U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., will host a community forum Wednesday in Silver Spring, Md., to examine how to improve schools and promote educational excellence, focusing especially on how best to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
Also scheduled to appear at the event at John F. Kennedy High are Jerry Weast, Montgomery County, Md., school superintendent; Christopher Barclay, Montgomery County school board president; Eric Minus, John F. Kennedy High School principal; and Isiah Leggett, Montgomery County executive. More than 50 students, parents, teachers and community leaders from Kennedy and the district are expected to be on hand.
Secretary Duncan, Rep. Van Hollen, Superintendent Weast, Board President Barclay and other participants will visit a classroom, followed by remarks at a town hall-style discussion on ESEA reauthorization in the Kennedy High Levy Media Center. A press availability will follow the forum.
ESEA, also known as No Child Left Behind, is up for congressional reauthorization. The administration's blueprint to overhaul the law is aimed at supporting state and local efforts to help ensure that all students graduate, prepared for college and a career.