After a forum near Poughkeepsie, where he was drowned out by the crowd, he canceled several other planned forums, then rescheduled them. As Commissioner of Education and President of USNY, Commissioner King worked with the Board of Regents to pursue an ambitious education reform agenda. King, who served as secretary of education during the Obama administration, spoke with U.S. News Senior Education Writer Lauren Camera for the … She died of a heart attack when King was eight years old. The state's educator engagement site, called EngageNY, has had over 100 million page views by educators throughout the state and country who want to learn more about Common Core implementation and access the state's Common Core curriculum modules and videos. King Jr. was born in 1975 in Flatlands, Brooklyn, to John B. Under Commissioner King's leadership, NYSED also strengthened its approach to charter authorizing by launching a more rigorous Request for Proposals process for new schools and increasing accountability for existing schools. The former head of the federal education department continued: “The president lacks any power to order schools to open. [24], In February 2011, King was appointed by United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to serve on the U.S. Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission.[25]. He moved in with his uncle in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he applied and was accepted to Harvard University. The Obama-era education secretary, who served for seven years, wrote: I have never believed in local control more than I do today, especially given the absence of leadership coming from Washington on the issue of when and how to reopen public schools safely amid COVID-19. !” The Obama-era education secretary, who served for seven years, wrote: On February 2, 2016, according to Federal News Radio, members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee took King and the Department's chief information officer Danny Harris to task for systemic cybersecurity problems, and what some called a lack of accountability for past behaviors. USNY comprises more than 7,000 public and independent elementary and secondary schools; 270 public, independent and proprietary colleges and universities; 7,000 libraries; 900 museums; 25 public broadcasting facilities; 3,000 historical repositories; 436 proprietary schools; 52 professions encompassing more than 850,000 licensees plus 240,000 certified educators; and services for children and adults with disabilities. [13], King later received a Juris Doctor at Yale Law School and a Doctor of Education in educational administrative practice at Columbia. He succeeds Kati Haycock, who founded the organization in the early 1990s.[1]. In April, a study released by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute revealed a historic drop in national reading and math scores among U.S. students since the adoption of the Obama-era Common Core Standards a decade ago, while Duncan lead the education department. We had some failures … We’re not top 10 in anything.”, Duncan further criticized Trump, stating he is “even more off-base to be threatening to withhold federal funding if schools don’t obey him.”. In remarks at the signing ceremony, the President said, "we are going to miss Arne Duncan a lot. President Donald Trump is way out of bounds when he tweets in all capital letters, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!! Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, Will your ballot be safe? [50] They live in Takoma Park, Maryland and have two daughters. If earlier the book and the notebook were the main tools of the teacher and the student, then today secretary of education obama uses various tools: text, video, interactive. [20] In November 2014, the state teachers' union called for his resignation. [21], In one of his last efforts as State Education Commissioner, in December 2014, King piloted a program in New York city to increase socioeconomic diversity among schools through integration—"attracting students from higher-income families to eight schools on the state's list of low-performing 'focus' and 'priority' schools. "Those districts really represent neighborhoods of socioeconomic status, and so the school district spending can vary tremendously within blocks," King tells U.S. News. [9] In 2013 Uncommon Schools won the Broad Prize for top charter network. In the fall of 2015 when Arne Duncan announced that he would resign as Secretary of Education at the end of the year, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that King would succeed Duncan as the Acting Secretary until the end of the President's term (in January 2017). [9], After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in government at Harvard,[10] King taught social studies and received his master's at Teachers College, Columbia University. In January 2015, King became the Acting Deputy Secretary of Education (officially, the "Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education"). [5] The former Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan,[6][7] was charged with implementing the No Child Left Behind Act; however, King was obliged to carry out the provisions of that law's modified successor legislation, the Every Student Succeeds Act. [14] Through Race to the Top funding, network teams were launched in every region of the state and in every large district to provide training and embedded support to educators around implementation of the Common Core and the resources on EngageNY. [15][16] In 2013, New York became one of the first states in the country to administer exams that measure whether students are meeting Common Core standards. [28] Even if their education reform agendas are similar, Duncan pointed out that King's background (he has African-American and Puerto Rican heritage, and was orphaned at age 12) gave him a "set of experiences that I think will help to make him especially impactful. On March 14, 2016, King was approved to be Secretary of Education by the United States Senate after a 49-40 vote. The gap in funding is fueled by how many school districts track along lines of race and class, King says. At the same time, however, Duncan wrote in his account of his work with public schools, that the federal education system “runs on lies.”, Asked by CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan if he “made a dent in any of that” when he was education secretary, Duncan replied, “We had some, you know, real successes. [11][12] King then joined as a managing director for Uncommon Schools, an urban, public charter school organization that operates some of the highest performing urban public schools in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. King Jr., who “began doing weekly conference calls with a dozen big-city school superintendents to talk through issues and solutions.”. King served on the board of New Leaders for New Schools from 2005 to 2009, and is a 2008 Aspen Institute-NewSchools Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Fellow. Electing our first black President sure didn’t hurt our country’s democracy or our rule of law. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the … Adding to these issues is the difficulty parents face supervising their children at home. This page was last edited on 14 July 2020, at 12:05. Under King's leadership, Roxbury Prep's students attained the highest state exam scores of any urban middle school in Massachusetts, closed the racial achievement gap, and outperformed students from not only the Boston district schools but also the city's affluent suburbs. United States Deputy Secretary of Education, Commissioner of Education of the State of New York, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, List of African-American United States Cabinet Secretaries, List of United States politicians with doctorates, "John B. Train principals, including giving them time to learn from each other. King later attended Phillips Andover but rebelled against its rules and was expelled in his junior year. Attorney General, Eric Holder. "[29], On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, the successor law to the No Child Left Behind Act. New York has become a national leader in implementing Common Core standards. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. The man who spearheaded the federally incentivized Common Core State Standards initiative and referred to parents opposed to it as “white suburban moms” now says he backs “local control” of education. King was appointed Commissioner of Education of the State of New York in May 2011, succeeding David Steiner [9] as Commissioner of Education and President of the University of the State of New York (USNY). King is married to Melissa Steel King, an associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners. "[33][34], In November 2016, the U.S. Department of Education released the final ESSA accountability rules, boosting state flexibility in key areas. King Jr., Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education — Biography", "High School and Beyond - Education Week", "Uncommon Schools Wins Broad Prize for Top Charter Network", "N.Y. 'Open' Education Effort Draws Users Nationwide - Education Week", "Support the Common Core with the right instructional materials | Kappan Common Core Writing Project", "Where Are Teachers Getting Their Common-Core Instructional Materials?