NEWS RELEASE
For Release: February 13, 2023
Contact: Stephaan Harris, (202) 357-7504, Stephaan.Harris@ed.gov   

Elizabeth Schneider, Longtime Leader in Education and Policy, Joins National Assessment Governing Board as Deputy Executive Director

WASHINGTON – Education policy veteran Elizabeth G. Schneider will serve as deputy executive director for the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the country’s only ongoing, nationally representative assessment of student achievement.

Schneider has more than three decades of experience in education and federal policy with positions that span numerous areas of expertise, including policy, program, and project leadership; organizational management; strategic planning; board relations; and policy initiatives focused on K-12 academic standards and assessments.

The Governing Board is a nonpartisan body established by Congress in 1988 to oversee and set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation’s Report Card. NAEP provides objective information on student performance in various subjects and reports on student achievement across the nation, in states, and in select large urban districts. The 26-member Board is responsible for deciding which subjects NAEP assesses, determining assessment content, setting achievement levels that describe student performance, and pursuing new ways to make NAEP results useful and meaningful to the public.

"Throughout my career, information from NAEP has been essential to understanding education at the state and national levels and to informing education policy,” said Schneider. “I am excited and honored to join the Governing Board in supporting the important work of setting policy for these assessments and helping to ensure their utility for the public and policymakers."

Schneider started her career in the U.S. Senate, leading policy and appropriations work on issues such as telecommunications, international trade, and Native American affairs. Schneider then spent a decade as executive director for the Southern Governors Association, a bipartisan association that developed and advanced policy agendas at the federal level and addressed regional challenges.

She spent nearly 15 years serving in several positions for the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington–based national organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those who are traditionally underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship. Her most recent role there was chief of staff and senior vice president for strategic initiatives, which included strategic, operational, and programmatic duties. Schneider most recently served as chief officer for strategic initiatives for the NEA Foundation, a national nonprofit and philanthropical organization founded by educators. At the Governing Board, Schneider will work with Board leadership and staff to implement the Governing Board’s strategic goals and congressionally-mandated responsibilities to oversee The Nation’s Report Card.

“Elizabeth joins our team at a crucial juncture when the pandemic’s unprecedented disruptions still have ripple effects for our nation’s schools and students. As communities support students in accelerating learning, NAEP will provide the country’s most credible yardstick to track that progress,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the Governing Board. “Elizabeth’s track record of strategic leadership will help advance our goals of enhancing NAEP’s relevance and utility, finding opportunities to innovate and create efficiencies, and maintaining NAEP’s unique value as the only national measure of academic progress over time and across states.”

Download the PDF version of the release here.

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The National Assessment Governing Board is an independent, nonpartisan board whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives and members of the general public. Congress created the 26-member Governing Board in 1988 to set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress. For more information about the Governing Board, visit www.nagb.gov.