Chris Cerf is the former superintendent of Newark Public Schools and the former New Jersey commissioner of education. He serves on the board of ExcelinEd, a national nonprofit focused on state-based education policy.
As Robin Lake recently observed, it is time to move past the phrase “education reformer.” In a curious linguistic twist, over the past decade, opponents of transformational change have co-opted the word “reform” and essentially converted it into a malediction.