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Ed Comm Exits With Common Core as his Legacy, for Better or for Worse

Charles Lane WSHU

The state is losing it’s education commissioner, as John King takes a job with the Obama Administration.   King was in charge of school policies during a tumultuous time, and he admits there are things he might have done better.

King is leaving after five and half years to become assistant US education secretary under Arne Duncan.  In an interview with public radio and TV, He says he hopes his legacy in New York will be his intense focus on getting the Common Core learning standards push started in the state.

“I’m most proud of the work we’ve done to raises standards,” King said. “It’s certainly been challenging .”

His efforts were controversial,  as parents , students and teachers rebelled, complaining that the volume of new tests were overwhelming,  and that the state education department had not done its job in helping teachers with the necessary support materials. The governor and legislature stepped in and imposed a two year moratorium on the effects of Common Core.

Tim Kremer, with the New York State School Boards Association, says King was very “courageous” to press for higher standards, and his ideas were thoughtful, “but he lacked the ability to bring people along with him.”

“I think that was his downfall,” Kremer said.

King says in retrospect he could have done more to get teachers, students, and their parents on board, and would have liked state funds and commitments from school districts to “helping parents understand how the new standards were different” and how the curriculum was changing. But he says he really has the opposite concern.

“ I worry not that we’re moving not too quickly but that we’re moving too slowly to get to higher standards,” King said.

Commissioner King, in his final days on the job received a letter from Governor Cuomo that Cuomo released to the media. It was not the typical note of thanks for your service and good luck in the new job. Instead, the Governor demanded that King, before he leaves offer candid thoughts on how to significantly change education policy. Why is it, the Governors asked , that recent teacher evaluations show 99% of teachers ranked highly, while two thirds of third through eighth graders essentially failed the new Common Core related tests in math and English.  

“It is incredible to believe that is an accurate reflection of the state of education in New York,” Cuomo said.

King agrees that the present teacher evaluation system is not working.

“That’s a problem and it requires a change in the law,” King said. “We’re certainly supportive of the governor moving forward to change that law.”

Commissioner King, in one of his final actions, endorsed the State Board of Regents request for $2 billion dollars in additional school aid in the 2015 budget . He says poorer schools , with a more meager property tax base,  need more funds from the state to help their students learn and compete in the global economy.