Backer of Common Core School Curriculum Is Chosen to Lead College Board

Andrew     Current Events Posting #4
Topic: Education
Title: Backer of Common Core School Curriculum Is Chosen to Lead College Board
Author: Tamar Lewin
New York Times
Publication Date: May 14, 2012
Length: 744 words

This coming October, David Coleman will be appointed the president of College Board. Mr. Coleman, 42, was a former Rhodes scholar and McKinsey & Company consultant. Coleman, the creator of the common core curriculum is currently transitioning to his new College Board position in New York City. He will be succeeding Gaston Caperton, who has been heavily criticized for his $1.3 million annual salary. It is said that Coleman will be receiving a base annual salary of $550,000. Mr. Coleman is highly respected by many educational figures throughout the US. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers says, “David is innovative and an excellent choice for the College Board. He’s put the common core on the map and he’s very respectful of the teacher voice.” David brings with him the hope to improve the current school curriculum by setting new standards through College Board. He says that his work to come will definitely make a difference because the College Board is responsible for the standardized SAT and AP testing;therefore, quite influential on the education system. Coleman claims that he has and will continue to take teacher input to build on the College Board mandatory curriculum. He promises to use his position to take the standards of education to the next level and design a "high-quality curriculum". Although the specifics of his plans are not known. It is through these plans, that Coleman hopes to focus on improving the college readiness of high school students throughout the US. Despite his popular acclaim, he also has many critics. Some of these critics point out that Coleman puts an unbalanced emphasis on informational texts over fictional texts. These critics refute Coleman's argument that real life situations do not call for much personal and opinionated writing skills. One critic, Stephen Krashen, who is an emeritus education professor at the University of Southern California promulgates that Coleman's ideals will only undermine the efforts of students. According to Krashen, the real problems are money and affordable education. He claims that Mr. Coleman's planned course of actions will increase the costs of education and only further the cause of middle class students.