Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit organization working to support educational innovation and improve educational outcomes for underserved students. Rotherham leads Bellwether’s policy analysis and thought leadership work. He is also a contributing editor to U.S. News & World Report and a senior editor at The 74, an education news and analysis publication. In addition, Rotherham writes the blog Eduwonk.com, teaches courses on education at The University of Virginia, and is co-publisher of “Education Insider,” a federal policy analysis tool produced by Whiteboard Advisors, where he is a senior adviser. Rotherham previously served at the White House as special assistant to the president for domestic policy during the Clinton administration, as a former member of the Virginia Board of Education, as an education columnist for TIME, and executive editor of RealClearEducation. In addition to Bellwether, Rotherham has founded or co-founded two other education organizations and served on the boards of several other successful education startups.
Rotherham is the author or co-author of more than 400 published articles, book chapters, papers, and op-eds about education policy and politics and is the author or editor of four books on educational policy. He serves on the boards of directors for the Curry School of Education Foundation at the University of Virginia and The 74, and on the international board of directors for Classroom Champions, a Canada-based nonprofit that pairs Olympic and Paralympic athletes with high-poverty classrooms and schools. Rotherham is a fellow and moderator in the Aspen Global Leadership Network and serves on advisory boards for a variety of organizations including Education Pioneers, the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, the Center for Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, and The National Young Farmers Coalition.
Rotherham believes dramatic improvements in America’s education system are integral to increasing social mobility and building a more equitable and just society.