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WILLIAM H. GUENTHER

 wguenther@massinsight.org

William H. Guenther is President and Founder of Mass Insight Education & Research Institute, an independent not-for-profit organization focused on improving student achievement in Massachusetts' - and the nation's - public schools.

Mass Insight Education & Research Institute (MERI), founded in 1997, is an independent non-profit that organizes public schools, higher education, business, and state government to significantly improve student achievement, with a focus on closing achievement gaps.

Mass Insight's education reform strategies are defined by two convictions: that change at scale depends on the practical integration of research, policy, and practice; and that only dramatic and comprehensive change in high-poverty schools will produce significant achievement gains.  The strategies that Boston-based Mass Insight implemented to help make Massachusetts a reform model now inform the organization's national work on two high-impact goals:

• using Advanced Placement® as a lever to attain excellence in math and science achievement and to transform school culture, and
• the successful turnaround of consistently under-performing public schools.

As president of the organization, Guenther has led its work since 1997 in:

• Research: He served as a co-author of The Turnaround Challenge (2007), which has received widespread national attention and is credited with shaping the discourse, as well as state and district strategies, on turnaround of our most chronically underperforming schools.  

• Policy facilitation. Guenther and Mass Insight have served as a leading statewide convener and catalyst for thoughtful, informed state education policymaking. Mass Insight's Great Schools Campaign and its predecessor, the Campaign for Higher Standards, have played a highly visible role in shaping the priorities of Massachusetts' second decade of school reform.

• Standards-based services to schools. Guenther and Mass Insight have provided a range of practical, research-based technical services, staff and leadership development programs, and consulting services to schools and school districts - particularly to members of the Great Schools Coalition, a 10-year-old partnership of nearly 30 change-oriented Massachusetts districts. Guenther was instrumental in leading the Massachusetts effort that secured a $13 million grant from the National Math & Science Initiative in 2007, in support of a statewide strategy to dramatically increase AP course-taking.

Guenther is also president of Mass Insight Corporation, a Boston-based public policy research and consulting firm, which he founded in 1989.  Mass Insight seeks to keep Massachusetts and its businesses and institutions globally competitive. Through client and leadership networks, the firm shapes public-private dialogues and delivers policy results on issues where state actions and investments affect profitability, growth and new jobs.

MIC's corporate clients and sponsors represent a range of sectors, including universities, financial institutions, IT, communications, health care, utilities, professional services, trade organizations, and state agencies.

Mass Insight's current initiative, Global Massachusetts 2015:  Winning the Competition for Talent is a multi-year initiative that brings together major business groups, industry and higher education leaders to develop and advance a comprehensive economic agenda that will position Massachusetts to win the competition for talent, the key to securing the future prosperity for all our citizens. Global Massachusetts 2015 focuses on national and international trends shaping major and emerging industry sectors and establishes a sector-based economic strategy for success in 2015. As part of this effort, Mr. Guenther has assembled groups of public and private sector leaders and a China/India/Asia Strategy Group to position Boston and Massachusetts as an international gateway for Asia.

Mr. Guenther, a graduate of Harvard College and the New York University Law School, lives in Beverly with his wife and two children.