Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday has been appointed to serve a four-year term on a national board charged with setting policy for the nation’s only assessment of student achievement in subjects like mathematics, reading, writing and science.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Holliday’s appointment to the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) this week.

The board sets policy — including what subjects will be tested and the content and achievement levels for each test — for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation’s Report Card.  

Holliday, who has served as Kentucky’s education commissioner since 2009, will serve as a chief state school officer appointee on the board. His term begins Oct. 1.

“We are delighted to have Terry join the Governing Board,” said David P. Driscoll, the board’s chairman. “His experience as an educator and administrator for almost four decades will be a major asset in efforts to oversee The Nation’s Report Card — the most valuable benchmark we have for monitoring student progress in the U.S.”

Holliday joins the board as it oversees several major developments, including the creation of a new computer-based Technology and Engineering Literacy assessment that will be administered in 2014 and an ad hoc committee on engaging parents that will focus on increasing student performance and closing achievement gaps.

The board also will be involved with the release of research studies in 2012 that examine 12th-grade preparedness for higher education and job training — an area of interest and focus for Holliday, the Kentucky Board of Education and state and local education leaders, policymakers and lawmakers.

Congress established the 26-member national governing board in 1988 to oversee NAEP, which makes information on student performance available to policymakers and the public at the national, state and local levels, and has served an important role in evaluating the condition and progress of American education since 1969.

Holliday will join a group of governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators and researchers, business representatives and members of the general public who make up the board. In addition to Holliday, six other board members were appointed or re-appointed by Duncan this week included:

  • Andres Alonso, chief executive officer of the Baltimore City Public Schools.
  • Lou Fabrizio, data, research and federal policy director for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Fabrizio has served on the governing board since 2007.
  • Dale Nowlin, a teacher at Columbus (Columbus, Ind.) High School.
  • Susan Pimental, an educational consultant from Hanover, N.H., who has served on the governing board since 2007.
  • B. Fielding Rolston, chairman of the Tennessee State Board of Education.
  • Cary Sneider, associate research professor at Portland State University.

The new members’ terms are scheduled to expire Sept. 30, 2015.