Can a policy organization use a mere blog posting about the 2007 NCAA Men's basketball to influence the editorial board of one of the nation's largest daily newspapers?

Kevin Carey of Education Sector proved that you can.

Kevin's recent posting on athlete graduation rates of the tournament teams led to an editorial in the Washington Post. The editorial bemoaned an athlete graduation rate of only 38.5 percent among the tournament's Sweet 16 schools.

Kevin Carey, a policy wonk at Education Sector, writes for their Quick and the Ed blog. In his posting, he listed the campus-wide graduation rates for the schools participating in the basketball tournment, pointing out that not only are they disappointingly low. This led to an innovative Post graphic showing teams squaring off by graduation rates as well as the subsequent editorial.

At Forum One's next Web Executive Seminar on April 24 in Washington, Kevin will speaking about the Quick and the Ed blog and how it has been a useful tool for policy influence. The seminar is titled "Blogging and Policy Organizations: Influential Channels for Social Change." I hope you'll read more about the event and consider joining us for this informative session.

I'll be writing more about the other three session speakers in the coming weeks.

But right now, with the championship game just few hours away, I cannot resist saying: "Go Gators!"