education policy

Introducing a New Minor in Lobbying and Advocacy—and Meet the Student Who Helped Create It

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:23:33 +0000

Introducing a New Minor in Lobbying and Advocacy—and Meet the Student Who Helped Create It Andrew J Schappert Thu, 03/12/2026 - 13:23

A new Schar School of Policy and Government undergraduate minor debuts in fall 2026: Lobbying and Advocacy is an interdisciplinary minor that develops students' understanding of policy institutions and industries, and how to influence both as a professional advocate.

Zayd Hamid: ‘It came down to building the program I wish I had access to as an undergraduate.’ Photo provided

The program, one of only two in the country and the only one in the Washington, D.C., region, will offer opportunities for experiential learning, including field projects, internships at key Washington, D.C., firms, and the �鶹��Ƶ’s annual grassroots advocacy trip �鶹��Ƶ Lobbies to the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond, Virginia.

The course was codeveloped by Schar School Term Professor David K. Rehr, professor of public policy and director of the Center for Business Civic Engagement, and Zayd Hamid, a master of public policy student (with an emphasis in education policy), over a multiyear process.

Rehr, a former longtime advocate for major nonprofit organizations including the National Association of Broadcasters and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, is happy to share the inspiration for the course with Hamid, who had the idea as an undergraduate in the Schar School’s public administration program.

“He drafted the outline of the minor and I adjusted it to maximize value for students from various George �鶹��Ƶ departments whose students could benefit,” he said. Students in degree programs including business, communication, conflict analysis and resolution, environmental and sustainability studies, economics, and other fields would find lobbying skills useful.

“Given our location near Washington, D.C., the minor will be taught by a stable of top academics and practitioners, and graduates will be prepared to advocate effectively for meaningful and efficient change, even if they do not become full-time lobbyists themselves,” he said.

“The government,” Rehr added, “is increasingly becoming more involved in the activities of businesses, nonprofits, and other industries and professionals who understand the advocacy process who can provide innovative solutions will be increasingly valuable to their employers.”

David K. Rehr: ‘Given our location near Washington, D.C., the minor will be taught by a stable of top academics and practitioners, and graduates will be prepared to advocate effectively for meaningful and efficient change …’

For Hamid, the minor is personal. As his graduation approached in spring 2024, the proudly first-generation college student began thinking less about what he had accomplished as a student and more about what he would leave behind.

His college accomplishments were substantial, among them, discovering advocacy through �鶹��Ƶ Lobbies, serving as a panelist for a congressional staff briefing on financial aid, and being named the inaugural National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics Student Advocate of the Year, an award he dedicated to Rehr.

“The nexus between all those pivotal moments in my undergraduate years was taking Dr. Rehr’s GOVT 318 Interest Groups, Lobbying, and the Political Process class,” Hamid said. “I am a direct product of the wisdom and industry insights he shared with me and of the mentorship and support he’s given me over the years…. His class and �鶹��Ƶ Lobbies shaped the trajectory of my undergraduate experience, cultivating my interest in policy into a passion for education advocacy.”

As he considered what he could leave as a legacy, the answer became clear: “It came down to building the program I wish I had access to as an undergraduate,” he said.

Hamid, who is a graduate professional assistant with George �鶹��Ƶ’s University Life, is cochair of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Student Advisory Committee, the commonwealth’s coordinating agency for higher education. That latter role, alongside his previous experience as the student representative on the education integrity advisory �鶹��Ƶ Core Committee, accustomed him to academic program policies at a state and institutional level. This positioned him to support his and Rehr's proposal through George �鶹��Ƶ's internal processes, culminating in a final vote by the Undergraduate Council in December, clearing the way for inclusion in the catalog in fall 2026

The proposal’s review was expedited and streamlined amid political shifts in Washington, which, to Hamid’s mind, created opportunities for employment for graduates.

“Federal furloughs and a changing Washington, D.C, policy landscape have resulted in more students exploring careers outside of—but adjacent to—Congress and the White House,” he said. “So, this minor also helps the Schar School meet the moment and respond to a shifting job market.”

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�鶹��Ƶ centers receive gift from Hewlett Foundation to bridge research practice gap in education

ckearney — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:31:56 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ centers receive gift from Hewlett Foundation to bridge research practice gap in education ckearney Fri, 09/22/2023 - 11:31

In This Story

Anne Holton

Two centers at �鶹��Ƶ—EdPolicyForward in the College of Education and Human Development and the Center for Advancing Human Machine Partnership (CAHMP), a transdisciplinary research center—will collaborate on a project that aims to better connect research to practice in education policymaking, and support school divisions in improving student and teacher performance and enhancing the effectiveness and fairness of resource allocation through data-driven decision making.

The collaboration is supported by a generous gift from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is a nonpartisan, private charitable foundation that advances ideas and supports institutions to promote a better world. The collaboration between EdPolicyForward and CAHMP manifests the power and opportunities that transdisciplinary research can bring to �鶹��Ƶ's research and practice community.

Sanmay Das

The Education Program at Hewlett Foundation makes grants to help educators, schools and communities turn schools into places that empower and equip students for a lifetime of learning and to reach their full potential.

The core �鶹��Ƶ project team includes Sanmay Das, professor of computer science and co-director of CAHMP; Anne Holton, professor of public policy and education; Seth B. Hunter, assistant professor of education leadership; David Houston, director of EdPolicyForward and assistant professor of education; and Peng Warweg, assistant director of CAHMP.

Anne Holton

The project will leverage the core team’s expertise in education policy research, artificial intelligence, and advanced data analytics, as well as partnerships with local school divisions, to better connect research to practice, with the goal of helping all students succeed through efficient, effective, and equitable use and distribution of school resources.

Over the next 16 months, the team will deliver a series of policy briefs to communicate relevant research findings to state and local leaders on matters of importance to their decision-making, creating a two-way dialogue between researchers and policymakers, and a dissemination strategy to inform the policymaking decisions of local, state, and national audiences.

The project is also expected to enhance the capacity for data-driven decision-making in school divisions, especially in the use of methods from artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics to support and enhance equity in access to programs that benefit student outcomes and improve student and teacher performance.

EdPolicyForward, the Center for Education Policy, promotes equity and improved educational outcomes for all students, from preschool through college and beyond. The center connects research to policy and practice, develops and advances effective and pragmatic solutions, and drives meaningful public discourse addressing persistent inequalities in U.S. public education.

Founded in 2019, the transdisciplinary CAHMP facilitates research, teaching, and innovation in understanding and leveraging human-machine partnership to solve current and emerging societal problems. CAHMP’s network of researchers work on cross-disciplinary topics, such as responsible AI, learning technology, education policy and analytics, and generative AI for education.

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Strategic Direction

�鶹��Ƶ professor’s research finds that K–12 teacher evaluation feedback isn’t effective

ckearney — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 15:35:21 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ professor’s research finds that K–12 teacher evaluation feedback isn’t effective ckearney Tue, 02/15/2022 - 10:35

Seth B. Hunter. Photo by Creative Services

A �鶹��Ƶ professor is getting attention in the education world for a paper he co-authored examining the effectiveness of teacher evaluation feedback. Over the past decade, education policymakers have invested millions in the design and implementation of teacher evaluation systems that were intended to improve teacher performance.

The study, co-authored by Seth B. Hunter, assistant professor of education leadership in the College of Education and Human Development, and Matthew Springer at University of North Carolina, represents the first in-depth examination into whether recently implemented teacher evaluation programs improve teacher skills.

“What we found is that the feedback early-career teachers received did not translate into improved performance,” said Hunter of the study. “What it tells us is that changes that were made to improve teaching aren’t working, and so we need to examine that further.”

The article is getting notice from experts in the education field like Matthew A. Kraft at Brown University.

"[This research] makes an important contribution by examining for the first time whether the actual feedback teachers receive is aligned with the theory that feedback can improve teachers’ practice,” Kraft said.

Hunter and Springer spent years examining 5,000 evaluations of 1,200 randomly selected, early-career teachers across the state of Tennessee. Post-observation teacher evaluations, generally performed by principals or vice principals, are in theory supposed to contain enough detail and direct feedback to help teachers improve their skills, said Hunter.

Hunter and Springer concluded that observers conducting teacher evaluations need better training on how to give the kind of tailored, substantive feedback that could result in helping teachers improve their practice. Feedback, they wrote, should identify specific teaching behaviors that could be improved, offer clear and targeted ways to change the behavior, and set goals for when the teacher will improve the behavior.

“The big takeaway from our research is that early-career teachers who have lower levels of effectiveness receive better feedback, but the feedback they receive isn’t as helpful it could be,” said Springer.

“Our findings highlight a significant problem. The feedback teachers are receiving is not high-quality, and as a consequence, teacher evaluation policies are unlikely to have their intended effect until this problem is addressed.”

Hunter said he hopes other researchers will build off of their paper and further explore the quality of feedback in other parts of the country. Ultimately, he believes that would result in better training for principals and other administrators acting as observers, he added.

“I would also love to see teachers getting better access to the resources and support they need to get better, along with a more systematic linkage between evaluations and evaluation-informed professional development,” Hunter said.

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�鶹��Ƶ’s education policy center expanding research outreach to state and local partners

ckearney — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 16:54:56 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ’s education policy center expanding research outreach to state and local partners ckearney Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:54

�鶹��Ƶ’s Center for Education Policy, rebranded in 2018 as EdPolicyForward, has been partnering with the Virginia Department of Education, school districts and other entities to help with research and gaining a better understand of gaps in learning, attendance and levels of achievement.

“With our wealth of expertise on educational policy issues, we have a lot to offer in terms of providing research and quantitative analysis,” said Matthew P. Steinberg, director of EdPolicyForward and an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD). The center includes more than a dozen affiliated faculty.

Steinberg recently partnered with Lauren Sartain, a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to analyze data from Chicago Public Schools. They found that Chicago teacher performance benchmarks may be penalizing Black educators. The study, which Steinberg led, concludes that the classroom observation scores for Black teachers may be penalizing them for working in schools in communities serving low-income and educationally disadvantaged students.

In addition, EdPolicyForward recently came out with the results of its first research project partnering with the Virginia Department of Education. The report found that advanced math class enrollment for ninth-grade Black students and students who qualify for free or reduced lunches in Virginia public schools increased every year over a four-year span. However, the report also found that rural ninth-grade students were less likely to enroll in advanced math classes than urban students.

“We learned through this study that Virginia public schools have gotten better in providing access to advanced math courses,” said Samantha Viano, an assistant professor at CEHD who led the study. “This is important because attendance in advanced math courses is a good indicator of college and career readiness. On the other hand, in rural areas, we saw stagnation when it came to advanced math classes.”

Housed within the College of Education and Human Development, EdPolicyForward’s mission is to promote equity and improved educational outcomes for all students, preschool through college and beyond. EdPolicyForward says it connects research to policy and practice, developing and advancing effective and pragmatic solutions, as well as driving meaningful public discourse on closing achievement gaps in the educational system.

Steinberg hopes to see even more partnerships going forward with state and local entities, as well as education associations, in need of equity-focused research.

“We value the partnerships we have developed so far and are working to leverage our training and research capacity to help address issues that school districts throughout the country are facing,” said Steinberg.

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Introducing a New Minor in Lobbying and Advocacy—and Meet the Student Who Helped Create It

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�鶹��Ƶ centers receive gift from Hewlett Foundation to bridge research practice gap in education

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�鶹��Ƶ professor’s research finds that K–12 teacher evaluation feedback isn’t effective

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