David M. Steiner, the new state education commissioner, wants to make state standards more demanding so eighth-grade graduates are ready for high school and high school graduates are prepared to succeed in college or meaningful work.

“Meeting standards does not necessarily make a student college- ready,” Steiner said shortly after being named commissioner by the Board of Regents at a meeting Monday in Buffalo. “We must make sure we tell the truth to ourselves.”

Steiner, dean of the Hunter College School of Education at the City University of New York, also places high priority on closing the “very, very serious gaps” in academic performance between minority and majority students, and between general and special-education students.

Steiner, 51, will take office Oct. 1 and be paid $250,000 a year to serve as state education commissioner and president of the State University of New York. He succeeds Richard P. Mills, who retired last month after 14 years as commissioner.

Steiner earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oxford University in England, and a doctoral degree in political science from Harvard University.

He was director of arts education at the National Endowment for the Arts, and held teaching and administrative positions at Boston University, Vanderbilt University, Wellesley College and Cambridge University in England.

Steiner is best known in education circles for efforts to reform teacher training and improve teacher quality, which will clearly be on his agenda in his new post.

“It is not enough to simply raise standards and hope for the best,” said Merryl H. Tisch, the Regents chancellor. “Our teachers need to be prepared to help kids meet and exceed those standards.”

Mills’ emphasis on standardized assessment tests has been beneficial, but it’s time to take a fresh look at their focus and degree of rigor, Steiner told The Buffalo News.

“It may be time to raise the bar on those standards,” he said. “We should take a hard look at those assessments and ask tough questions about them.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Steiner also said:

New York State should should take an “absolutely leading role” in establishing national educational standards. Those standards would give a true reading on how New York students are doing, he said, and better prepare them for an increasingly mobile society.

Schools must find ways to incorporate electronic communications into classroom settings, since students relate so strongly to technology.

College students studying to become teachers should spend more time in actual classroom settings, and begin that hands-on training earlier in their college years.

Course offerings should be examined to determine if they are broad enough and relevant to students and the job market. Computer technology, economics and statistics might be among the subjects given more emphasis, Steiner said.

“Steiner’s expertise and broad experience in education policy make him a natural choice to lead New York’s world-class education system,” said Gov. David A. Paterson.

Robert M. Bennett, a Regent from the Town of Tonawanda and chancellor emeritus, said Steiner will lead efforts to increase high school graduation rates and better prepare students for college and work. At some colleges, he said, as many as 25 to 40 percent of the freshmen need remedial work in core academic subjects.

The statewide high school graduation rate is 70.9 percent, but is just 52 percent in Buffalo.

“We’re going to up the ante significantly,” Bennett said. “I think he’s the guy to do it.”

Steiner’s appointment completes a new educational leadership team in Albany, since Tisch succeeded Bennett as chancellor April 1.

In a close parallel to Steiner’s comments Monday, Tisch told The Buffalo News last month that Albany’s student assessment tests are too easy and give a misleadingly optimistic view of prospects of success in college or at work.

“We have a foundation on which we can build the future,” she said. “Now comes the hand-to- hand combat. The only way to do that is to call the question out.”

The appointment of Steiner —the 13th state education commissioner since 1904 — won support from the New York State School Boards Association, New York State United Teachers and the New York State Council of School Superintendents.

“We have no doubt that Steiner will bring energy, passion and commitment to this key role,” said Timothy G. Kremer, executive director of the school boards association.

“We look to his leadership in furthering the Regents’ commitment that changes in education policy will be made with teachers, not to them,” said Maria Neira, NYSUT vice president.