Henderson: Common Core an Important Part of Driving Equitable Change
During the Rethinking Accountability conference last month in Washington, D.C., Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said that by supporting the Common Core State Standards – which he calls “an important part of driving equitable change in our public school system” – we are also supporting greater investments in education to prepare effective teachers and provide the resources students need to succeed.
“This is a moment when – because of the anniversary of the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, because of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act – we have both looked back as a nation, but we’re also looking ahead,” Henderson said. “And in looking ahead, we recognize the diversity we celebrate today – the emergence of the Latino community, the continued expansion of the African-American community, the Asian American community, as well as a group of progressive Whites of a new generation, who believe that the values that we support as a country should affect us all and are committed to achieving the same goals that we want for ourselves. I’m actually very optimistic that our country will be able to address the needs of its educational system and to make sure that equity is a principle we can all support.”
The conference discussed how schools, districts, and communities across the nation are charting new paths to student- and learning-focused accountability, and how new approaches are making a difference in improving education. It was hosted by the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Sandler Family Foundation.
Watch Henderson’s interview below and click here to see his keynote address at the conference.