Secretary McMahon Appoints New Members to National Assessment Governing Board
Contact: Elizabeth Schneider, Elizabeth.Schneider@ed.gov, 703-969-4141
Secretary McMahon Appoints New Members to National Assessment Governing Board
Leaders With Broad Expertise, Range of Backgrounds to Set Policy for The Nation’s Report Card; Tennessee Rep. Mark White Appointed as Board Chair
Sep. 30, 2025 — (Washington, D.C) U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon today announced the appointment of three education leaders — two new members and one reappointed member — to the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the Nation's Report Card.
The Nation's Report Card, also known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP, is the only nationally representative assessment of student achievement over time for the nation, states, and large urban districts. The 2024 NAEP Report Cards in reading, math, and science released this year provided critical information on student achievement nationwide. They showed steep declines that largely predated but were worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new members are early literacy expert Kymyona Burk and elementary school principal Michael Sidebotham. National educational assessment expert Scott Marion was reappointed to a second term. All three Governing Board members will serve four-year terms that begin Oct. 1.
Additionally, Governing Board member and Tennessee State Rep. Mark White will become the Governing Board’s new chair, succeeding former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue. White joins Vice Chair Martin West, Massachusetts state school board member and academic dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in leading the nonpartisan 26-member Governing Board. Details on appointees are below.
Kymyona Burk, senior policy fellow of early literacy at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, also known as ExcelinEd, joins the Governing Board in a general public representative role. Burk also serves as a visiting senior fellow at the State University of New York’s New Paltz Science of Reading Center. An educational leader with more than 25 years of teaching, coaching, and university- and state-level experience, Burk previously served as state literacy director for the Mississippi Department of Education, literacy coordinator for Jackson State University’s Mississippi Learning Institute, and teacher in the Jackson Public School District. She worked closely with former state superintendent of education and Governing Board Member Carey Wright to advance Mississippi’s widely lauded reading reforms.
Scott Marion, reappointed in the testing and measurement expert role, is a principal learning associate at the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment — a nonprofit that seeks to increase student learning through educational assessment and accountability practices. His current projects include supporting states and districts in designing and implementing assessment and accountability initiatives, providing technically defensible policy guidance, and implementing high-quality, locally designed performance-based assessments.
Michael Sidebotham, principal of Grafton Village Elementary School in Fredericksburg, Va., joins the Governing Board in the elementary school principal role. Recognized this year as Virginia Department of Education Principal of Distinction, Sidebotham previously served as a teacher and assistant principal in Stafford, Va. He was named Principal of the Year in Stafford County in 2018. Sidebotham’s leadership roles have involved many aspects of assessment, including planning and administering state and benchmark tests and using data to inform instructional decisions and accelerate student progress.
"This is a pivotal moment in American education, with recent Nation's Report Card releases showing steep declines in student achievement across grades and subjects. These appointees bring the expertise, knowledge, and skills needed to help shape our work and ensure we’re providing policymakers, educators, and families with the information they need to bring positive change to our schools," said Lesley Muldoon, Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board.
Added new Governing Board chair, Rep. Mark White, “I’m honored to step into the role of chair of the Governing Board and am looking forward to working with our partners at the National Center for Education Statistics to continue to strengthen the NAEP program, which serves a vital role in ensuring Americans are informed about how students are doing across states, cities, and the nation as a whole.”
In its policy role, the Governing Board determines which grades and subjects to assess, what content to include in assessments, sets the NAEP achievement levels, and works to make the Nation’s Report Card results meaningful and relevant to the public.
New and reappointed members will be sworn in at the Governing Board's quarterly meeting in November. See the list of 26 Governing Board members here.
Download the PDF version of the release here.
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The National Assessment Governing Board (Governing Board) sets policy for the Nation’s Report Card, also called the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP. Created by Congress in 1988, the Governing Board is an independent, nonpartisan board whose 26- members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives and members of the general public. For more information about the Governing Board, visit www.nagb.gov.