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Williamson M. Evers is a Senior Fellow, Director of the Center on Educational Excellence, and Assistant Editor for The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy at the Independent Institute. Dr. Evers was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development from 2007 to 2009; Senior Adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings during 2007; and former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution. In addition, he was a member of the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education from its beginning in 1999 until it wrapped up in 2014. From July to December 2003, he served in Iraq as Senior Adviser for Education to Administrator L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Dr. Evers headed the Trump-Pence transition's agency review for the U.S. Department of Education. The review focused on policy, legal, organizational, and budgetary matters that would face the then-incoming administration. He has advised numerous officeholders and candidates over the years and is currently an advisor to U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel (R. - Calif.), who is a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
He has contributed chapters to numerous scholarly volumes and the books he has edited include Testing Student Learning, Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness (with Herbert J. Walberg); Teacher Quality (with Lance T. Izumi); National Service; School Accountability (with Herbert J. Walberg); School Reform: The Critical Issues (with Lance T. Izumi and Pamela A. Riley); and What's Gone Wrong in America's Classrooms.
His articles have appeared in such publications as Education Week, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor, and he is a past member of the editorial board of Education Next.
Dr. Evers received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Stanford University, and he has also served as a Member of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars; Member of the Content Review Panel, History-Social Science K-8 Textbook Adoption, State of California; Consultant (on standards, testing, and curriculum) for the Arizona Department of Education Mathematics Task Force; Member of the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board, U.S. Department of Education; Member of the History-Social Science Performance Level Setting Panel, Standardized Testing and Reporting System, State of California; Editor-in-Chief of Inquiry Magazine; Fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies; Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Emory University; and Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science at Santa Clara University.
