| FOR RELEASE: October 2, 2008 |
Contact: Stephanie Babyak, Jane Glickman (202) 401-1576 |
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U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today visited Charlestown High School, Boston, to highlight a new effort to streamline the federal student aid application process to make it easier and simpler for students seeking financial assistance for postsecondary studies. Under the plan, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) would be reduced from 100 questions to 26, and students would learn how much aid they might qualify for before their senior year of high school.
Mitchell Chester, commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Education, and Carol Johnson, superintendent, Boston Public Schools, also participated in the school visit and presentation. Secretary Spellings's visit to Charlestown High School followed her speech entitled Educating America: the Will and the Way Forward last evening at the John F. Kennedy Forum at Harvard University where she announced the plan. Her remarks are available at http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2008/10/10012008.html.
Secretary Spellings also demonstrated College.gov, a new website that aims to motivate students with inspirational stories and information about planning, preparing, and paying for college. Designed with students' input and participation, College.gov was created by the U.S. Department of Education to be a go-to online resource for credible information about college that also provides real life experiences of peers who are already attending college. U.S. Under Secretary of Education Sara Martinez Tucker unveiled the website during a discussion with students at a New York high school last month.
Classroom visits completed the day's events, including a visit to Steven Berbeco's Arabic class. Berbeco is one of 25 Teaching Ambassador Fellows at the U.S. Department of Education. The Fellows program was launched in February to give teachers the opportunity to contribute to—and learn more about—education policy at the national level. James Liou, another Fellow who's a teacher at Boston Community Leadership Academy, also attended today's event.
Charlestown High School is home to a student body of some 1,200, with a minority population of 92 percent. Approximately 80 percent of graduating seniors go on to attend two-year and four-year colleges, climbing from 68 percent in 2003.
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