U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has announced the appointment of four new members of the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), as well as four reappointments.

The new appointees were nominated in 2005 and began serving their three-year terms October 1, 2006.

New members appointed to three-year terms ending Sept. 30 2009 are:

• Robin C. Hall, principal, Beecher Hills Elementary School, Atlanta;
• James S. Lanich, president, California Business for Education Excellence, Sacramento;
• Alan J. Friedman, director and CEO, New York Hall of Science, New York;
• Cynthia Nava, New Mexico State Senator

Spellings also reappointed NAGB Chairman Darvin Winick, Winick and Associates, Austin, Texas; Amanda Avallone, a principal and teacher in Boulder, Colo; Kim Kozbial-Hess, a teacher in Toledo, Ohio; and Oscar Troncoso, a principal in El Paso, Texas.

The 26-member governing board develops policy guidance for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the only continuing assessment of what students know and can do in various subjects at the elementary and secondary school levels. Under the No Child Left Behind law, which requires that states participate every two years in the national assessment's state-level samples for assessing reading and math achievement in grades four and eight, the national assessment has taken on a new role as an independent yardstick of school achievement. States are now able to compare trends on the national assessment with performance on their own state exams.

The board is involved in a number of activities, including:

• Selecting the subjects to be tested;
• Identifying learning objectives for each grade tested;
• Identifying appropriate achievement goals; and
• Ensuring that all items selected for use in the assessment are free from racial, cultural, gender and regional biases.

The secretary appoints members from nominees in categories prescribed by law. The independent, bipartisan board includes governors or former governors, legislators, educators, testing experts and curriculum specialists, as well as business and industry representatives, parents and persons representing the general public.

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