U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced that eight individuals have been appointed to four-year terms on the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), the independent board that creates policies for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "the Nation's Report Card."

"The work of the Board and its role in overseeing the Nation's Report Card has long been crucial to measuring our educational progress, allowing us to determine how we are doing in the education of our young people, and where we must do better," Secretary Paige said. "NAGB's role is more important than ever because No Child Left Behind puts our nation's educational focus squarely on achievement. Measuring the progress of our students is key. The only way to know for certain whether our children are learning the skills they need is through rigorous and thorough assessments. NAGB sets the national policies that help determine our strengths and identify where we need to improve."

The appointees are: Mark Reckase, professor, measurement and quantitative methods, Michigan State University; John Easton, executive director, Consortium on Chicago School Research (Chicago); Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief executive officer, Cleveland Municipal School District (Cleveland); Shirley Dickson, program director, literacy, Education Commission of the States (Denver); Kathi King, 12th-grade mathematics teacher, Messalonskee High School (Oakland, Maine); Carl Cohn, clinical professor, University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education (Los Angeles); David Gordon, superintendent of schools, Elk Grove Unified School District (Elk Grove, Calif.); and Eileen Weiser, executive director, McKinley Foundation (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

In addition to the new appointees, Michael Ward, state superintendent of public instruction, North Carolina Public Schools, was reappointed by the secretary to a second term, and Darvin Winick, president, Winick & Associates, Dickinson, Texas, was reappointed as chairman of the board.

In 1988, Congress created NAGB to set policy for the NAEP. The independent, 26-member board is composed of state, local and federal officials, educators, business representatives and members of the general public.

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

• Selecting subject areas to be assessed;

• Developing appropriate student achievement levels;

• Developing assessment objectives and test specifications that produce an assessment that is valid and reliable, and that are based on relevant widely accepted professional standards;

• Designing the methodology of the assessment;

• Developing guidelines for reporting and disseminating results;

• Developing standards and procedures for regional and national comparisons;

• Approving all cognitive and noncognitive NAEP items; and

• Taking appropriate actions needed to improve the form, content, use and reporting of results.

For more information about NAGB, visit www.nagb.org.

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