College-Going in Michigan: First Look at Impacts of the Michigan Merit Curriculum

Michael P. Flanagan
Superintendent of Public Instruction
State of Michigan Department of Education

Mike Flanagan was appointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction by the State Board of Education on May 18, 2005. He directs the Michigan Department of Education; chairs the State Board of Education; and advises the State Board of Education, the Governor, and the state legislature regarding public education in Michigan.

Mike has been a local school superintendent, regional superintendent, and served as the executive director of the statewide associations that represent Michigan public school superintendents and intermediate school districts in the state.

For seven years, Mike Flanagan served as the superintendent of the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA). Prior to that, he was superintendent of the Farmington/Farmington Hills School District in Michigan for five years. He is past chairperson of the Education Alliance of Michigan, a nonprofit coalition of leading parent, business, and education associations; and past president of the National County Superintendents Association.

Superintendent Flanagan has degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Eastern Michigan University. He is married to Anna and has three married children: Mike, Brian, and Christa and grandchildren: Alysha, Ella, Avery, and Will.

Jack Buckley
Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics
Institute of Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education

Sean P. "Jack" Buckley was confirmed December 2010 by the U.S. Senate as the new Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. He brings a commitment to enhancing the relevance, timeliness, and methodological rigor of NCES's work in all areas of education.

Commissioner Buckley is currently on leave from New York University, where he is an associate professor of applied statistics. He also served previously as deputy commissioner of NCES from 2006 to 2008 under former NCES Commissioner Mark Schneider. He is known for his research on school choice, particularly charter schools, and on statistical methods for public policy. His term runs through June 21, 2015.

Buckley was an affiliated researcher with the National Center for the Study of the Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and in 2007 he published a book with Mark Schneider entitled Charter Schools: Hope or Hype? He has taught statistics and education policy as an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, an assistant professor at Boston College, and an instructor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Buckley spent five years in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer and nuclear reactor engineer, and he also worked in the intelligence community as an analytic methodologist. He holds an A.B. in Government from Harvard and an MA and Ph.D. in Political Science from The State University New York Stony Brook.

Donald E. Heller
Dean, College of Education
Professor of Education
Michigan State University

Donald E. Heller is dean of the College of Education and a professor in the Department of Educational Administration at Michigan State University. Prior to his appointment in January, 2012, he was director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education and professor of education and senior scientist at The Pennsylvania State University. He also held a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan. His teaching and research is in the areas of educational economics, public policy, and finance, with a primary focus on issues of college access and choice for low-income and minority students. He has consulted on higher education policy issues with university systems and policymaking organizations in California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Washington, Washington DC, and West Virginia, and has testified in front of congressional committees, state legislatures, and in federal court cases as an expert witness. Before his academic career, he spent a decade as an information technology manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Heller's research has been published in scholarly journals including the Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Educational Policy, and The Journal of Student Financial Aid, and he has been interviewed by and his work has been reported on by media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Times Higher Education, The Daily Telegraph, National Public Radio, CNN Headline News, and Marketplace Radio. He is editor of the books The States and Public Higher Education Policy: Affordability, Access, and Accountability (Johns Hopkins University Press, second edition, 2011). Generational Shockwaves and the Implications for Higher Education (with M. d'Ambrosio, Edward Elgar, 2009), State Postsecondary Education Research: New Methods to Inform Policy and Practice (with K. Shaw, Stylus Publishing, 2007), and Condition of Access: Higher Education for Lower Income Students (ACE/Praeger, 2002).

Dr. Heller received the 2002 Promising Scholar/Early Career Achievement Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the 2001 Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, for his contributions to the literature on student financial aid.