U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will give remarks on President Barack Obama's early learning initiative at the closing session of the 2013 Building a Grad Nation Summit at 1:15 p.m. ET, on Monday, Feb. 25, in Washington, D.C. Duncan also will discuss the recent rise in high school graduation rates and engage in a Q&A session following his remarks.
In addition, Duncan will announce a new venture in coordination with another federal agency aimed at bolstering efforts to help students in our lowest-performing schools.
Begun in 2010 by America's Promise Alliance, Grad Nation is now a national movement of organizations, individuals, and communities working together to end the dropout crisis in America and prepare more young people for success in careers and postsecondary education. The Grad Nation coalition has set a national goal of raising the graduation rate to 90 percent nationwide by 2020, with no school graduating less than 80 percent of its students.