Massachusetts Secretary of Education to Speak on Campus Friday

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Jim Peyser

Jim Peyser, secretary of education in Massachusetts, will give a lecture titled "Education Reform in Massachusetts: The Sources of Success and the Challenge of Complacency" at noon Friday, Oct. 6, on the University of Arkansas campus as part of the Department of Education Reform lecture series.

RSVP online for lunch on the lecture website. Deadline to RSVP is 1 p.m. the Wednesday before the lecture. It will take place in Room 343 of the Graduate Education Building.

Peyser oversees early education, kindergarten through 12th grade, and higher education in Massachusetts. He sits on each of the boards governing the Commonwealth's education agencies — Department of Early Education and Care, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Department of Higher Education, and the University of Massachusetts system. He is Gov. Charlie Baker's top advisor on education and helps shape the Commonwealth's education reform agenda.

Previously, Peyser worked as the managing director at NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit grant-making firm that seeks to transform public education in high-need urban communities by supporting innovative education entrepreneurs. He also worked as education advisor to governors Bill Weld, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney, where he helped shape state policy regarding standards and assessments, school accountability, and charter schools.

He also was executive director of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research for seven years, during which he helped to launch the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center, which supported the development of the state's first charter schools.