October 2017 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced on September 28 the appointment of six members to the National Assessment Governing Board. NAGB is an independent, nonpartisan board that sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and is responsible for communicating results of the NAEP tests.
DeVos selected former Michigan governor John Engler, one of the general public representative appointees, to serve as chair of NAGB for 2017–2018. The other five appointments include:
Cizek, an AERA member, fills the NAGB position allocated for a testing and measurement expert.
NAGB is currently accepting nominations for five open positions for its 2018–2022 term: fourth-grade teacher; eighth-grade teacher; secondary school principal; chief state school officer; and general public representative. The deadline for submitting nominations is 5:00 pm ET on October 31.
NAGB will hold its next quarterly meeting November 16–18 in Washington, DC.
Other Education Department Appointments
In addition to the NAGB appointees, the Trump administration nominated people for three leadership positions in the Department of Education: Jim Blew, director of Student Success California, to be Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development; Mitchell Zais, former South Carolina Superintendent of Education, to be Deputy Secretary of Education; and Michigan State Representative Timothy Kelly to be Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions approved the nomination of Carlos Muniz to serve as General Counsel on October 19.