For Immediate Release
August 23, 2006
Christopher Koch named interim superintendent of
Illinois State Board of Education
Koch will begin serving in December
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The State Board of Education
has named Christopher Koch (pronounced “Cook”),
interim state superintendent beginning in December
2006 and until the board names the next state school
superintendent.
Koch, who has been with the Illinois State Board of
Education (ISBE) since 1994, will serve in an interim
capacity after Superintendent Randy Dunn leaves the
post to begin serving as president of Murray State
University (MSU) in Murray, Kentucky. MSU announced
in May that it had selected Dunn as its next president.
Dunn agreed to stay on as Illinois state superintendent
of education through December 1, 2006. Dunn was named
superintendent in August 2005 after having served as
interim superintendent since September 2004.
The Illinois State Board of Education has hired Hazard,
Young, Attea and Associates of Glenview, Illinois to
conduct the search for the next superindent. The State
Board members are meeting with Hazard, Young, Attea
and Associates during their retreat in Bloomington
Aug. 23-25.
“We are pleased that Dr. Koch has agreed to
take on the interim assignment. He knows the agency
well and will make a good interim superintendent after
Randy Dunn leaves for his new post and until the next
superintendent is in place,” said Illinois State
Board of Education Chairman Jesse Ruiz.
Koch was first appointed as Director of Special Education
at ISBE in April of 2001. He served as ISBE’s
Chief Education Officer from 2002-2003. 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,
a psychiatric hospital and a church-sponsored day school.
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 (“STW”) transition.
In his initial years at ISBE and prior to his appointment
as State Director of Special Education, he helped secure
STW funding for Illinois and the City of Chicago and
provided leadership in developing partnerships with
the agency. His accomplishments as ISBE’s Assistant
Superintendent for Special Education include ensuring
the continuation of federal Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) funding to Illinois without conditions,
correcting compliance issues at the state and local
level, implementing a performance-based accountability
system for special education, establishing public reporting
of performance data for school districts, promoting
parent and school district partnerships, and embracing
a philosophy of continuous improvement. Dr. Koch is
a member of the National Association of Directors of
Special Education.
Dr. Koch is an Illinois native, and a product of Illinois
public schools, having graduated 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. |
