STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Mark Schneider, a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Stony Brook University, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 24, 2005 as the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the remainder of a term expiring June 20, 2009. NCES is one of the four centers of the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.

Schenider is on leave from Stony Brook, where he also served as Chair of the Political Science Department. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1974 and has written widely in the areas of urban politics and public policy. His articles have appeared in all the major political science, sociology, and policy journals. His 1989 book The Competitive City won special recognition by the American Political Science Association's Urban Politics Section for its theoretical contribution to the study of urban politics.

As Commissioner, Schneider would head the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The Center is designed to collect, analyze, and report statistical data related to education in the United States and other nations. Dr. Schneider currently serves as Deputy Commissioner of the National Center for Education Research, the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education.

According to Jeffrey Segal, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, "As much as anyone, Mark Schneider was responsible for turning the Stony Brook Political Science department into the nationally renown department it is today. He did this through his exceptional leadership over 18 years, and just as importantly, as a tremendously influential scholar of public policy."

Schneider's current work focuses on education policy and his most recent book, Choosing Schools: Consumer Choice and the Quality of American Schools (2000), with Paul Teske and Melissa Marschall, won the Aaron Wildavsky best book prize from the Policy Studies Organization. Schneider has also done extensive research connecting school facilities to educational outcomes.

Schneider has served as the Vice President of the American Political Science Association 2000-2001; President, American Political Science Association Public Policy Section, 2000-2001; Program Chair, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meetings, 2001; and on the executives council of the Midwest Political Science Association, the APSA Urban Section, and the APSA Public Policy Section. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City, September 1997-July 1998 Visiting Scholar and at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, August 1990-August 1991. Earlier he held a Fulbright Hays Senior Fellowship, 1980-1981, at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.