New America Media: Critics of the new Common Core standards warn that it could widen the achievement gap between low and high performing students. What are your thoughts on that?
Arun Ramanathan: It’s such an old argument, and to some degree it’s a racist argument. The notion that if you heighten standards for poor kids and kids of color, and then you also improve and enhance the teaching that they receive is somehow a negative … I actually think it’s the low expectations that hamper students and that are far worse than saying, “We’re going to have high expectations and then we’re going to teach to those high expectations.”
