NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: November 13, 2019
JACKSON, Miss – State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright is one of seven national leaders selected to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board.
The appointees will help set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card. NAEP offers to the public and to education policymakers at the national, state and local levels, objective data on student performance in nearly a dozen subjects.
Mississippi is the only state in the nation to show significant increases in three of the four core NAEP subjects in 2019. Washington, D.C., is the only jurisdiction to show gains in three of four subjects. Nationally, scores for most NAEP subjects dropped or remained flat from 2017 to 2019.
“We are thrilled to welcome these new members to the National Assessment Governing Board, where they will join an exceptional group of leaders with a strong tradition of serving the nation and their communities and a strong commitment to improving the nation’s understanding of student progress,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board.
Under Wright’s leadership, Mississippi has initiated aggressive education reforms that have increased literacy skills in pre-K through the 3rd grade, pushed student achievement on the NAEP to improve at a faster rate than most other states, and increased the graduation rate to an all-time high of 84 percent. Wright spearheaded initiatives in Mississippi that nearly doubled the Advancement Placement (AP) participation and success rate, resulted in significant annual gains in English Language Arts and Mathematics proficiency, and earned Mississippi annual recognition from the National Institute for Early Education Research as one of only seven states in the nation that meet all or most quality standards for early childhood education.
“I am proud to join the National Assessment Governing Board to help ensure students are measured using a high-quality assessment,” Wright said. “Assessments are one of the tools educators use to determine whether students are getting the education they need to be prepared for college, career and life.”
