U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced the appointment of Mississippi State Superintendent of Education Henry L. Johnson to the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB).

Johnson will fill the remaining two and a half years of the term of Ray Simon, who now serves as the assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education in the U.S. Department of Education.

"It is my pleasure to appoint Henry to the board," Paige said. "His background as state superintendent in Mississippi and as associate state superintendent in North Carolina brings a wealth of experience to the board. I am sure that he will make outstanding contributions to the oversight of the assessments that determine how well our youths are achieving in the core subject areas."

Johnson was educated in public schools in North Carolina. He has an undergraduate degree in biology from Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., a master's in teaching from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a doctorate in school administration from North Carolina State University.

The 24-member governing board develops policy guidance for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the only continuing assessment of what students know and can do in various subjects at the elementary and secondary school levels. Under the No Child Left Behind law, which requires that states participate every two years in the national assessment's state-level samples for assessing reading and math achievement in grades four and eight, the national assessment has taken on a new role as an independent yardstick of school achievement. States are now able to compare trends on the national assessment with performance on their own state exams.

The board is involved in a number of activities, including:

• Selecting the subjects to be tested;
• Identifying learning objectives for each grade tested;
• Identifying appropriate achievement goals; and
• Ensuring that all items selected for use in the assessment are free from racial, cultural, gender and regional biases.

The secretary appoints members from nominees in categories prescribed by law. The 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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