National Assessment Governing Board Seeks Nominations for Eight Openings

Public invited to nominate candidates by Oct. 31, 2014

WASHINGTON – (August 19, 2014) — A school superintendent, an expert in testing and measurement and a business representative are among positions to be filled by Americans from across the country as the National Assessment Governing Board opens its nominations process for eight new members.

The 26-member Governing Board was established by Congress in 1988 to oversee the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation's Report Card. NAEP measures student performance in grades 4, 8 and 12 in a variety of subjects on a state and national level and in 21 large urban school districts.

Governing Board members, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education, help define how NAEP measures student achievement, including identifying subjects on which students will be assessed, determining the content of the assessments and taking steps to improve how the results are reported.

"This is an exciting time to have a voice in education standards and testing," said member Tonya Miles, who chairs the Governing Board Nominations Committee. "Governing Board members play important roles in innovating key aspects of NAEP as well as communicating its valuable data and resources to parents, policymakers and educators, and the general public."

Nominations are being accepted through Oct. 31 in these categories:

• Business representative
• Chief state school officer
• Curriculum specialist (2 openings)
• Local school superintendent
• State school board member
• Testing and measurement expert
• 12th-grade teacher

Among its accomplishments, the Governing Board has helped advance NAEP — considered the gold standard in assessments — by embracing technological advances and establishing ways to measure student learning through new computer-based assessments. Governing Board members help maintain NAEP's integrity by using their expertise to define the academic skills students need to compete in the global economy.

New Governing Board members will play a critical role in expanding NAEP's impact through several outreach and education initiatives targeting parents, teachers, school administrators and policymakers.

"NAEP is an essential tool for measuring the academic progress of our nation's students," Miles said. "We need Board members who understand the Board's role in defining academic skills and knowledge, can apply their expertise to overseeing and setting policy for NAEP and are committed to raising overall student achievement and closing achievement gaps."

By law, the membership of the Governing Board must reflect regional, racial, gender and cultural balance and diversity. In addition to the eight positions, the Governing Board includes governors, fourth- and eighth-grade classroom teachers, a nonpublic school administrator or policymaker, principals and members of the general public, including parents. Board members serve four-year terms.

The U.S. Secretary of Education will appoint the new members from a list of finalists submitted by the Governing Board. The term for each position is Oct. 1, 2015, to Sept. 30, 2019.

To nominate an individual or yourself, please visit: www.nagb.org/nominations. If you have questions, contact Dr. Mary Crovo at (202) 357-6941 or mary.crovo@ed.gov. The deadline for submitting nominations is Oct. 31, 2014.