A review board of prominent education experts from across the country—many of whom also serve on the review board that analyzes the school districts that are eligible for The Broad Prize for Urban Education—reviews student achievement data received from the eligible charter management organizations and their states and collected by RTI International. The review board selects the winning charter management organization.

Christopher Cross founded Cross & Joftus, LLC in 2004 to provide education leaders with personalized and expert assistance in policy analysis and development, evaluation, executive coaching, planning and communication strategies. Cross is a former senior fellow with the Center on Education Policy and with the Education Commission of the States. Previously, he served as president and CEO of the Council for Basic Education and as an assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush.

Jane Hannaway is a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and an Institute Fellow at the American Institutes of Research. She is founding director of the National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education research (CALDER). Hannaway is also immediate past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, and previously served as founding director of the Education Policy Center at the Urban Institute and is lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program.

Frederick Hess is resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and author of several books on schooling and education reform. Hess is also executive editor of the journal Education Next and a faculty member at institutions including the University of Pennsylvania and Rice University.

Margot Rogers is senior advisor at The Parthenon Group’s Education Center of Excellence. Prior to joining Parthenon, she was chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Rogers also has served in multiple roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, including deputy director of education and the special assistant to the director of education, where she managed the development of the foundation’s college-ready education strategy and staff realignment.

John Simpson Is an education consultant and serves as advisor to and superintendent-in-residence of The Broad Center for and an associate with Hazard, Young and Attea, LLC. Previously, he was senior executive and director of the District Alliance Program at the Stupski Foundation. Simpson has also served as superintendent of Norfolk Public Schools, Va., Ann Arbor Public Schools, Mich., and North Chicago Community Unit, District 187.

Nelson Smith is senior advisor to the National Association for Charter School Authorizers and adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He was the first president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools from 2004 to 2010. Previously, Smith served as vice president for policy and governance at New American Schools, as the first executive director of the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board, and as vice president for education and workforce development at the New York City Partnership.

Christopher B. Swanson is the vice president of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit corporation that publishes Education Week. As a member of EPE’s senior leadership team, his responsibilities in-clude project and product development, strategic planning, fundraising activities, and building relation-ships with other organizations working to advance American education. Swanson heads EPE’s research and development division, which includes the EPE Research Center, library, and knowledge services units, as well as Education Week Press. Swanson is a frequent commentator on a variety of issues, among them: high school dropout and completion, educational policy and research, standards and accountability, instructional reform, student mobility, and public school choice.

Martin West is assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, deputy director of Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, and executive editor of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research on education policy. He received his doctorate in government and social policy from Harvard in 2006 and was previously a research fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and assistant professor at Brown University. His research examines the politics of K-12 education policy in the United States and the success of alternative strategies in improving student achievement and non-cognitive skills. He is author or editor of four books, including No Child Left Behind? The Politics and Practice of School Accountability, and, most recently, From Schoolhouse to Courthouse: The Judiciary’s Role in American Education.

Priscilla Wohlstetter is distinguished research professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Previously, Wohlstetter held the Diane and MacDonald Becket Professorship in Education Policy at the University of Southern California, where she founded and directed the Center on Educational Governance. She is co-chair of the Charters & School Choice Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.