The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics (WHIEEH) will roll out its “Back-to-School” Texas Tour by visiting the Wesley Community Center at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 4, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Throughout the tour, Administration officials will discuss President Obama’s plans for early education and Preschool for All, as well as the President’s call to re-design America’s high schools and to promote college affordability and reduce college costs. At the Wesley Community Center, the WHIEEH staff will be joined by parents, Wesley Community Center’s Executive Director, and the United Way of the Coastal Bend’ s President and CEO. Additionally, the WHIEEH staff will meet with the Home Instruction for Parents and Pre-School Youngster (HIPPY) Associate Director for Early Childhood Education. This site visit will serve as an opportunity to highlight first-hand the work that the Wesley Community Center is doing and hear about the Texas Home Visiting Program and its positive impact on an early learning.
The WHIEEH’s visit to Corpus Christi is a prelude to the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) ‘Strong Start, Bright Future’ Back-to-School Bus Tour that will begin Monday, September 9, 2013 in Santa Fe, N.M. and will continue along the Southwest border.
Following the site visit at Corpus Christi, the Initiative will then travel to Daniel Breeden Elementary School, part of the Brownsville Independent School District, to highlight a K-12 Program and conduct a roundtable discussion to learn about how the initiative can better support Brownsville’s community efforts. The roundtable will engage several Superintendents of Schools, administrators, and teachers.
From there, the WHIEEH will head to McAllen, to perform a site visit of an i3 grantee at an IDEA Public School where students, faculty and administrators will be in attendance. Investing in Innovation (i3) programs are geared towards improving student achievement in low-performing schools. The initiative will see first-hand and learn about the work that this i3 grantee school is doing, how their national network is supporting the school efforts to improve, and what kinds of results they are seeing so far.
Finally, the WHIEEH will finish off the day in Edinburg, Texas at the University of Texas Pan-American for a Town Hall focusing on College Access, Affordability and Completion. The WHIEEH staff will be joined by students, parents, faculty, Administrators, and the President of UTPA.
*NOTE: A brief availability with media representatives will be arranged onsite at each event. Media representatives who wish to cover any of these events must pre-credential by e-mailing their name, title, organization and contact information to Toby Chaudhuri at [email protected] by 5 p.m. the day prior to each event unless otherwise notified.**
Follow the White House Initiative @HispanicEd and #HispanicEd for updates on the Texas Bus Tour.