2019 Policy Panel set for Jan. 23

When legislators return to Jefferson City in January they will have to face a difficult reality — with less than 50 percent of Missouri students scoring proficient in math and only 67 percent scoring proficient in ELA Missouri’s education system is at a crossroads.

Thankfully, CEAM is bringing its annual policy panel to the capitol this year to help highlight how other states are transforming their education systems and provide some insight on how new legislation can do the same in Missouri.

On Jan. 23, CEAM is hosting a dynamic panel of education experts in the heart of Missouri’s political world to examine a variety of innovative education initiatives which could transform the state’s struggling education system. 

Dr. James Shuls, a leading Missouri education expert, will lead a discussion on education policy among a panel composed of both national and state education leaders.

State Representative Shamed Dogan will talk about how access to high-quality education transformed his life and inspired his fight for expanded school choice in Missouri.  

Show-Me Institute’s Director of Research and Education Policy Susan Pendergrass will share her perspective on charter schools and other legislative changes that could be made to improve education in Missouri. 

Before joining the Show-Me Institute, Susan Pendergrass was Vice President of Research and Evaluation for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where she oversaw data collection and analysis and carried out a rigorous research program. Susan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, with a concentration in Finance, at the University of Colorado in 1983. She earned her Master’s in Business Administration at George Washington University, with a concentration in Finance (1992) and a doctorate in public policy from George Mason University, with a concentration in social policy (2002). Susan began researching charter schools with her dissertation on the competitive effects of Massachusetts charter schools. Since then, she has conducted numerous studies on the fiscal impact of school choice legislation. Susan has also taught quantitative methods courses at the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, at Johns Hopkins University, and at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. Prior to coming to the National Alliance, Susan was a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education during the Bush administration and a senior research scientist at the National Center for Education Statistics during the Obama administration.

Summit Christian Academy K-12 Academic Dean Kimberlee Gill will talk about how public school policy impacts the state’s growing number of private schools.