ON THE AGENDA

What Muslim Immigrants Say About America

Scott Bittle
Aug 12, 2010

The debate over whether an Islamic community center should be built two blocks from the World Trade Center site in New York has become a broader argument over tolerance toward Islam and sensitivity to 9/11.

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Does First Out of the Application Gate Mean Most Likely to Graduate?

Scott Bittle
Aug 12, 2010

There are people who wait until the last minute, and then there are people like high school student Cree Bautista, who holds the honor of being the being the first student in the United States to apply to college this year, a mere three hours and thirty minutes after the "common application" form went online.

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FACING UP TO THE
Nation's Finances

National Debt Clock

Jean Johnson

Director of Education Insights and Director of Programs

Jean Johnson

Jean Johnson is Executive Vice President of Public Agenda and head of its Education Insights division, which works to enhance public and community engagement in public education. As a member of Public Agenda’s senior staff, she has developed and managed research and communications projects on a wide variety of issues. She has authored or co-authored Public Agenda studies on education, families, religion, race relations, manners and civility, retirement, welfare, and health care.

She is co-author, with executive vice president Scott Bittle, of two books: "Who Turned Out the Lights? Your Guided Tour to the Energy Crisis" and "Where Does the Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis."

Ms. Johnson is also the principal author of Are We Beginning To See The Light?, a study on math and science education K-12; the With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them and Can I Get A Little Advice Here?" reports on obstacles to college completion; Life after High School: Young People Talk about their Hopes and Prospects, and Where We Are Now: 12 Things You Need to Know about Public Opinion and Public Schools. She is lead author of Reality Check, which tracks attitudes among parents, students, teachers, principals, superintendents and others on key education reform topics, and an author of Squeeze Play, our series of reports on college costs.

Ms. Johnson has written articles for USA Today, the Huffington Post, the National Institute of Justice Journal, and Education Week, and has prepared papers for major organizations including The Urban Institute, the National Institute of Justice and the National Education Summit of the National Governors' Association. She regularly represents Public Agenda in the media and has appeared on CNN, the Today Show, Lou Dobbs Tonight, and The O’Reilly Factor among others.

Ms. Johnson was instrumental in the design and development of PublicAgenda.org, our Webby-nominated public policy web site. She is the co-author of the Citizen's Survival Kit and the 2008 Voter's Survival Kit, both written with Scott Bittle, and is the author of our earlier Voter's Guide, First Choice. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she developed a series of experimental citizen education campaigns for local news outlets including Public Summit '88, designed to help citizens discuss U.S./Soviet relations; SchoolVote, which focused on public school reform, and Condition Critical, with a spotlight on health care reform. The health care project was the basis of a nationally telecast PBS special. Ms. Johnson also serves on the Research Committee of The Ad Council.

Prior to joining Public Agenda in 1980, Ms. Johnson was Resource Director for Action for Children's Television in Boston, where she authored a number of articles on the effect of television on children and adolescents. In addition to her work at Public Agenda, Ms. Johnson is a director of Sugal Records, a small, New York-based classical music recording company. Ms. Johnson graduated from Mount Holyoke College, and holds master's degrees from Brown University and Simmons College.