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John King Jr.

John King
John B. King official portrait.jpg
10th United States Secretary of Education
In office
January 1, 2016 – January 20, 2017
President Barack Obama
Deputy James Cole (Acting)
Preceded by Arne Duncan
Succeeded by Betsy DeVos
United States Deputy Secretary of Education
Acting
In office
January 4, 2015 – March 14, 2016
President Barack Obama
Preceded by James Shelton
Succeeded by James Cole (Acting)
New York Commissioner of Education
In office
June 15, 2011 – January 4, 2015
Governor Andrew Cuomo
Preceded by David Steiner
Succeeded by Elizabeth Berlin (Acting)
Personal details
Born 1975 (age 41–42)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Melissa Steel
Children 2
Education Harvard University (BA)
Columbia University (MEd, EdD)
Yale University (JD)

John B. King Jr. (born 1975) is the President and CEO of The Education Trust. He served as the 10th United States Secretary of Education from 2016 to 2017. Immediately before he assumed leadership of the Department, he served as its Acting Deputy Secretary, and from 2011 to 2014 he was the New York State Education Commissioner. The former 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.

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. King Sr. had been Brooklyn's first black principal and later became New York City's executive deputy superintendent of schools. King Jr.'s parents met in graduate school, where his father was his mother's instructor. She died of a heart attack when King was eight years old. His father developed Alzheimer's and later died when King was 12. 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 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he applied and was accepted to Harvard University.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in government at Harvard, King taught social studies and received his master's at Teachers College, Columbia University. He taught for three years, including two years at a Boston charter school. King was among the founders of Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, where he served as co-director for five years and developed its curriculum and rules, such as no talking in the hallways between classes. 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. In 2013 Uncommon Schools won the Broad Prize for top charter network.


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