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Dr. Christopher Koch
State Superintendent, Illinois State Board of Education
Dr. Christopher A. Koch was appointed by the State Board of Education to serve as Illinois State Superintendent of Education effective December 1, 2006. Dr. Koch has been with the Illinois State Board of Education since 1994, serving in a variety of administrative capacities, including Director of Special Education and the states’ Chief Education Officer.
Dr. Koch has experience as a special educator having taught in four states in various settings including an Outward Bound program, a college preparatory school, a youth detention center, and a psychiatric hospital. He served at the federal level, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education where he administered programs in correctional education and School-to-Work transition.
As State Superintendent, Dr. Koch has led efforts to bring coherence between state standards, curriculum, assessments and college entry requirements in Illinois through state membership in the American Diploma Project and the 21st Century Skills initiative. He has been a strong proponent in using data to inform policy and is working to establish a P-20 longitudinal data system where pre-K to 12 student achievement data can be linked to postsecondary education and careers. He supports the establishment of internationally benchmarked standards that promote rigor and relevance, as well as assessments common to all states so that fair and accurate comparisons about student performance between states and countries can be made.
Dr. Koch is a member of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and has been selected by his peers to serve on the CCSSO Board of Directors. He was selected by the Council to serve on the Presidential transition team in 2008 and is Co-chair of the ESEA Reauthorization Task Force.
Dr. Koch is an Illinois native, graduating from Brown County High School in Mt. Sterling, Illinois, and from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees in Educational Policy and Leadership from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.