U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will travel to Longmont, Denver and Falcon, Colo., on Thursday and Friday, May 8-9, for several events that highlight excellence in education, teacher and principal leadership, and the importance of community involvement in our schools. Media availabilities will follow each event.
First, at 9:40 a.m. on Thursday, Duncan will join Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia for a visit to Skyline High School, where he will tour a classroom and take part in a Partners in Progress town hall to hear from students, teachers, administrators, community leaders, and business and industry partners about the encouraging progress they've made through their Investing in Innovation (i3) and Race-to-the-Top district grant projects. They will discuss partnerships they have developed to expand their STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, develop personalized learning opportunities, and help Skyline students be prepared for success after high school.
At 12:40 p.m., Duncan will join Colorado Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia and Metropolitan State University of Denver President Stephen Jordan for a roundtable discussion with young Latino men about their lives and ladders of opportunity that have helped to steer them on the road to success. The discussion, hosted by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics (WHIEEH) and moderated by WHIEEH's Deputy Director Marco Davis, is part of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative that works in partnership with foundations, businesses and others to build on approaches that help young men of color reach their full potential.
At 3:10 p.m., Duncan will participate in a panel discussion, moderated by Denver Public Schools' Superintendent Tom Boasberg, on principal leadership at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval. Some 10-15 principals from Denver schools will participate on the panel, where they will discuss their model to support and train great principals, and Duncan will share information about the Department's new Teach to Lead initiative.
On Friday, May 9, at 9:40 a.m., Duncan will join U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock in a Teach to Lead roundtable discussion with some 10 teachers at the Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy, a K-5 teacher-led school in which teachers have taken on new leadership roles to better support students.
At 1:10 p.m., Duncan will participate on a panel discussing issues facing military connected students at Falcon High School in Falcon, Colo. The audience will be comprised of military connected parents, administrators, community members, and service members, who will hear the panel discuss college- and career- ready standards as well as a host of issues related to the high mobility of military connected students. Falcon High School is a member of the Military Childhood Education Coalition's Student 2 Student program and has been successfully training its students—military and civilian alike—to provide peer support to their highly mobile students as they transition to and from the school.