Alejandra Ceja, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics (Initiative), along with Johan Uvin, acting assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education's Office Career, and Technical and Adult Education, will visit Alabama for a series of events with the Hispanic community leaders and adult education practitioners.
Ceja and Uvin will lead a roundtable discussion at the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama on Wednesday, July 8, in Birmingham, Alabama. They will meet with Hispanic community leaders to learn about the educational experiences of Hispanics in the state, and discuss solutions and supports that may help increase the educational attainment of Hispanic students. Ceja will highlight the Initiative's Anniversary Year of Action and the Hispanic community's growth. There will be a media availability following the roundtable discussion.
On Thursday, July 9, Uvin will deliver the keynote address at the Alabama Association for Public Continuing and Adult Education Conference in Montgomery, Alabama. Following the address, Ceja and Uvin will lead a breakout session entitled, "Adult Education and Workforce Training and Minority Communities." The session will get the input from participants about how to best implement a "no wrong door" approach to ensure very vulnerable populations have equal access to improving their foundation skills. This approach is one of the seven strategies in Making Skills Everyone's Business, an action plan to transform adult learning in the U.S. They will discuss promising practices, federal resources that are available to support work with the Hispanic community and the importance of engaging all sectors in adult education.
In September 2015, the Initiative will celebrate its 25th anniversary, a historic milestone that will be commemorated with the leveraging of public- and private-sector commitments to action that invest in quality education programs and strategies for Hispanics. You can also follow updates on Twitter via @HispanicEd
The Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education administers and coordinates programs that are related to adult education and literacy, career and technical education, and community colleges.