The Nation's Report Card and 12th Grade Academic Preparedness: Regional Symposium

The Honorable Ronnie Musgrove was Governor of the State of Mississippi from 2000 through 2004, having served two terms as State Senator and Chairman of the Education Committee. He is an attorney, having joined Copeland, Cook, Taylor & Bush P.A. in 2004, where he is Of Counsel. He has served as Chairman of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors, the Southern Regional Education Board, the Southern States Energy Board, and the Southern Growth Policies Board. Governor Musgrove has also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Southern Governors Association, the Executive Committee of the Democratic Governors Association, the National Assessment Governing Board, and the National Governors Association. He is a strong proponent of public education and is active in volunteerism, working with both Habitat for Humanity and Stewpot Community Services. He is a graduate of Northwest Mississippi Community College, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Mississippi Law School.

David Driscoll served as the 22nd Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1998 to 2007. Dr. Driscoll has had a 43-year career in public education and educational leadership. A former secondary school mathematics teacher, he was named Melrose Assistant Superintendent in 1972 and Superintendent of Schools in the same community in 1984. He served in that role until 1993, when he was appointed Massachusetts Deputy Commissioner of Education, just days after the state's Education Reform Act was signed into law. He became Interim Commissioner of Education on July 1, 1998, and was named Commissioner on March 10, 1999. Dr. Driscoll, a former President of the Council of Chief State School Officers, currently serves as Chair of the National Assessment Governing Board.

The Honorable Deval Patrick was reelected to a second term as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in November 2010. Governor Patrick has funded public education at the highest levels in the history of the Commonwealth, and its school reform initiatives earned Massachusetts the top spot in the national Race to the Top competition. Through targeted initiatives that play to the Commonwealth's unique strengths, such as his landmark 10-year, $1 billion program to promote the state's life sciences industry, the Governor has positioned the state as a global leader in biotech, bio pharmaceuticals, and information technology, and as a national leader in clean energy. Previously, after clerking for a federal judge, Governor Patrick led a successful career in the private sector as an attorney and business executive, rising to senior executive positions at Texaco and Coca-Cola. In 1994, President Clinton appointed Governor Patrick as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Governor Patrick is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Maura O. Banta serves as Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, a position she has held since 2008. In addition, she is IBM's East Coast Regional Manager for Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs. Ms. Banta is a Board Member of United Ways of New England, Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, Boston Plan for Excellence, Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, and the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. She has served as Chair of the Board of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. She also served for six years on the Massachusetts Educational Management and Audit Council. In addition, she served on former Governor Paul Cellucci's Economic Development Task Force. Ms. Banta earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Marymount College.

Mitchell Chester began serving as Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in May 2008. Dr. Chester began his career as an elementary school teacher in Connecticut, and later served as a middle school Assistant Principal and District Curriculum Coordinator. From there he moved to the Connecticut State Department of Education, where he oversaw curriculum and instructional programs. In 1997 Dr. Chester was named the Executive Director for Accountability and Assessment for Philadelphia, where he headed the offices of Assessment, Research, and Evaluation; Student and School Progress; and Pupil Information Services. In 2001 he moved to Ohio, where he served as the Senior Associate Superintendent for Policy and Accountability for the Ohio Department of Education, where he oversaw standards, assessments, accountability, policy development, and strategic planning. Dr. Chester has presented nationally on accountability, assessment, and teacher induction and retention. He has served as a consultant to states and school districts regarding curriculum and instruction, teacher evaluation, student achievement, and assessment and accountability. Dr. Chester holds a doctorate in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University, as well as advanced degrees from the University of Connecticut and the University of Hartford.

Richard M. Freeland is Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts. He was President of Northeastern University from August 1996 to August 2006. Dr. Freeland has spent his entire academic career in urban higher education. As Assistant to the President of the University of Massachusetts in 1970, he focused on the development of a new campus in Boston. For the next 22 years, he was associated with UMass Boston, serving as Assistant to the Chancellor, Director of Educational Planning, founding Dean of the College of Professional Studies, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Between 1992 and 1996, Dr. Freeland was Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the City University of New York, the country's largest urban system of public higher education. An American historian, Dr. Freeland is the author of two books, Academia's Golden Age, a post-World War II history of universities in Massachusetts published by Oxford in 1992, and The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism, published by Knopf in 1972. Dr. Freeland received a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1963 and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969.

Alice Peisch serves as the State Representative for the 14th Norfolk District, which includes the towns of Wellesley and Weston, as well as Precinct 10 in Natick. Prior to her election in 2003, Representative Peisch was active in Wellesley's municipal government where she served on the Town's Advisory (Finance) and School Committees, both of which she chaired, and as the Town Clerk. Representative Peisch's legislative leadership positions include serving as the Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on Revenue, as well as Chair of the Metrowest Caucus, both in the 2009-2010 session. Currently, Representative Peisch serves as the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Education and is a member of the Special Joint Committee on Redistricting. Representative Peisch has also previously served as a member of the Judiciary Committee (6 years); and the Election Laws, Housing, Higher Education, and Education Committees (2 years on each). Before her time in the legislature, Representative Peisch served Wellesley as Town Clerk and sat on the School Committee and Advisory Committee, both of which she chaired. Representative Peisch received a B.A. from Smith College in 1976, a J.D. from Suffolk University in 1979, and a MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 2009.

Paul Reville, Massachusetts Secretary of Education, directs the Executive Office of Education. Prior to becoming Secretary, Mr. Reville was Chairman of the Massachusetts State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He also served on the Governor's Transition Team and was chair of the Governor's Pre-K-12 Task Force on Governance. Until his appointment as Secretary of Education, Mr. Reville was President of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. He was also Director of the Education Policy and Management Program and a senior lecturer on educational policy and politics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Mr. Reville is the former Education Director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform, and was the founding Executive Director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. From 1991 to 1996, he served on the Massachusetts State Board of Education. In 1985, Mr. Reville was the founding Education Director of the Alliance for Education, a multiservice educational improvement organization serving Worcester and Central Massachusetts. Prior to his work at the Alliance, he was the Principal/Education Director and a teacher in two alternative secondary schools. Last year, Mr. Reville edited the book A Decade of Urban School Reform: Persistence and Progress in the Boston Public Schools. Mr. Reville is a graduate of Colorado College and holds a master's degree from Stanford University.

Darvin Winick served as Chair of the National Assessment Governing Board from 2002 to September 2009 and is currently an advisor to the Governing Board's National Assessment of Educational Progress 12th Grade Preparedness Commission. He is President of Winick & Associates. Dr. Winick is a Senior Research Fellow, College of Education and Executive Director of the Institute for Public School Initiatives at The University of Texas at Austin. Previously, Dr. Winick was an advisor to the 1984 Texas Select Committee on Public Education, and also helped organize the Texas Business and Education Coalition and Texans for Education. He was Chairman of the Research Advisory Committee of the Texas Educational Economic Policy Center, which set out the framework for the current Texas Public School Accountability System. He has served as volunteer Chief of Staff for the Texas Governor's Task Force on Education, Vice Chair of the Governor's Focus on Reading Task Force, and a member of the Education Commissioner's Committee on Accountability. He co-authored Four-Star Schools of Texas, a report on public school campus performance, and has edited reports on education accountability, early reading instruction, and teacher preparation. Dr. Winick is a certified management consultant and a founding member of the Institute of Management Consultants. He holds a doctorate in organizational psychology from Purdue University.

David Alukonis is a Member of the National Assessment Governing Board. He is the owner of a small business that focuses on commercial real estate development and management. He is former Chairman of the Hudson School Board, where he was responsible for leadership, coordination, strategic planning and budgeting for New Hampshire's ninth largest school district. Mr. Alukonis is also a former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

Susan Pimentel, a Member of the National Assessment Governing Board, is an education analyst and standards and curriculum specialist with established credentials in building consensus among diverse constituents. For close to three decades, Dr. Pimentel's work has focused on helping communities, districts and states work together to advance enduring education reform and champion proven tools for increasing academic rigor, including standard setting, curriculum building, assessment alignment, and teacher development and evaluation systems. Since 2001, Dr. Pimentel has served as Senior Policy Consultant to the American Diploma Project (ADP)—designed to close the gap between high school demands and postsecondary expectations. The ADP Network has grown to serve 33 states that are responsible for educating almost 80 percent of our nation's public high school students.