Jessica Calefati is an education reporter for POLITICO covering colleges, universities and workforce development. Previously, she worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she exposed staggering levels of teacher turnover at schools serving vulnerable children. <br/><br/>Before joining the Inquirer, Jessica worked first in New Jersey and later in California. At The Star-Ledger, her hometown paper, she covered Chris Christie and Cory Booker’s campaign to transform Newark’s struggling schools. <br/><br/>At The Mercury News in California, she covered Gov. Jerry Brown and investigated a chain of online charter schools that turned a profit while failing to educate students. And as an education reporter for CalMatters, she probed the crisis of districts’ exploding teacher pension debt.<br/><br/>Jessica graduated from George Washington University with a degree in journalism and political science. Her work has been recognized by the Gerald Loeb Awards, the National Headliner Awards, the Keystone Media Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists NorCal, the New Jersey Press Association and others. <br/><br/>Jessica lives in Washington with her husband and daughter. She’s also a certified yoga instructor.<br/>