Deputy Education Secretary Jim Shelton, along with other senior officials, will participate in the 2014 National Urban League annual conference in Cincinnati. Shelton will give remarks at a town hall titled “Engage to Achieve” on Friday, July 25, at 8:15 a.m. He will highlight ways that parents and other stakeholders can engage with students to improve achievement and opportunity gaps, and educational equity and excellence. In addition, Shelton will share the latest information about President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which was launched in February.
On Thursday, July 24, at 2:15 p.m., Ivory Toldson, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), will participate in the workshop “Securing the Promise of Higher Education: College Access to College Achievement.” It will focus on ways to prepare students academically for college and on the challenges that they and their families may face along the road to college completion. Those challenges include rising college costs and student loan debt. Research shows that money is the most important factor impacting African American students’ ability to complete their education.
The Obama Administration’s commitment to opportunity and equity in education underlies nearly every significant activity of the Department—from My Brother’s Keeper Initiative to the proposed Race to the Top-Equity and Opportunity grant program, which would create incentives for states and school districts to drive comprehensive change in how they identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps, among others.
The National Urban League Conference, “One Nation Underemployed,” kicked off today and will run through July 26. Founded in 1910, the League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment aimed at elevating the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities.