Advisory Committee

Gaston Caperton is the eighth president of the College Board, a not-for-profit membership association founded in 1900 that consists of more than 5,600 of the nation's leading schools, colleges and universities. Among the organization's best-known programs are the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) and the SAT®. A former two-term governor of West Virginia, Caperton was appointed to his current position in 1999.

Responsible for the overall direction of the College Board, Caperton has worked to make it a mission-driven, values-oriented organization, initiating ways to connect more students to academic success and opportunity while simultaneously raising educational standards. In an effort to encourage equity within programs fostering academic excellence, he has more than doubled the size of the College Board's staff and modernized its management structure. Caperton also established collegeboard.com, the nation's predominant comprehensive college-planning Web site serving millions of students a year as they plan their college careers.

Under Caperton's leadership, the College Board has updated the SAT. The nation's premier college admissions test now includes a writing section, reinforcing one of Caperton's priorities: to elevate the importance of writing on the nation's education agenda. Additionally, under his guidance, higher-level math and more critical reading passages have been introduced.

Caperton believes that the high standards found within the College Board's Advanced Placement Program courses transform schools and change lives. During Caperton's eight years as president, the number of low-income students taking AP courses has tripled. Though AP Exams have remained rigorous, student performance has improved. Today, students taking AP Exams are outperforming previous generations of AP students.

Caperton also envisions another important role for the AP Program: impetus for a greater appreciation of globalization's influence on education in the United States. With that as a goal, he has worked to initiate a new series of AP world language and culture courses, including AP Chinese, Italian and Japanese. These join AP courses in World History, Human Geography and Comparative Government and Politics as a series of offerings to prepare students to participate in a global community.

Under Caperton's leadership, two initiatives were created that focus on college preparation for underserved students. College Board Schools were opened as a system of learning laboratories aimed at preparing underserved middle and high school students for successful college matriculation. With the support of the Gates and Dell foundations, the first two schools debuted in New York City's public school system in 2004. There are currently 14 College Board Schools in New York City and in Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y. In total, there are plans for 18 schools in New York state.

The other initiative is the EXCELerator™ program, which is being implemented in existing high schools selected from applicants demonstrating an urgent need and a strong commitment to reform. There are currently 27 EXCELerator Schools in Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Duval County and Hillsborough County, Fla.; and Denver. Caperton believes that with participation in College Board academic programs, students can achieve academic success regardless of their personal circumstances.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Caperton went to work for a small insurance agency in Charleston, W.Va. Under his leadership, the company grew into the 10th-largest privately owned insurance brokerage firm in the nation. Gaston Caperton has received many awards, including 10 honorary doctoral degrees. In 2007, he received the prestigious James Bryant Conant Award from the Education Commission of the States because of his significant contributions to the quality of education in the United States.