David P. Driscoll

David Driscoll served as the 22nd commissioner of education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1998 to 2007. Dr. Driscoll has a 49-year career in public education and educational leadership. A former secondary school mathematics teacher, he was named Melrose, Mass., 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 a former president of the Council of Chief State School Officers. He currently serves on a number of boards, including Teach Plus and the U.S. Education Delivery Institute, and chairs the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Board and the National Assessment Governing Board.