As WestEd’s Board of Directors met in January at the conclusion of the agency’s 50th year of operation, they were joined by a guest speaker who was a member of the U.S House of Representatives for 40 of those years.

Throughout 2016 and into early 2017, WestEd’s Board has been looking back at the agency’s accomplishments over the last five decades, as well as looking forward to the agency’s goals in the years ahead. To conclude this year of reflection, the Board thought it would be beneficial to hear from a federal legislator steeped in the history of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that launched the Regional Educational Regional Laboratories, including WestEd, and its subsequent iterations, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Accordingly, the Board invited George Miller — who, from 1975 to 2015, represented a district near WestEd’s San Francisco Bay Area headquarters — to share insights from his tenure in Congress, which included extensive involvement in education issues. Among other accomplishments, Miller served on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and helped to author NCLB.

After a brief presentation by Miller to open the January 17 Board meeting, the sessions shifted to a question-and-answer format moderated by WestEd’s Chief Policy and Communications Officer, Max McConkey. Board members and WestEd staff asked Miller about a range of education policy and practice issues, including the state of Indian education, the use of research findings to inform policy decisions, and the transition from NCLB to ESSA.

When asked about the importance of teacher professional learning, Miller pointed to evidence indicating that better teachers lead to improved student academic outcomes. He also noted that, in order to be effective, teacher professional learning needs to be properly resourced, with adequate time built into the school day for teacher collaboration.

Miller touched on a variety of other policy issues, such as the importance of building the nation’s infrastructure — which, he noted, must include investing in education as a way to “build minds and develop the intellectual infrastructure” of the country.