Stan Heffner Named Ohio State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Columbus, OH - The State Board of Education on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 selected Stan Heffner as Ohio’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Heffner has been serving as Interim Superintendent since April after Deborah Delisle resigned after three years leading Ohio’s education system. Heffner has been with the Ohio Department of Education since 2004.
"I am honored to be selected as the 36th state superintendent of public instruction,” Heffner said. “I look forward to continue working with the State Board, governor, legislature, school districts, community schools and other interested stakeholders to ensure our students are prepared for success in their lives.”
The State Board of Education received 40 letters of interest in the position and interviewed eight candidates. Legislative education committee chairs Senator Peggy Lehner and Rep. Gerald Stebelton sat on the search committee as did Jai Chabria from the Governor’s Office.
On Tuesday, the State Board voted to conduct an interview with Heffner based upon his successful service as interim superintendent.
“Stan Heffner has done a terrific job as interim superintendent and we are delighted he will continue to provide us with strong leadership,” said State Board President Debe Terhar.
As state superintendent, Heffner will lead the state’s elementary and secondary education system which serves 1.8 million students and employs 190,000 educators. The Ohio Department of Education plays a central role in developing and implementing state education policy and is working on a large number of major initiatives, including Race to the Top and the development of new assessment, accountability and expanded school choice programs.
Heffner is an innovative leader in the national effort to create model curricula and common assessments aligned to the national Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics. He transformed curriculum and assessment in Ohio by leading an international benchmarking project that applied best practices in curriculum and instruction and multiple-measure assessments from the world’s top performing countries to new world class standards for Ohio’s classrooms.
Heffner has also provided oversight for the state’s career-technical education policy and implementation, blending awards of academic and career program credits and expanding use of career-technical education facilities to support workforce development strategies. He was also responsible for the state’s accountability system, currently under development to rank schools in performance and efficiencies and to convey more robust feedback on the academic progress of Ohio’s schools.
Heffner began his career teaching in South Dakota where he became the state’s youngest high school principal. He later served as South Dakota’s deputy secretary of education and cultural affairs. In Ohio, he served on the local school district level beginning in the mid-1980s, including 15 years as superintendent of the Madison Local School District in Lake County.
