You get a new job! You get a new job! You get a new job! That’s what Oprah Winfrey might say to reporters on the Washington Post‘s education desk, where there’s all kinds of beat shuffling going on, according to a memo sent out earlier this week.

The biggest news is that a replacement has been found for District schools reporter Bill Turque, who left the beat to cover the election: current Fairfax school reporter and ex-middle school teacher Emma Brown. Three suburban education beat changes are also announced in the memo.

But the most intriguing section concerns education editor Nick Anderson‘s move to cover higher education. Take a look at this sentence and see if you can spot what’s unusual:

Nick Anderson moves from education editor to join Jenna Johnson on the higher education beat at a critical moment for the nation’s colleges and universities.

Did you notice what’s missing? It’s Mr. “Everything Here is Negotiable” himself, Daniel de Vise, Johnson’s ostensible colleague on higher ed coverage. De Vise earned the Post much embarrassment and a paper-wide policy clarification in July after sharing story drafts with the University of Texas.

Media reporter Jim Romenesko wondered today whether this memo means de Vise got the boot. But both the Post and de Vise, who responded through his Post union rep, tell me that he’s on book leave and still with the paper.

Memo after the jump

With a new school year upon us, we’d like to announce the following changes on Local’s education team:

Nick Anderson moves from education editor to join Jenna Johnson on the higher education beat at a critical moment for the nation’s colleges and universities. Nick has led the ed team with distinction, devotion and enthusiasm for the past 15 months. But for someone who has spent most of his career as an education writer focusing on primary education, Nick was drawn to the challenge of covering higher education. He will assume his new duties immediately, and Josh White will serve as interim editor until a new education editor is named.

Susan Svrluga moves from her assignment as a roving Virginia reporter to the regional Virginia education beat with responsibility for covering schools in Prince William, Loudoun, Arlington and Alexandria. Susan, who has extensive experience covering education at newspapers in New York and North Carolina, will immediately assume her new duties and remain on the beat until Michael Alison Chandler returns from maternity leave in early 2013.

Donna St. George will team up with Lynh Bui, our newest Washington Post-American University fellow, to cover Montgomery County Schools. Donna will also continue with her enterprise focus. Lynh joins us after seven years at The Arizona Republic, where she covered city hall.

Emma Brown moves to D.C. schools from the Fairfax schools beat, where she distinguished herself last school year in her ed team debut. Emma is a former middle school teacher who was a 2009 intern. Her first full-time Post assignment was on the obit desk.

Taylor Shapiro follows the trail blazed by Emma and moves from the obit desk to replace her on the Fairfax school beat. Taylor, the son of former Post sports writer Len Shapiro, began as an intern and has spent two outstanding years as an obit writer, during which he helped us out by parachuting into a number of key breaking news stories.

Vernon Monica Mike Jane

September 4, 2012