U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has just announced the appointment of four new members to the board that sets policy for the NAEP testing program, including two education professors, a member of the Minneapolis school board, and the CEO of a community foundation in Chicago. Duncan also reappointed former Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia and Republican state Rep. Anitere Flores of Florida.
The four-year terms on the National Assessment Governing Board begin on Oct. 1. The new members named by Duncan include:
• Rebecca Gagnon, an elected member of the Minneapolis school board who previously was a PTA president in Austin, Texas;
• Andrew Ho, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with expertise in educational measurement;
• Terry Mazany, the president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s largest community foundations. His previous work includes serving as an interim superintendent in the Chicago school district and as a deputy and associate superintendent in other districts.
• Father Joseph O’Keefe, a professor at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education who is a scholar of faith-based schools and has worked on international assessments.
“The governing board plays a crucial role in ensuring that the Nation’s Report Card reflects the results of a challenging assessment of our K-12 students,” Secretary Duncan said in a press release. “We can be sure that the board’s insight, wisdom, and recommendations will help sustain the NAEP assessment as a barometer for what our students know and can do in the core subjects.”
They 26-member board determines subjects and content to be tested, sets the achievement levels for reporting scores, and releases the results to the public, the press release explains.
Just recently, NAGB voted unanimously to expand use of the background questions posed to students who take that test. The effort seeks to promote improved understanding of the contextual circumstances for students who take NAEP and leverage the achievement data to better inform education policy and practice.