The Council of Chief State School Officers has appointed Gordon M. Ambach, the state commissioner of education in New York, as its new executive director.
The council’s president, David Hornbeck, the state school chief in Maryland, announced Mr. Ambach’s appointment at a press conference here last week. Mr. Ambach will succeed the organization’s longtime executive director, William F. Pierce, who announced his decision to leave the council last November.
In a brief statement, Mr. Ambach, a former president of the 56-member organization, said the council could “provide leverage so that educational systems play a part in solving our national problems.’' He said he saw key roles for education in welfare-reform efforts, in initiatives to sharpen the nation’s economic competitiveness, in the training of military personnel, and in efforts to contain health-care costs through improved health education.
He also reaffirmed the group’s commitments to “at risk’’ children and to helping develop a national “report card’’ on education.
Mr. Ambach announced last summer that he would step down as New York’s chief school officer and president of the University of the State of New York, the dual posts he has held since 1977. He will assume his new, $93,000-a-year post on July 1, according to Mr. Hornbeck.
