After a five year run as the head of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and 40 years in public education, Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro has announced her plans to retire at the end of 2014.

Nicastro was hired in 2009 by the state Board of Education to initiate change.

“During Dr. Nicastro’s time in office, the State Board of Education and the Department have developed and implemented new, higher standards for learning, for district classification, for early childhood education and for educator preparation,” Peter Hershend, President of the state Board of Education said.

Nicastro said the overarching theme for change made during her term was the “top 10 by 20,” developed by the Department and the Board under Nicastro’s leadership. The program aims to improve student achievement in Missouri so that it ranks among the top 10 states by 2020.

“I’m very pleased with what we’ve been able to achieve in the last five years,” Nicastro said.

The state Board will be in charge of finding a new commissioner. Hershend said they have not decided on a time frame for this decision, but both he and Nicastro said they hope to find a replacement that will continue work towards the top 10 by 20 plan.

“Now in my opinion is a good time to take stock of what we’ve done and determine what working, what needs to be tweaked, what needs to be further attention and to craft the path forward,” Nicastro said.

The commissioner came under fire during her term over the issue of accreditation in the Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts. She was asked to resign by the NAACP in February after a push to combine Missouri’s unaccredited school districts.

Hershend said the controversy surrounding the accreditation issue is due to the amount of change implemented during Nicastro’s time in office.

“Commissioner Nicastro was hired as a change agent and directed to ‘shake things up in the Department and in Missouri education,” Hershend said. “Dr. Nicastro has implemented a lot of change in a short time, and change often causes concern.”

Superintendent Dr. Eric Knost said Nicastro has served during a difficult time for public education in Missouri and the country. He said the turbulence has not, however, had a negative impact in Rockwood.

A new commissioner, however, could spur directional changes that will affect all districts, Dr. Knost said.

Bill Brown, president of the Rockwood Board of Education, said a new commissioner will likely focus on the issues with accreditation the department has been having.

“The thing that you would like to do is prevent those non-accreditation circumstances rather than being reactive,” Brown said.

Nicastro said she hopes her replacement will uphold high expectations for public education.

“I think that you never rise to low expectations,” Nicatro said, “so I’ve always expected a lot of myself, I’ve expected a lot of my colleagues, and I expect a lot out of public education. I would hope the new commissioner shares those same expectations for public education and for those who work in it.”