Lillian M. Lowery, former Maryland State Superintendent of Schools and Delaware Secretary of Education, has been appointed vice president of Student and Teacher Assessments at Educational Testing Service (ETS). The appointment is effective Sept. 4.

Lowery comes to ETS from The Education Trust in Washington, D.C., where she served as a content expert on issues related to pre–K through 12 education and fostered collaborations with national, state and local organizations. She is also Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

"Dr. Lowery is a consummate professional and an exceptional educator with experience in the classroom, the district office and the state house as well as in the nonprofit education policy arena, where she focused on closing achievement gaps and expanding excellence and equity in education from pre-K to college, especially among students from historically underserved populations," ETS President and CEO Walt MacDonald says.

As Vice President of the Student and Teacher Assessments strategic business unit, Lowery will lead a division comprising Student Assessment and ETS Professional Educator programs. These include business development in state K–12 student assessment programs, among them the Winsight®Assessment System; the Praxis® tests; the ETS® NOTE™ (National Observational Teaching Exam) program; the ProEthica® program; the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP); the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California; the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) program; and ETS's work on contracts for or with Questar® Assessments.

In her work leading the departments of education for Maryland and Delaware, Lowery was a member of the PARCC and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium while the testing programs were being developed. She was also responsible for implementing policies for educator licensure and certification.

"I am so excited to be part of the ETS executive team," Lowery says. "I have long admired the work ETS does on behalf of students, educators and institutions throughout the world, and especially its commitment to advancing quality and equity in education for disadvantaged students. I can't wait to start."

Lowery earned a doctorate of education in educational leadership and policy studies from Virginia Polytechnic and State University, a master's degree in education in curriculum and instruction from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a bachelor's degree in English education from North Carolina Central University.

Her classroom experience includes teaching English in the Fairfax County, Va., school district, where she was also the department chair; in the Alexandria, Va., school district; and in the Gaston County, N.C., school district.

Lowery has held appointments to the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans and the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and she was honored as the Education Policy Leader of the Year by the National Association of State Boards of Education.

About ETS

At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, and by conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® tests and The Praxis Series®assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org