Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools, David W. Gordon
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 235,000 students in sixteen school districts. From 1995-2004 Mr. Gordon served as Superintendent of the Elk Grove Unified School District. Elk Grove is an ethnically and economically diverse district of more than 60,000 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. From 1985 to 1991 he was the Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction. From 1983 to 1985 he was Associate Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Gordon was Assistant Director of Program Evaluation and Research and had lead responsibility for developing California's student proficiency tests and the CBEST Teacher Competency Test, which was initiated in 1982. Mr. Gordon began his career as an elementary school teacher in 1968 in South Bronx, New York.
Mr. Gordon holds 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. In 2003 he was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education to 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. In 2001 Mr. Gordon was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education.
He 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 at the invitation of First Lady Laura Bush, 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.
Mr. Gordon was named 2002 Elk Grove Citizen Newsmaker and Man of the Year. He also has 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 and his wife Deborah, a novelist, have two children and five grandchildren.
Contact Information
David W. Gordon, Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools
10474 Mather Boulevard
P.O. Box 269003
Sacramento, CA 95826-9003
(916) 228-2410 or dgordon@scoe.net