Board Members
Board Membership Composition in the NAEP Law
An Independent, Representative Board
In creating an independent Governing Board, Congress established a system of checks and balances for NAEP—the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy; the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the program; and test contractors, who develop and carry out the assessments. To make sure the Governing Board is widely representative, the law (Public Law 107–279) requires that the Board be composed of:
- Two Governors, or former Governors, of different political parties
- Two state legislators of different political parties
- Two chief state school officers
- One superintendent of a local education agency
- One member of a state board of education
- One member of a local board of education
- Three classroom teachers representing the grade levels (4th, 8th, and 12th) at which the National Assessment is conducted
- One representative of business or industry
- Two curriculum specialists
- Three testing and measurement experts
- One nonpublic school administrator or policymaker
- Two school principals, one elementary and one secondary
- Four additional members who are representative of the general public, including parents
- The Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (ex-officio)
Current Board Members (2009–2010)
Honorable David P. Driscoll, Chair
David Driscoll is the 22nd Commissioner of Education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1998 to 2007. Commissioner Driscoll has 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 is currently the Outgoing President of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and serves on the board of the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB).
Amanda P. Avallone, Vice Chair
Amanda Avallone is the Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction and an 8th grade English/Language Arts teacher at Summit Middle School. She has worked as a teacher, administrator, and curriculum writer since 1985 in public, independent, and charter schools, as well as in corporate settings. At Summit Middle, where she has worked since 1996, she teaches English IV and Literacy, and is responsible for Professional Development and teacher training.
David J. Alukonis
David Alukonis 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 where he served as a State Representative.
Carol D'Amico
Carol D'Amico is President and CEO of Conexus Indiana, a private organization focused on growing a qualified workforce for the state's advanced manufacturing and logistics sectors. Dr. D'Amico previously served as executive vice president and chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana. She was also appointed by President Bush to be Assistant Secretary of Vocational and Adult Education and served from 2001-2003.
Louis Fabrizio
Louis Fabrizio is the Director of Accountability Policy & Communications in the Division of Accountability Services at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. He is responsible for policy development and communications related to the state's ABCs Accountability Program, the statewide testing program, and the state's accountability and assessment plans for No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Dr. Fabrizio worked for CTB/McGraw-Hill for many years as a testing consultant.
Honorable Anitere Flores
Anitere Flores is a Florida legislator (R-Miami) who has represented District 114 in the Florida House of Representatives since 2004. Ms. Flores served as Education Council Policy Chief from 2000-2002 in the state House and has advised Gov. Jeb Bush on statewide policies. From 2002-2004, Ms. Flores served as Director of State Relations for Florida International University.
Alan J. Friedman
Alan Friedman is a consultant in the areas of museum development and science communication. He has consulted for over sixty institutions around the world. From 1984 to 2006, Dr. Friedman was the Director and CEO of the New York Hall of Science. He served as Conseiller Scientifique et Muséologique for the Cité des Sciences et de l'industrie Paris, and was the Director of Astronomy and Physics at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley.
David W. Gordon
David Gordon is Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools providing direct and support services to more than 235,000 students. Previously, he was Superintendent of the 62,000 student Elk Grove Unified School District. Mr. Gordon worked for 17 years at the California Department of Education as Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction; Associate Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, and as Assistant Director of Program Evaluation and Research. He has a statewide and national reputation as an innovator in areas such as assessment, teacher education, and special education.
Doris Hicks
Doris Hicks is Principal and CEO of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology in New Orleans—the first public school to open in the city's devastated Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina. Ms. Hicks has contributed to the New Orleans public school system in numerous roles over the years, serving as an elementary school principal, area superintendent, teacher, and reading consultant. She has also served as president of the Principal's Association of New Orleans Public Schools, the Louisiana Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the New Orleans Council of the International Reading Association.
Kathi M. King
Kathi King is the Mathematics Department Chair and 12th grade mathematics teacher at Messalonskee High School in Oakland, Maine. She has over 32 years of teaching experience in California, New York and Maine. Ms. King's teaching responsibilities include Advanced Placement Calculus AB and BC. As department chair she has fostered the creation of courses in robotics and pre-engineering. In addition, Ms. King is currently working with the district vertical math team to create a seamless mathematics curriculum including an online mathematics program capitalizing on the Maine Laptop Initiative.
Kim Kozbial-Hess
Kim Kozbial-Hess is a fourth grade teacher on special assignment working in two schools in the Toledo, Ohio city school district. As an Educational Technology Trainer, she trains teachers on acquiring and analyzing state testing data for their schools and classrooms. She also is responsible for professional development with instructional technology.
Henry Kranendonk
Henry Kranendonk is a Mathematics Curriculum Specialist for the Milwaukee Public Schools, and Co-Principal Investigator for the Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership, a project funded by the National Science Foundation. He has spent more than 37 years with Milwaukee Public Schools, initially serving as a mathematics and computer science teacher. Mr. Kranendonk's publications include high school mathematics textbooks, statistics books for professional development, and mathematics journal articles. He has served for over 20 years as a computer science teacher leader and assistant examiner for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program, having conducted IB workshops in the U.S., Europe, and Africa.
Tonya Miles
Tonya Miles is the Chief Departmental Administrator in the Office of the General Counsel for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. A parent of three children who are Maryland public school students, Ms. Miles is a former member of the Maryland State Board of Education and a long-time PTA member and officer. Ms. Miles also worked for the Association of American Medical Colleges as an administrator for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). She also is a former central office administrator for both the Prince George's County and the Baltimore City public school districts.
Honorable Steven L. Paine
Steven Paine is the West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools. He joined the state Department of Education in 2003 as Deputy Superintendent of Schools after serving as county superintendent in Morgan County, West Virginia. Under the leadership of Dr. Paine, West Virginia has been internationally and nationally recognized for its 21st Century Learning and Teaching program, Pre-K programs, school technology implementation, school leadership development programs, reading initiatives and teacher quality efforts. In addition to his role with the National Assessment Governing Board, Dr. Paine is active in national education policy discussions as a member of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) Board of Directors.
Honorable Sonny Perdue
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has invested in long-term school reforms by bringing a new level of accountability to education in Georgia and working to increase the high school graduation rate and students' preparedness for college and careers. Governor Perdue has also pushed for the development of a comprehensive longitudinal data system and supported measures to enhance the comparability of student achievement at national and international levels. A former state senator, he was elected in November 2002 as the first Republican to serve as Georgia's governor since 1872.
Susan Pimentel
Susan Pimentel 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.
W. James Popham
Since 1991, Dr. Popham has served as Professor Emeritus of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before this appointment, he served more than 30 years as a teacher and a professor. A prolific author of hundreds of books, reports, and journal articles related to instruction and assessment, Dr. Popham has been a professor at UCLA since 1962. He has won numerous accolades, including recognition by UCLA Today as one of the top 20 professors of the 20th century, and the Award for Career Contributions to Educational Measurement presented in 2002 by the National Council on Measurement in Education.
Andrew C. Porter
Andrew Porter is Dean and George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education. Before his current post, he was a professor at Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Michigan State University. Dr. Porter is an educational psychologist and psychometrician who has made significant contributions in education policy. Most notably, he has published widely in journals on student assessment, accountability, standards-based curricula, and quality teaching.
Warren T. Smith, Sr.
Warren Smith is the Vice President of Washington State Board of Education, and he has served on the State Board for eight years. Mr. Smith served as the President of the Washington State Board of Education in 2004. He was the president, vice president and legislative representative for the Bethel School District from 1986 to 1999. Mr. Smith has served in various capacities with the Washington State School Directors Association's (WSSDA) executive board, including president, president-elect and vice president. On the national level he was a delegate to the National School Board Association (NSBA). With NSBA, Mr. Smith was the Pacific Region Chair, the Federal Relations Network chair and served with the Government Relations Regional Conference. Mr. Smith has been a champion for an equitable education for all students for more than 22 years.
Mary Frances Taymans, SND
Sister Mary Frances Taymans is the Executive Director of the Secondary School Department of National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). She directs the comprehensive agenda of the department and works particularly in the areas of mission, research, leadership and advocacy. Sr. Taymans served as the assistant superintendent for high schools in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, principal of Cardinal Gibbons High School in North Carolina and Clearwater Central Catholic High School in Florida. She has taught as an adjunct at The George Washington University and the University of Dayton.
Oscar A. Troncoso
Oscar Troncoso is the Principal at Anthony High School in El Paso, Texas. He is the former principal at Socorro High School and the Assistant Principal at Americas High School and William Slider Middle School. Mr. Troncoso was a former teacher of English and English Language Learners at Socorro High School and Riverside Middle School in El Paso, Texas. Mr. Troncoso is currently working on his Ph.D. at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, majoring in Curriculum and Instruction.
Honorable Leticia Van de Putte
Leticia Van de Putte, a pharmacist for 30 years, is now serving her fifth term as a Texas State Senator for District 26, which represents a large portion of San Antonio. She became chair of the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus in 2003 and was nominated as co-chair of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Sen. Van de Putte has held many leadership roles related to education issues. During her tenure as president of the National Hispanic Council of State Legislatures, she presided over a strategic partnership with the National Black Caucus of State Legislatures to address the student racial achievement gap. And during her term as president of the National Conference of State Legislatures, education became a large focus of the organization's policy agenda.
Eileen Weiser
Eileen Weiser is a civic leader with national and local service. Ms. Weiser previously served on the Governing Board from 2003-2007 as a state board of education representative before being newly appointed in 2008. She also served eight years as a Michigan Board of Education member, leading substantive policy decisions on such issues a state compliance for No Child Left Behind before stepping down in 2006. And from 1998-2001, Ms. Weiser was executive director of the McKinley Foundation, a nonprofit that created and managed various community projects including literacy efforts and curriculum reform.
Darvin M. Winick
Darvin Winick is President of Winick & Associates, and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, College of Education. Dr. Winick, a psychologist and career organizational consultant, has been active in Texas education policy since the early 1980s. He helped found the Texas Business and Education Coalition, an Austin-based group that has played an influential role in shaping and promoting education legislation in the state.
Ex-officio Member
John Q. Easton
Director
Institute of Education Sciences
U.S. Department of Education
Washington, DC
