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Mike Barnicle is an award-winning writer and media personality. He is a political analyst for MSNBC and a frequent contributor, and occasional guest host, on the network's *Hardball with Chris Matthews* and *Morning Joe*. Barnicle can also been seen regularly on NBC's *Today Show*. A veteran print and broadcast journalist, he has written more than 4,000 columns collectively for the *Boston Herald*, *New York Daily News*, and *The Boston Globe*, where he rose to prominence with his biting, satirical, and at times, heart-wrenching columns that closely followed the triumphs, travails and ambitions of Boston's working and middle classes. He has also written articles and opinion pieces for *The Huffington Post*, Newsweek.com, *Esquire*, *George* and *ESPN Magazine*. Since 1982, Barnicle has been a regular contributor to WCVB-TV's nightly news show, *Chronicle*. His award-winning documentaries include *Armed and Dangerous*, which examined the proliferation of guns in the U.S., and *Justice on Trial*, an expose on the Massachusetts judicial system.

Richard Murnane, an economist, is Thompson Professor of Education and Society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In recent years he has pursued two lines of research. With MIT Professors Frank Levy and David Autor, he has examined how computer-based technological change has affected skill demands in the U.S. economy. Murnane and Levy have written two books on this topic. The second line of research examines the consequences of particular initiatives designed to improve the performance of the education sector. For example, along with HGSE colleagues, Murnane has examined the consequences of providing salary bonuses to attract skilled teachers to high-need schools and the impact that high-stakes tests for students has on the probability of high school graduation. Murnane is a graduate of Williams College and earned a PhD in economics from Yale University in 1974.

Robert Calfee is a cognitive psychologist with interests in the effect of schooling on the intellectual potential of individuals and groups. He earned his degrees at UCLA, did post-graduate work at Stanford, and spent five years in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1969 he returned to Stanford University to join the School of Education. In 1998 Dr. Calfee was appointed Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California Riverside, serving as Dean for five years. Dr. Calfee has studied literacy assessment, effective instructional practices for helping all students become competent readers and writers, and methods for assisting schools to become learning communities. His Project READ-Plus and The Inquiring School programs have been implemented in hundreds of schools across the country. Dr. Calfee has conducted workshops and seminars for teachers and administrators from elementary, middle, and high schools, and works directly with teachers and schools to demonstrate innovative techniques. He is a frequent invited speaker at conferences across the country, author of over 200 published research articles and numerous books in the fields of education and psychology.

Since 1991, Carl Honore has written journalism from all over Europe and South America, spending three years as a correspondent in Buenos Aires. His articles have appeared in The Economist, Observer, National Post, Houston Chronicle and Miami Herald. His first book, In Praise of Slow: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed, examines the modern compulsion to hurry and chronicles a global trend toward putting on the brakes. It has been translated into 30 languages and landed on bestseller lists in many countries.

Bob Herbert joined The New York Times as an op-ed columnist in 1993. His twice a week column comments on politics, urban affairs and social trends. Prior to joining *The Times*, Mr. Herbert was a national correspondent for NBC from 1991 to 1993, reporting regularly on *The Today Show* and *NBC Nightly News*. He had worked as a reporter and editor at *The Daily News* from 1976 until 1985, when he became a columnist and member of its editorial board. In 1990, Mr. Herbert was a founding panelist of *Sunday Edition*, a weekly discussion program on WCBS-TV in New York, and the host of *Hotline*, a weekly issues program on New York public television. He began his career as a reporter with The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., in 1970. He became its night city editor in 1973. Mr. Herbert has won numerous awards, including the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City and the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing. He was chairman of the Pulitzer Prize jury for spot news reporting in 1993.

Lloyd Schwartz has taught at Boston State College, Queens College, and Harvard University, and is currently Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He is also the Classical Music Editor of *The Boston Phoenix* and a regular commentator on NPR's *Fresh Air*. His most recent book of poetry is *Cairo Traffic* (University of Chicago Press, 2000), which was preceded by *Goodnight, Gracie* (1992) and *These People* (1981). He is also the co-editor of a volume of Elizabeth Bishop 's collected works for the Library of America. His poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in *The New Yorker*, *The Atlantic*, *Vanity Fair*, *The New Republic*, *The Paris Review*, and *The Best American Poetry*. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Earl Dax is a student organizer for Media Tank.