Several senior U.S. Department of Education officials will participate in activities tomorrow during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon; Ivory Toldson, acting executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities; and Khalilah Harris, deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans (Initiative) will join panel discussions ranging from how federal education policies can impact civil rights to career and technical education and reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
At 12:30 p.m. ET, Toldson will serve as a mentor for the Emerging Leaders Instant Apprentice Power Luncheon. He will lead a table discussion, sharing lessons that have helped him become successful and answering questions from his group of apprentices. The luncheon includes approximately 20 mentors and 200 mentees engaged in individual table discussions in a "speed mentoring" environment.
At 2 p.m. ET, Lhamon will participate in the Education Braintrust panel titled "Education as a Civil Right: Federal Policy Solutions to Advance Access from Cradle to Career." She will be discussing racial disparities in school discipline using the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), highlight OCR enforcement cases addressing school discipline, and speak about the positive reform work OCR has seen. She will also discuss using the CRDC as a tool for students, parents, educators, and law makers to bring sunlight to issues occurring in schools and the need to reform discipline practices.
At 3 p.m. ET, Harris will participate in a panel titled "The Cause of Excellence: Advancing African American Equity and Engagement in Career and Technical Education (CTE)." This session will break down some of the cultural misconceptions around career and technical education, and discuss the need to expand CTE curriculum and certificate programs in minority serving institutions. The session will also discuss the successful impacts upon African-American students engaged in career and technical education.
At 7 p.m. Toldson will participate in theNational Endowment for the Humanities Recognition Ceremony for Norman Francis in the Capitol Visitors Center.