A Harvard Education School summer program which trains some of the nation's elite educational administrators held its 20th reunion last weekend. In line with Harvard's usual flare for pomp and circumstance, the Institute for Educational Management (IEM) invited some very prominent speakers.

New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, President Derek C. Bok, the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the president of the Education Commission of the States and Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos were all slated to speak at the event.

Quite a high-powered speaker's list for a reunion weekend.

But there was a blot on the weekend. A big blot--James B. Williams, the acting assistant secretary of education.

Williams, who spoke in Cavazos' stead, gave a presentation so out of sync with the mood of the weekend, so outrageous in its mediocrity and so appalling in its assumptions that six hours later, even after Governor Kean's sound, if unsurprising, speech, members of IEM were still complaining about Williams.

When Cavazos was sent by President Bush on a trip to Bolivia last weekend, the IEM was promised that Williams would read a copy of Cavazos' speech. But, as one IEM member said, "I hope that wasn't Cavazos' original speech."

WILLIAMS talked about educational reform. He talked about the "dismal performance" of our high school students. He said that it was important to have a "reinvolvement of the public in education."

So far, people were walking out because he was a boring speaker, but he wasn't offensive yet.

And then he introduced the subject of educational reform "taking its cues" from public opinion. "Are we," he asked the room, "to put our fate in the hands of educators who don't support what the public wants?"

At this point, about a third of the audience had left. More would follow.

Williams closed his speech by telling these leaders of educational administration what their role in educational reform must be:

"The only way that American education can be reformed is if you understand where the public stands on these issues, refine those views and go with something that is acceptable to them."

You, he emphasized to the audience, will not help in educational reforms if you speak in a different voice. There is no point in trying to do what you think is best if you have not seen that view reflected in the public eye.

"I always thought our point of departure should be a search for truth rather than public opinion," said one audience member after Williams concluded his presentation.

Ah, Williams shot back, the search for truth is a point of departure in searching for knowledge. It is different here when you are dealing with "practical reforms."