U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will address students, teachers and administrators at McManus Middle School at an event celebrating the school's participation in the Ticket to Reading Rewards (TTRR) program at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 16, in Linden, N.J. He will be joined by Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of Duke University and USA Basketball Men's National Team, and Mark Emmert, president of the NCAA.
TTRR is a reading incentive program of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Foundation that encourages students to read books outside the classroom and obtain rewards for reading. The program has three components: reading rewards, tickets for students to local college basketball games, and guidance for middle school coaches to act as mentors in the reading program. Many districts arrange for a college basketball coach to visit their students to talk about the importance of education and reading.
TTRR was co-founded in 2002 by Duncan, a long-time NABC Foundation board member, while he was superintendent of Chicago Public Schools. It currently operates at more than 150 schools across the country and more than a million students have participated in the program since its inception.