CU Honors Former Gov. Gaston Caperton at Charter Day Celebration, Thurs., March 1

Athens, W.Va. – The Concord University Board of Governors and President Jerry L. Beasley announce a special Charter Day convocation to be held on Thursday, March 1 at 11 a.m. in the Alexander Fine Arts Center’s Main Theater. The public is invited.

The theme for the convocation will be “Living the Legacy: Education . . . Entrepreneurship . . . Public Service,” and the University will recognize and honor former two-term governor of West Virginia and eighth president of the College Board, Gaston Caperton.

Governor Caperton was appointed president of the College Board in 1999. The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association founded in 1900 and consists of 5,000 of the nation’s leading schools, colleges, and universities. Among its best-known programs are the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) and the SAT®.

Governor Caperton has transformed the College Board into a resolutely mission-driven, values-oriented organization that takes bold steps to connect greater numbers of students to college success and opportunity while raising educational standards. In his successful effort to expand equity within programs that foster academic excellence, he has more than doubled the size of the College Board’s staff, modernized its management structure, and established collegeboard.com, the nation’s predominant comprehensive Web site serving nearly 4 million students a year as they plan their paths to college.

Under Governor Caperton’s leadership, the College Board dramatically changed the SAT, the nation’s premier college admissions test. Most significantly, it added a new writing section that has begun to elevate the importance of writing on the nation’s education agenda. Addressing concerns over the writing skills of high school graduates, Caperton made the new section a required part of the test, saying, “Good writing is not optional.” Higher level math was added and more critical reading passages were introduced to replace analogies. According to Time magazine: “[I]n a historical sense, Caperton’s ambitious agenda for the big test is appropriate: 77 years ago, the exam began life as a tool of social change.” Time called the new SAT “another great social experiment,” adding: “This time, the idea is that the test’s rigorous new curricular demands will lift all boats—that all schools will improve because they want their students to do well on the test.”

Caperton also deeply believes that the high standards found within the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program courses transform schools and change lives. Soon after his arrival at the College Board, USA Today featured him as the “Education Crusader” and quoted him as saying, “The single most un-American aspect of our great society is the lack of truly equal educational opportunity.” USA Today added, “Caperton thinks he can help change that. That’s why he crisscrossed the USA in the spring, trying to get the board’s Advanced Placement courses into more schools.”

In September 2004, Governor Caperton initiated the creation of College Board Schools, laboratories of learning aimed at preparing underserved middle and high school students to get into college and graduate. The first two schools debuted in New York City’s public school system, with the support of the Gates Foundation and the Dell Foundation. Plans for other College Board Schools in low-income neighborhoods are under way. He believes that by participating in College Board academic programs that are led by well-trained teachers, students can achieve academic success no matter what their personal circumstances.

Improving education is not new for Caperton. As governor of West Virginia from 1988 to 1996, he developed a comprehensive plan that emphasized the use of computers and technology in the public schools, beginning with kindergarten through sixth grade, and later expanding to include grades seven through 12. His aggressive school building program resulted in $800 million in investments that benefited two-thirds of West Virginia’s students. He raised teachers’ salaries to 31^st in the nation from 49^th and had more than 19,000 educators trained through a statewide Center for Professional Development.

As the state’s 31^st governor, Caperton brought West Virginia back from the brink of bankruptcy, with more than $500 million in debts, and transformed it into a state that could boast of a $100 million surplus. Under his leadership, West Virginia’s unemployment rate dropped from 9.8 percent to a low of 6.2 percent. This was accomplished by creating more than 86,000 jobs. The sound financial management approach that he initiated led Financial World magazine to call West Virginia the most improved state in the nation.

Leaving the statehouse, Caperton spent the spring of 1997 teaching as a fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University. He then taught at Columbia University, where he founded and managed the Institute on Education and Government.

Caperton began his career as a businessman in his home state. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, he went to work for a small insurance agency in Charleston, West Virginia. He soon became the company’s principal owner. Under his leadership, the company grew into the 10th largest privately owned insurance brokerage firm in the nation.

Gaston Caperton has received numerous state and national awards and special recognition, including eight honorary doctoral degrees. He was chair of the Democratic Governors’ Association, served on the National Governors Association Executive Committee. He also served as chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, Southern Regional Education Board, and the Southern Growth Policies Board.

Concord received its charter from the West Virginia legislature on February 28, 1872. Concord will pay homage to its history and beginnings by hosting this convocation on March 1, representing the anniversary of its charter.

For more information, contact the Concord University Office of Public Relations and Marketing, 1-304-384-5288 or news@concord.edu.

-CU-

PHOTO: Gaston Caperton

CONCORD UNIVERSITY NOTES: Persons with disabilities should contact Nancy Ellison at 1-304-384-6086 if special assistance or help is required for access to an event scheduled by the University on campus.