community college and for-profit graduation rates, have always contained my own opinions and are not the opinions of any other person, administration, or organization. The same is especially true for any mistakes.

Before I sign off, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude for all of you who have read, tweeted, or commented on my posts here in this space. Even if we didn’t agree, your contributions were always appreciated and challenged me to rethink my arguments and ideas. I hope you will keep in touch and continue to share your ideas. The best policy is created through thoughtful and engaging dialogues and I would hope to continue those conversations when I am in a different space. In the meantime, I hope you all keep reading the Quick and the Ed, I know that I will.