State Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons is no longer with the Virginia Department of Education as of Friday afternoon.

Emily Anne Gullickson, the chief deputy secretary of education, will serve as acting state superintendent in the interim.

State Superintendent Lisa Coons, shown with Gov. Glenn Youngkin in August, is the second schools chief to leave his administration abruptly.

Coons’ resignation comes as the department has missed several deadlines for sending reports to the state legislature, has yet to publish teaching materials for the new history standards that the department promised to teachers last July, and as the department has hemorrhaged longtime staffers since Coons’ arrival two years ago.

Coons is Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s second state superintendent to leave the job abruptly.

Youngkin’s communications director Rob Damschen said the governor “deeply values Dr. Coons’ dedication to Virginia’s students, parents, and educators.

“As the administration moves forward with its education agenda, we are confident that Acting Superintendent Gullickson, with her experience in the Youngkin administration and her background as a teacher and advocate for students, will lead a seamless transition,” Damschen said.

The education department’s chief of staff, Jeremy Raley, sent an email to staff members on behalf of Coons on Friday afternoon to inform them of her departure.

“It has been my great honor to serve the students, families, and educators of Virginia in my time leading the Department of Education under Governor Youngkin,” Coons wrote in the message. “After careful consideration, I have decided to pursue new professional opportunities, and I wish Governor Youngkin and his administration the best.”

Grace Creasey, president of the state Board of Education, emailed Department of Education staff late Friday afternoon informing them that the board had accepted Coons’ resignation.

Youngkin appointed Coons in March 2023, and she took over as head of the department on April 17, 2023. She came from Tennessee, where she served as the state’s chief academic officer.

Coons replaced former superintendent Jillian Balow, who resigned just 14 months into her tenure amid controversy over the state’s new history standards.

The Virginia Board of Education directed the education department two years ago to produce robust, high-quality instructional guides — the framework of how educators teach — to accompany the history standards. But months before the standards are implemented this fall, the department still has yet to produce nine of the 13 course guides.

Shortly into Coons’ tenure, state Board of Education members approved a new partnership with iTeach, a for-profit company offering online teacher training. Board members did not know at the time that education department staff had reviewed iTeach’s special education courses and found that they do not meet minimum state standards. Emails from Coons to other state education officials at the time showed that she was looking for a way to limit the dissemination of records to the Richmond Times-Dispatch regarding the story about iTeach.

Within Coons’ first few months on the job, the education department broke precedent and released annual state test results in September. It was the first time in at least 19 years the department had published the test scores after August.

During last year’s General Assembly session, Democrats who lead the Senate Education and Health Committee challenged Coons over their concerns about the education department weeks ahead of the legislature’s deadline to approve her appointment.

A state senator said Coons “misled” a committee when she testified that the education department had not heard from any school divisions that they considered a tutoring program a priority. The state had ended the program in mid-school year.

A letter from the second-largest school division in Virginia shows the division reached out to the education department about the program. The legislature ultimately confirmed Coons’ appointment last year.

In an email to education department staff, Creasey said Gullickson, the interim superintendent, “brings experience, deep knowledge, commitment, and passion to this role.”

“As a teacher, an advocate, and a national thought leader, she is ready to continue her service to the Commonwealth in this new role,” Creasey wrote. “The Administration and the State Board of Education will facilitate a swift and seamless transition.”

Charles Pyle, the education department’s former communications director who retired in 2023 after 23 years at the agency, said the next superintendent — whoever it may be — will face a challenge in rebuilding the department.

“There has been such an exodus of institutional knowledge of effective educators and administrators, including experienced educators and education policy professionals who came to Virginia to help the governor achieve his goals in restoring academic standards,” Pyle said.

“We have a department now that has additional layers of senior leadership, while at the same time, weakened by the departure of a lot of really smart people who understood assessment, instruction, how you get things done in Virginia, and the role of the State Board of Education with its broad constitutional authority.”