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September 18, 2015

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COLLEGE SCORECARD
In his September 12 weekly address, President Obama announced the launch of a new College Scorecard,
redesigned with input from students, families, and counselors to provide the clearest, most reliable national data
on college cost, graduation, debt, and earnings. The status quo serves some colleges and the companies that
rank them just fine, the President noted. But it doesnt serve our students well, and that doesnt serve any of
us well. There are colleges dedicated to helping students of all backgrounds learn, without saddling them with
debt. We should hold everybody to that standard. Our economic future depends on it. The scorecard seeks to
empower Americans to rate colleges based on what matters most to them; to highlight colleges that are serving
students of all backgrounds well; and to focus on making a quality, affordable education within reach (fact sheet,
blog post, and select reports of high graduation, low cost, and high salary institutions: 1, 2, 3, and 4).
In addition to the scorecard, the Department launched a data web site on higher education institutions. Because
this data is published through an open application programming interface, or API, researchers, policymakers, and
the public can customize their own analysis of college performance quickly and easily. Indeed, a number of
organizations are already using the data to launch new tools.
A separate blog post, Under the Hood, details how the U.S. Digital Service worked with stakeholders to
rebuild the scorecard.

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BACK TO SCHOOL: BUS TOUR

This week was the Departments sixth annual Back to School bus tour, titled Ready for Success. Over the last
five days, Secretary Duncan and senior Department officials held some 20 events in 13 cities and seven states
across the American Midwest. The tour web site has a wealth of stories, pictures, and videos chronicling the tour
-- including daily recaps of the Secretarys events on September 14 [Kansas City, Missouri, and Des Moines,
Iowa], September 15 [Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Williamsfield, Illinois], September 16 [Champaign, Illinois, and
West Lafayette and Indianapolis, Indiana], September 17 [Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio], and

September 18 [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]. Also, throughout the tour, participants have been using social media.
At Woodland Early Learning Community Center in Kansas City, White House Domestic Policy Council Director
Cecilia Muoz joined the Secretary for a visit with students and educators in a Head Start classroom, followed by
the release of a policy statement urging early learning programs to include children with disabilities (blog post).
(Note: The Department also launched a revamped Early Learning web page.)
At North High School in Des Moines, President Obama joined the Secretary for a town hall with high school
students and their parents to discuss college access and affordability. In his remarks, the President announced a
new initiative to allow students and families to apply for financial aid earlier -- starting in October, as the college
application process gets underway, rather than in January. Also, students filling out the Free Application for
Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be able to electronically retrieve tax information filed for an earlier year,
instead of waiting until tax season to complete applications (fact sheet and blog post).
At Roosevelt Middle School in Cedar Rapids, the Secretary dropped by a day-long Teach to Lead event, sitting in
on a teacher coaching session and participating in a roundtable discussion with teachers and administrators on
how teacher leadership has grown in Iowa (blog post).
In Williamsfield, a village of 650 residents with a single preschool-through-twelfth-grade building serving 300
students, the Secretary heard about the school districts transition from textbooks to openly licensed educational
resources. The event also featured the previewing of 50 videos that capture best practices of effective district
leaders who use education technology in their schools. And, the Department announced that school technology
expert Andrew Marcinek will focus on helping K-12 and higher education connect with teaching, learning, and
research resources in the public domain that are freely available to anyone over the web (blog post).
At the University of Illinois, which offers a range of disability resources and educational service programs, the
Secretary watched a mens and womens wheelchair basketball team practice and met with students, alumni,
faculty, and community partners to learn about how the institution supports college students with disabilities
(blog post).
At Purdue University, the Secretary participated in a dialogue with President Mitch Daniels, as part of the
institutions Presidential Lecture Series (blog post).
At Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School in Indianapolis, My Brothers Keeper Task Force Chairman
Broderick Johnson joined the Secretary for a roundtable discussion with students on overcoming obstacles and
celebrating the communitys work to design and implement cradle-to-college-and-career action plans (blog post).
In Louisville, after visiting Jeffersontown High School Career Magnet Academy, the Secretary talked with high
school seniors and counselors at the University of Louisville about navigating the college experience (blog post).
At Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, the Secretary joined a roundtable discussion with students
on college access and affordability, as well as adult career pathways (blog post).
Finally, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, NASA Deputy Administration Dava Newman joined the
Secretary for a college access rally and town hall highlighting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) education (blog post).

The Departments Flickr page offers many photos from the Secretarys events.

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EDUCATOR EQUITY PLANS
On September 10, the Department announced the approval of 16 states plans to ensure equitable access to
excellent educators. These states are taking promising steps to eliminate the gaps some students face in access to
strong teaching by implementing strategies and innovative solutions to challenging problems that meet local
context and needs. Each of these states engaged a variety of stakeholder groups to ensure their plans comprise
of strategies that will actually be effective.
The strategies that states are implementing include, for example, working to support, strengthen, or modify
teacher preparation programs so that all teachers are ready to provide high-quality instruction to their students
and prepared for success in high-need schools; investing in school leaders, because great teachers will follow
great principals -- even into hard-to-staff schools; providing financial incentives designed to reward teachers for
exceptional work and encourage great teachers to remain in the highest-need schools; and focusing on predicting,
reducing, and eliminating critical shortages in the teaching force so that staffing challenges do not negatively
impact student learning.
The plans themselves and the Departments determinations can be found here. The agency is currently
reviewing the remaining state plans to determine whether they meet all the requirements in the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and will approve them on a rolling basis.

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TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL FELLOWS

On September 11, the Secretary revealed nine teachers selected to be Teaching Ambassador Fellows and four
principals selected to be Principal Ambassador Fellows for the 2015-16 school year. Three of the teachers will
serve as full-time employees at the Departments headquarters in Washington, D.C., while the other six will
continue in their classrooms and participate on a part-time basis. Similarly, one of the principals will serve as a
full-time Washington Fellow, while the other three will be part-time Classroom Fellows.
These fellowship programs invite outstanding teachers and principals to gain in-depth knowledge of national
policy issues in education and contribute their expertise to those discussions. In turn, they share what they have
learned with colleagues around the country, facilitating their understanding of federal initiatives and gaining their
input into policy and programs designed to improve education at all levels.
This years cohort of fellows brings the total number of educators who have served in this role to over 100.

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LATINO PROGRESS

This years National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) marks the 25th anniversary of the
White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. In honor of this historic celebration, the
Initiative, throughout the month, will spotlight the tremendous progress Hispanics are making in education. To
get things started, the Initiative released the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education national catalog and the
Latinas in the U.S.: 2015 report. The Bright Spots catalog contains over 230 programs, initiatives, models, and
organizations that are investing in and supporting the educational attainment of Hispanics -- from cradle-tocareer. The Latinas report outlines the condition of Hispanic girls and women in the U.S. and their participation

in areas such as education, health, labor, housing, and politics.

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ODDS AND ENDS

Last week, President Obama announced new steps to expand apprenticeships and to continue to
build momentum nationwide to make community college free for responsible students: grants to
provide earn and learn training opportunities to 34,000 new apprentices; the creation of the College
Promise Advisory Board to further efforts to make two years of community college free; and the
launch of Heads Up America, an independent campaign to raise awareness about the importance of
Americas community colleges (fact sheet).
This week, the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault announced the
release of two resources to assist practitioners in their efforts to prevent and respond to sexual
violence on college and university campuses: a Resource Guide and Safe Place: Trauma-Sensitive
Practice for Health Centers Serving Students (blog post).
Pennsylvania has received approval for continued flexibility from provisions of ESEA.
At the iCount: Equity through Representation symposium, the Department announced a series of
commitments to encourage data disaggregation: including data disaggregation technical assistance in
the performance work plan for the upcoming Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) competition;
producing a National Forum on Education Statistics report on best practices for the disaggregation
of race/ethnicity categories below the required seven reporting categories; and dedicating an Asian
American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) community liaison.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) issued three new higher education trend
reports: grant and scholarship aid, Pell Grant recipients, and non-traditional undergraduate students.

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QUOTE TO NOTE

Weve been investing in things that help to grow the middle class and help provide opportunity for every young
person. But nobody in a 21st century economy is going to be able to do what they want to do with their lives
unless theyve got a great education. Thats just the truth. By 2020, two in three job openings are going to
require some form of post-high school education -- whether its a four-year university or a community college or
a technical school. And its an investment that pays off. Now, partly it pays off because it empowers you. It
gives you a sense of who you are, and your hopes and your dreams. It helps to sharpen how you see the world
and empowers you in all sorts of ways. But it also has some pretty practical ramifications. Compared to a high
school diploma, a degree from a two-year school could earn you an extra $10,000 a year. A four-year degree
could earn you a million dollars more over the course of your lifetime. Thats how important education is in
todays economy.
-- President Barack Obama (9/14/15), in remarks during a town hall on college access and affordability

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UPCOMING EVENTS
Next Friday, September 25, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the Department will open an exhibit of 2015 Scholastic
Art and Writing Awards winners -- comprising 60 2- and 3-D works by middle through high school students
from across the nation -- with a special exhibit of Fort Wayne, Indiana, winners. The ribbon-cutting ceremony
will feature remarks by the agencys Director of Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs
Monique Chism, Executive Director of the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities Rachel Goslins,

and Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers Virginia McEnerney. To RSVP to attend
or learn more about the Departments year-round exhibit program, please contact
Jacquelyn.Zimmermann@ed.gov.
Through October 1, the Department is accepting applications for winter-spring 2015 internships.
October is Connected Educator Month, and the initial calendar lists dozens of events. Educators at all levels, as
well as those who support them, are welcome to sign-up for regular updates on interactive webinars and other
events, forums, showcases, and contests. They are also urged to develop, host, and run their own activities,
publish content, and generally promote the month.

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