D.C. or Bust

by Amy Magin Wong

Spending 10 days in the nation’s capital to meet individually with the most influential leaders in national education policy may sound like an Ed School student’s dream, but it is a real experience for the recipients of the Edward J. Meade Jr. Fellowship.

“Unlike a typical fellowship that goes for a year,” says Mary Frazier-Davis, associate director of career services, “this brief visit to Washington, D.C., is truly a professional career opportunity in which the student can meet and make connections with educational policy movers and shakers.”

The Ed School and the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) jointly established the fellowship in 1996 in honor of Edward J. Meade Jr., C.A.S.’59, Ed.D.’60. Through his several decades of work at the Ford Foundation, including serving as chief program officer in the Division of Education and Research, Meade was instrumental in many educational reform initiatives, and he supported the work of IEL.

“We thought this fellowship was a fitting tribute to Ed because he was always interested in leadership development and federal policy,” says Michael Usdan, former president of IEL and current senior fellow. “He had a deep commitment both to Harvard and to IEL. Because of these interlocking connections, we decided to honor him by bringing a graduate student to Washington, D.C., each year, and giving that student exposure to the federal educational policy environment.”

Although the application process is open to all graduate students, the selection is geared more toward doctoral students who have had a significant amount of experience in the field and are looking to understand the bridge between research, policy, and practice. “The students need to know why they want to come here,” says IEL President Betty Hale, Ed.M.’75. “It is more than just doing research for their dissertations. They need to already have some sense of the landscape of the people and organizations with whom they want to meet.”

Together, IEL and the student map out an ideal slate of appointments for the visit, determining which individuals and groups would be the most valuable to interview, and what knowledge the student hopes to gain from the fellowship experience. The overall intent is designed to facilitate reaching the student’s professional goals in education. IEL then contacts the chosen experts, makes the introductions, and coordinates the entire agenda.

“I call it the ‘Rolodex-to-die-for experience,’” says Frazier- Davis. “The fellows have the opportunity to go into the inner sanctums of these leading organizations and meet the chief architects of change in educational policy. Many students have said that it showed them what the possibilities are if their research here at Harvard is put into actual practice. And they discover specifically what needs to be done and who to work with to make it all come alive.”

The fellowship, Hale says, opens the students’ eyes to more possibilities than they ever understood were there, as attested to by this year’s fellow, Amanda Jean Taylor, Ed.M.’07.

“It was an extraordinary experience,” says Taylor, who is now in her third year as a doctoral student in the Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice Program. “Betty has a phenomenal network of connections, and she put together a personalized plan where I met with folks from 17 organizations.”

Taylor’s research focuses on how community-organizing initiatives in low-income neighborhoods have pushed to create conditions to better support and sustain school improvement efforts. “The research shows that most parents are very interested in their children’s education and success,” she says, “even if they aren’t necessarily present in the schools. These local organizations are creating power across parent groups, helping them advocate for themselves by building their knowledge of the educational system and their capacity to understand how to navigate it.”

There is a dual purpose to these endeavors, she explains. If communities can improve social conditions by fighting poverty, building networks that support safety, and supporting community-run businesses, then schools have a better chance of success.

Taylor’s research interest grew out of her experiences as a secondary education teacher in rural Virginia and in urban areas of California, and also from her position as director of graduate admissions and financial aid for the School of International Service at American University, which involved extensive worldwide travel.

“I kept seeing the same patterns globally of who was offered access to schools and universities,” she says, “and how lack of access had accumulated over the course of people’s lives. I thought about my own role and felt I was opening or closing doors, but not really transforming the system.” Taylor came to Harvard to examine how she could work to shift that balance.

She describes her area of research as an emerging field. Her goal in going to Washington was to discover what national policymakers knew about her approach for school reform and what they thought of its potential as a path for improvement in the educational system.

“It was energizing to get a sense of how those people were thinking about these issues,” she says. “I learned that strategic relationships are key and I have a much more concrete understanding of how policy work happens than I would have without the fellowship.”

Frazier-Davis says that past Meade recipients have found the fellowship to be invaluable not only for the professional connections it provides, but also for helping them consider different potential career paths.

Taylor agrees. “I had the sense that policymaking was a sterile world, but after meeting such dynamic, passionate people, my interest is now sparked to work for a policymaking organization.”

Previous fellows have gone on to represent the spirit of Meade, who, Frazier-Davis says, was highly regarded as a true mentor to many people who have grown into leadership positions in education. The past fellows — professors, researchers, and directors — occupy an impressive range of influential positions, representing a diversity of educational organizations.

“The fellowship has created a unique cadre of exceptional individuals,” says Frazier-Davis, “who have the capacity to make a difference.”

—Amy Magin Wong is a freelance writer whose last piece in Ed. focused on Sarah Levine, Ed.M.’77, Ed.D.’80.

Where Are They Now? A quick look at the past decade of fellows

About the Article

A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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illustration by Jeff Hopkins, Ed.M.'05