Dive Brief:

• Missouri has selected Margaret Vandeven to take over as education commissioner when Chris Nicastro retires at the end of the year.
• Vandeven is currently the state's deputy commissioner of education in the Missouri Department of Education's division of learning services and has nearly a decade of experience at the department.
• During her time at the department, Vandeven has overseen school accountability standard changes, Common Core implementation, and efforts to improve troubled districts, and she has also been involved in efforts to increase accountability among teachers and teacher training programs.

Dive Insight:

This selection comes less than month after the announcement that the state had more than 40 candidates lined up. Still, when it had narrowed those 40 down to five just over a week ago, Vandeven's experience made her stick out from the competition — all current and former superintendents. Still, the speed with which the replacement of Nicastro was made following her decision to retire is sure to leave some critics feeling uneasy until Vandeven has had time to prove herself in office.