David W. Gordon serves as superintendent of the Sacramento (CA) County Office of Education. The county office directly serves more than 30,000 students and provides financial oversight and support services to more than 244,000 students in thirteen school districts. He was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education to serve (2003–2011) on the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the “Nation’s Report Card”). Mr. Gordon currently serves as chair of NAGB’s Reporting and Dissemination Committee. From 2001 to 2003 Mr. Gordon served on the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education.
Mr. Gordon was appointed in 2005 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence. He has served as an Associate in Education at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and a visiting professor at the University of California, Riverside. He has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the California Curriculum Development Commission. He has presented at the White House, has been a panelist on the U.S. Department of Education’s cable television show, has testified before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures in California and around the nation, and is a frequent speaker at major conferences.
From 1995 to 2004, Mr. Gordon served as superintendent of the Elk Grove Unified School District. Elk Grove is an ethnically and economically diverse district of more than 63,000 students covering 320 square miles of Sacramento County, California. Mr. Gordon was responsible for 55 schools and budgets totaling $500 million. One of the fastest growing districts in the nation, Elk Grove grew from 29,000 to 59,000 students during Mr. Gordon’s tenure. From 1991 to 1995, Mr. Gordon served as Elk Grove’s Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education. Prior to coming to Elk Grove, Mr. Gordon worked for 17 years in the California State Department of Education. Mr. Gordon began his career as an elementary school teacher in 1968 in the South Bronx, New York.
Among his achievements, Mr. Gordon was named 2002 Elk Grove Citizen Newsmaker and Man of the Year. In 2007 he was named the California Preschool Champion for Outstanding Educational Leadership by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. He has also been an active volunteer in the Sacramento area, serving as a board member of the Jewish Foundation of Northern California, the Elk Grove Rotary Club, the YMCA, and the Capital Unity Council. He currently serves as a member of the board of trustees of the Sierra Health Foundation.
Mr. Gordon earned a B.A. degree from Brandeis University and an Ed.M. and Certificate of Advanced Study (C.A.S.) in Educational Administration from Harvard University. He and his wife Deborah, a novelist, have two children and six grandchildren.
