John King Jr.

John B. King Jr. (born January 5, 1975) is an American educator, civil servant, and former state and federal government official who is the 15th Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY).

He previously served as President & CEO of The Education Trust, a national civil rights nonprofit which seeks to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps for students from preschool through college.

John B. King Jr. was born in 1975 in Flatlands, Brooklyn, to John B. King Sr., a retired public school administrator and teacher, and Adalinda King, a school guidance counselor.

He is of African-American and Puerto Rican descent.

King Sr. had been Brooklyn's first black principal and later became New York City's executive deputy superintendent of schools.

King Jr.'s mother died of a heart attack when King was eight years old.

His father developed Alzheimer's disease and later died when King was 12.

When later describing the importance of education, King credits one of his New York City public school teachers with saving him from being "shot or in prison" following the trauma caused by his parents' deaths.

King moved to Long Island to live with his 24-year-old half brother.

King later attended Phillips Andover but rebelled against its rules and was expelled in his junior year.

He moved in with his uncle, a Tuskegee Airman, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he applied and was accepted to Harvard University.

King earned a Bachelor of Arts in government at Harvard, was a 1995 Truman Scholar, and received the James Madison Memorial Fellowship for secondary-level teaching of American history, American Government, and social studies.

King received his master's degree at Teachers College, Columbia University in the Teaching of Social Studies and taught high school social studies.

King co-founded Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, where he served as co-director for five years.

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.

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 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.

He previously was the New York State Education Commissioner from 2011 to 2014.

King's predecessor as U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, 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.

On December 5, 2022, King was appointed Chancellor of the State University of New York, succeeding interim chancellor Deborah F. Stanley and becoming its second Black chancellor, with Clifton R. Wharton Jr. being the first, and first Puerto Rican chancellor.

He took office on January 9, 2023.

King was appointed Commissioner of Education of the State of New York in May 2011, succeeding David Steiner as Commissioner of Education and President of the University of the State of New York (USNY), after serving since October 2009 as Senior Deputy Commissioner.

USNY comprised 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.

King was the first Black and Puerto Rican to serve as New York State Education Commissioner.

As Commissioner of Education and President of USNY, Commissioner King worked with the Board of Regents to pursue an ambitious education reform agenda.

New York became a national leader in implementing Common Core standards.

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.

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.

In 2013 Uncommon Schools won the Broad Prize for top charter network.

King later received a Juris Doctor at Yale Law School and a Doctor of Education in educational administrative practice at Teachers College, Columbia University.

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.

In partnership with Governor Cuomo, the legislature, and the statewide teachers union, Commissioner King and the New York State Education Department (NYSED) worked to develop and implement a comprehensive new teacher and leader evaluation system, which for the first time incorporated student learning growth—bringing New York State's largest school district into compliance with state law.

To support this work, Commissioner King championed the creation of the Strengthening Teacher and Leader Effectiveness (STLE) grants program that funded school districts in utilizing a comprehensive approach to recruitment, development, support, retention and equitable distribution of effective teachers and school leaders.

NYSED also revamped its school and district diagnostic tools and evaluations, making them more rigorous and comprehensive.

During his tenure, Commissioner King increased collaboration between P-12 schools and New York institutions of higher education, including strengthening teacher and principal preparation, raising the bar for teacher and principal certification, and creating partnerships to expand the state's P-20 data system.

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.

In October 2013 King launched a listening tour across the state, in response to the State of New York's adoption of Common Core Standards.

Immediately before he assumed leadership of the U.S. Department of Education, King served as its Acting Deputy Secretary from 2015 until 2016.

A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 10th United States Secretary of Education from January 1, 2016, to January 20, 2017, under President Barack Obama.

In April 2021, King announced that he would be running for the Democratic nomination in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election, but came in sixth place in the primary election, losing to Baltimore author Wes Moore.