Charlie Glenn is professor and chairman of Administration, Training and Policy Studies at Boston University, where he teaches courses in educational policy and the history and sociology of education. For many years he was an inner-city minister and now attends Park Street Church in Boston, where he occasionally preaches. He is the faculty advisor for both the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ undergrad chapters at Boston University.

Glenn has published numerous studies in educational history and comparative policy, including (among others) The Myth of the Common School (1988) and The Ambiguous Embrace (2000). He has recently completed, with Jan De Groof, Finding the Right Balance: Freedom, Autonomy and Accountability in Education, a comparative study of twenty-six countries.

Glenn is active in educational policy debates in the United States and Europe. From 1970 to 1991 (including all three Dukakis administrations) he was director of urban education and equity efforts for the Massachusetts Department of Education. He has served as a consultant to the Russian and Chinese education authorities as well as to states and cities across the United States and as an expert witness in federal court cases on school finance, desegregation, and bilingual education. Glenn's B.A. and Ed.D. degrees are from Harvard University, and his Ph.D. from Boston University. (More info at his BU page.)

Vernard Gant is the director of Urban School Services for the Association of Christian Schools International, having previously served as the executive director of the Children's Scholarship Fund of Birmingham, Ala. Vernard holds a D.Min. degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School as well as degrees in education from Columbia Bible College and Birmingham Theological Seminary. He has studied urban communities and their schools for years, and has been actively involved in developing, directing, and supporting numerous independent and Christian schools. He founded and directed the Association of Independent Minority Schools in 1994 and has received the Jefferson Award presented by the American Institute for Public Service.