Smarter Balanced Hires Executive Program Officer

Lynelle Morgenthaler Joins Smarter Balanced

Santa Clara, CA, June 13, 2022 – Smarter Balanced is excited to announce the hiring of Lynelle Morgenthaler as its new Executive Program Officer. Morgenthaler brings over 20 years of executive experience in education technology, with deep roots in education, learning and assessment, technology, and people development. 

Smarter Balanced is a member-led public agency that supports educators as they help students on a path to progress. Smarter Balanced’s dynamic system of tools—developed in collaboration with our members and educators—is a standards-aligned balanced assessment system and provides teachers with lessons, activities, and methods of gauging progress.

“This is an exciting time for Smarter Balanced, as we continue to innovate and help teachers help students to learn more,” says Tony Alpert, Executive Director of Smarter Balanced. “Lynelle brings a strong background that spans teaching, assessment and learning, product management, research, and strategy. Having that expertise is vital for Smarter Balanced to be agile and adapt as the field of education continues to change.” 

Morgenthaler comes to Smarter Balanced most recently from Edmentum, where she served as Vice President of Learning and Assessment Design. Her impressive background also includes leadership positions in Compass Learning, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and QBS Learning. Over the course of her 20-year career as an executive in educational technology, Morgenthaler has remained consistently focused on serving educators and improving student outcomes. She has a Masters’ degree in education with a focus on English learners from the University of Pennsylvania and began her career as a classroom teacher.

As Executive Program Officer, Morgenthaler will provide oversight and strategic direction for Smarter Balanced around psychometrics, product and test design, item development, teaching and learning, data analysis, and accessibility in Smarter Balanced’s tools. 

“We are at an important moment of time in education in which multiple forces are coming together to impact the landscape of education and assessment. A significant ingredient in our growth will be a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility—which are central to our success as an organization, an educational ecosystem, and a nation,” says Morgenthaler. “I’m excited to join an organization that is so well respected in the field and makes such an important contribution to supporting educators in guiding and measuring student learning.”

Morgenthaler joined Smarter Balanced on June 2, 2022.