David Johns, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans (Initiative), will participate in several events at the United Way of Central Ohio's statewide education summit on Saturday, Oct. 24, in Columbus. He will keynote a luncheon and moderate two afternoon panels. During his remarks, he will discuss the Initiative's role in helping to improve and accelerate African-American students' academic success, and the role of family and community engagement in supporting that success. Johns also will highlight opportunities to support the unique needs of African-American boys and young men, such as My Brother's Keeper, an initiative to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by all young people, including boys and young men of color. During the afternoon, Johns will moderate two panels—"Overcoming the Gap: The Challenges and Opportunities of Transition" and "Forging Ahead: Putting the Plans into Action."
The Obama Administration is keenly focused on increasing access, affordability, and strong outcomes for students in postsecondary education. The Initiative has and is playing an important role in encouraging and facilitating innovation, and ensuring access for all students to high-quality innovations that result in strong outcomes.
Additionally, the Administration recently launched the new College Scorecard to complement the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet and to help students and families make informed decisions before enrolling in college. The scorecard empowers students and families with clear, easily accessible and critical information on college performance, including the first-ever nationally comparable data on post-college earnings.
The two-day summit, which began today, Oct. 23, and runs through Saturday, is titled "Education and the African-American Male." It will bring together educators, policy makers, community leaders and parents to discuss strategies, challenges, partnerships, successes and opportunities for African- American males that follow the education continuum—from birth through career. In addition to addressing the educational support and opportunities necessary for African-American males to succeed, the summit also will focus on the findings of a recent report, Boys of Color, Boys at Risk. The report was produced by Champion of Children, an education initiative focused on supporting United Way of Central Ohio's education goals.