King, ex-N.Y. ed chief, nominated to lead U.S. department

PHOTOGRAPHER: The New York Times

Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks at a news conference alongside President Obama and Deputy Education Secretary John King Jr., left, at the White House on Oct. 2, 2015. Duncan announced he was leaving the post.

John B. King Jr., former education commissioner in New York state, has been nominated by President Obama to officially lead the U.S. Department of Education, where he has served as acting secretary since the start of the year.

Officials at the White House had said before the announcement that the president was encouraged by the bipartisan support King, 41, has received in Congress, especially the commitment Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has made for a speedy consideration of his nomination. King, who took office when Arne Duncan stepped down in December, originally was going to remain the acting head of the department for the rest of Obama’s time in office.

“There is nobody better to continue leading our ongoing efforts to work toward pre-school for all, prepare our kids so that they are ready for college and career, and make college more affordable,” Obama said in a statement. “John knows from his own incredible life experience how education can transform a child’s future.”

The administration wants to have King firmly in place as Congress embarks on the reauthorization of higher education legislation, according to officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.

King has a compelling life story but a complex recent professional history. The son of New York City educators, he was orphaned by age 12. He credits his public-school teachers with saving his life and setting him on a path that led to degrees from Harvard, Yale and Columbia. He founded a high-achieving charter school in Boston and in 2011 became the first African American and Puerto Rican to serve as New York state education commissioner.

But in New York, he oversaw a rocky rollout of both the Common Core academic standards in math and reading as well as a teacher evaluation system tied to new tests based on those standards.

Critics said the state rushed the rollout without properly training teachers and then holding them accountable for the new standards before local districts had completed new curriculums and classroom materials. Scores from the new tests were used as an element of a controversial evaluation system that affected personnel and salary decisions for some teachers.

More than a third of principals in the state signed a letter protesting the new system, saying it was unfair to educators and created an unhealthy focus on test scores. They were joined by thousands of parents, teachers and administrators.

King scheduled a series of public meetings across the state in 2013 to try to quell the growing pushback, but they quickly dissolved into heckling sessions commandeered by irate parents.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) called the state’s handling of the Common Core standards “deeply flawed” and convened a task force that called for a “total reboot,” recommending that teachers not be judged on test scores until 2019.