Bellwether Education Partners

Andrew Rotherham, a former DFER board member, and current DFER board member Sara Mead work for Bellwether Education Partners.  Bellwether claims to have worked with the Chicago Renaissance Schools Fund, Gates Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Bill Bennet’s K12 Inc., KIPP Foundation, New Leaders for New Schools, NewSchools Venture Fund, New York Center for Charter School Excellence, Stand For Children, and the Wireless Generation.

Bellwether claims they sit “at the intersection between successful social ventures, public policy, and media.”

Rotherham and John Bailey co-publish Education Insider, “a monthy report and webinar that provides real-time insights on federal education policy trends, debates, and issues – from the handful of decision makers that are driving the process.”  Whiteboard Advisors, which publishes Education Insider, is a non-lobbying branch of Dutko Worldwide, and claims to provide “policy counsel, strategic consulting, regulatory risk assessment, and research for entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and investors.”  Bailey works for Dutko and Whiteboard, and formerly worked for the Gates Foundation.