Chris Reykdal begins term as president of Council of Chief State School Officers

State Superintendent Chris Reykdal will begin his term as President of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) on November 14, 2025. The CCSSO is a nonpartisan national nonprofit that provides leadership and advocacy for state education chiefs across the United States. Its Board of Directors oversees the organization’s business affairs.

Reykdal was chosen by fellow state education superintendents, commissioners, and secretaries to serve as CCSSO’s President-Elect in 2024.

“I’m honored to be selected by my peers to serve as the President of CCSSO,” Reykdal said. “This is a critical moment for public education. Young people are navigating a world that is changing rapidly, including the large-scale impacts that are coming from artificial intelligence. To best serve our students and our nation, education leaders will have to double down on learning content and strategies that focus on quantitative reasoning, data literacy, and much more. While America’s literacy rates rank among the world’s best, our skills in mathematics are average.”

“Our schools must reenvision the way we deliver instruction, the learning pathways we provide, and what it looks like when students graduate from our schools fully prepared for their next step in today’s world,” Reykdal continued. “Across the country, state education leaders are working together in bipartisan ways to focus on these and other key issues facing our students.”

“We simply must move beyond overly simplistic ways of evaluating student learning and instead shift our thinking to the multiple ways students demonstrate that they are on track to achieve success in the pathway they choose,” Reykdal said. “I look forward to a year of innovation with national unity behind the belief that states are best equipped to lead teaching, student learning and evaluation, and overall transformation.”

Reykdal has led Washington’s K–12 public education system since 2017. His approach emphasizes transformation, accountability, transparency, and equity within public schools. He has expressed commitment to strengthening public education as an essential part of democracy during his upcoming tenure as CCSSO president.