King’s kids’ private school and the Common Core

State Education Commissioner John King has taken a lot of heat for one particular detail from his family life: The head of New York State’s public education system sends his two young daughters to Woodland Hill Montessori, a private school that describes itself as “nestled in the hills of North Greenbush.”

King’s kids’ private school and the Common Core
Parent Groups in New York Call for Commissioner John King to Resign
The NYS Commissioner of Education sends his own children to a private school, a school that is not legally bound to carry out the same testing and data sharing mandates that he is subjecting thousands of public school children to. He has stated, “I believe that every parent should have the right to choose the school that is right for their child.” 

In the past three years, New York has become a national leader in implementing Common Core standards. The state's educator engagement site, called EngageNY.org, has had over 50 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. 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.org. 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.