U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced that Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has been sworn in as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB).

Kempthorne, elected as Idaho's 30th governor in 1998, previously served in the U.S. Senate for six years. As governor, Kempthorne has worked with the Idaho Legislature to enact the Idaho Reading Initiative, which is designed to have every child reading at grade level by the third grade.

"As a governor, Dirk Kempthorne is on the front line of education reform," Paige said. "His strong background will enable him to make valuable contributions to the board and to further strengthen its status as a reliable source of national measures of student performance." As a member of the NAGB, Governor Kempthorne will help develop policy guidance for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the only continuing and nationally representative assessment of what students know and can do in various academic subjects. Since 1969, assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and the arts.

The board is involved in various activities, including:

• selecting the subjects to be tested;
• identifying learning objectives for each grade tested;
• ensuring that all items selected for use in the assessment are free from racial, cultural, gender or regional bias;
• identifying appropriate achievement goals

The independent, bipartisan board was established by the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Amendments of 1988 (P.L. 100-297). The secretary selects governing board members from nominees proposed by NAGB itself in categories prescribed by law.

The 25-member board must include governors or former governors, legislators, educators, testing experts and curriculum specialists, as well as business and industry representatives, parents and persons representing the general public.

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