Education|Evolving is a Minnesota- based group of thought leaders in education reform. E|E leaders have been instrumental in innovations such as open enrollment and school choice, the nation's first charter school law, and teachers as owners of professional partnerships, which are responsible and accountable for managing schools.
E|E works to convince those who make and influence policy that America's success depends on creating radically different and better ways for young people to learn and for teachers to work.
Prior to his involvement with Education/Evolving, Ed Dirkswager was a health care business executive and consultant. He has been involved in policy groups influencing public education for many years, having worked on the Minnesota Business Partnership’s education task force that recommended Minnesota’s pioneering open-enrollment legislation in the mid-1980s. Ed is also the editor of Teachers as Owners: A Key to Revitalizing Public Education. (Scarecrow Education, June 2002). His suggestion that teachers can be owners rather than employees comes from his own background as a member of a professional partnership and his experience in assisting others start many new for-profit and nonprofit organizations and partnerships.
Ed holds a B.S. degree from St John’s University, an M.A. from The Catholic University of America and an M.A. from the University of Minnesota. He also did graduate work at Yale University. Ed has extensive experience as a consultant to physicians, physician organizations, hospitals, multi-hospital systems and health plans. He served as a senior executive and board member in managed care firms. Ed served as chairman of the board of the National Cooperative Bank and has also served on the boards of a number of civic organizations.