OUS Blog

Summer Internship at the U.S. Department of Education

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Roxanne Garza

This summer I interned in the Office of the Under Secretary.  I was one of two interns in the office.  OUS is a very fast-paced and busy office so this allowed for both of us to have plenty of great learning opportunities throughout the summer.  In my capacity, I helped plan and coordinate events, conducted data analysis, and worked on teacher preparation program quality issues.

In my first days at the Department, I had the opportunity to sit down with each of the OUS staff members and learn about the different projects that were being worked on.  I quickly got involved with the planning and organization of the Education Data Jam.  The Data Jam, co-hosted by ED and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, brought together educational technology experts and entrepreneurs to brainstorm how open data could be used to develop new applications and services that could help students with college selection.  The event was a lot of fun, as it was full of enthusiasm, and it gave me a great opportunity to be in the room with some of the top education entrepreneurs while they discussed potential innovations for college comparison-shopping and financial literacy.

Another exciting event that I assisted with was the Veterans’ Success at Institutions of Higher Education.  This was a day long convening in which representatives from the Departments of Education, Defense and Veterans Affairs, and 15 of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grantees that received funding for Vet Centers of Excellence on their campuses were present.  The convening focused on developing a set of best practices to improve veteran success on campus.  Along with the planning, organization, and implementation of the convening, I co-produced a best practices document that was used at the symposium for further discussion. It was great to have worked on both the Education Data Jam and the Veterans’ Success Convening and have been able to see them through in the short amount of time that I spent at ED.

Throughout the summer I also worked on proposed regulations pertaining to teacher preparation.  This involved a combination of research, data analysis, producing briefing materials, and editing.  I was also given the opportunity to be in the room during high-level policy discussion about the proposed regulation.  Working on teacher preparations regulations gave me the opportunity to see how the negotiated rulemaking process works and how the community and stakeholders are included in the process.

More generally, my summer at the Department of Education was an amazing experience for numerous reasons.  The Office of the Under Secretary has a great staff and was a great environment to work on higher education policy. Taking on the role of policy intern in the Office of the Under Secretary was the perfect opportunity for me to augment my public policy degree course work with a practical experience that gave me insight into the policy making process at the federal level.  This was a perfect spring forward in the direction that I want to take with my career in working on higher education policy issues.

Roxanne Garza is a Graduate Student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and served as a Summer 2012 Intern with the Office of the Under Secretary

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Campus Safety Is Essential For A Successful Learning Environment: If You See Something, Say Something!

 Posted on August 1, 2012 by Under Secretary Martha Kanter

As a community college president for 16 years before being appointed the Under Secretary of Education, I wanted to do everything in my power to prevent violence on campus. Building trust among the campus constituencies with the campus chief of police was essential as a first step.

The evidence is compelling. The report continues that at least a third of violent attackers telegraphed their intentions to others before they struck. “The message is clear: don’t ignore threats,” says the FBI’s Supervisory Special Agent Andre Simons, who recently briefed our education team at the Department of Education. “If you hear someone say ’they are going to regret this’ or something like that, you need someone skilled to dig a little deeper and find out what that person really means. Don’t assume it is just talk.”

The best approach, according to those who conducted the recent study, is to establish a multidisciplinary Campus Threat Assessment Team that includes campus experts on law enforcement, mental health, human resources, and student affairs along with legal experts who can ensure that students’ rights are properly protected. The FBI maintains 56 field offices that offer direct links to the FBI’s Washington-based Threat Assessment experts, who are ready to offer advice and support around the clock.

I saw the importance of being vigilant and identifying potential threats in my own experience. In January 2001, local police notified me that they had charged a young man with planning an attack with the intent of causing several casualties at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, where I served as president. It was one of the most chilling experiences of my professional life. Fortunately, a good samaritan had tipped off authorities, who promptly and effectively intervened. We’ll never know if the carefully planned attack would have been carried out. But the weapons prepared by this troubled young man were all too real and the danger clear and present. I’m forever indebted to the concerned citizen who took it upon herself to report her concerns to law enforcement personnel. She may have saved dozens of lives.

The experience was a lesson for me – and it’s one that’s confirmed in this new report: if and when threats are reported, be ready, and know how to respond. Whether you are a professor, an administrator or a college president, get yourself educated before – not after. And make sure your Campus Safety Team meets and updates you on a regular basis.

Martha Kanter is the Under Secretary of Education

For additional resources please see:

Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates

Implementing Behavioral Threat Assessment on Campus

The Interactive CD “A Safe School and Threat Assessment Experience: Scenarios Exploring the Findings of the Safe School Initiative” can be ordered for free online here.

Originally posted on the ED Homeroom Blog.

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Greater Twin Cities Region Moves Aggressively to Close the Achievement Gap

 Posted on July 20, 2012 by Under Secretary Martha Kanter

As the plane took off for Washington, DC and I leaned back in my seat reflecting on the convening in Minneapolis, I could almost see a golden halo around the Twin Cities region, a region of commitment, courage, dedication and promise! It might have been the sunset glow, but I think it was much more than that. The golden glow was certainly evident at the Minneapolis Club on the evening of June 7^th where the Twin Cities United Way President and CEO Sarah Caruso brought to the table leaders from education, business, philanthropy and the nonprofit sector of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The topic of discussion? How to close the achievement gap in the region’s P-12 schools by working together to accomplish much more than could ever be envisioned in silos.

I traveled with Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Director of our Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, who is launching “Together for Tomorrow,” a national initiative to spotlight and foster partnerships between communities and schools to propel improvement of our lowest-performing schools. Many Americans don’t know that we have 100,000 elementary, middle school and high schools in our 50 states and territories and that each state has identified, as priority schools, the 5% of K-12 schools that have the farthest road to hoe in lifting the academic achievement levels of their students to grade level for each and every grade, each and every year.

At the “meet-and-greet” preamble to the evening, I met two extraordinary women, Valeria Silva, Superintendent of the St. Paul Public Schools who is responsible for the education of 39,000 children and Bernadia Johnson, Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools who oversees the education of 34,000 of our nation’s youth. These women were committed to their students, teachers and principals PLUS they are friends. They trust each other! That was obvious as was the fact that they are singularly focused on lifting their school districts to levels of excellence unimagined. The great respect they showed for one another was evident as they spoke with us about the opportunities and challenges they face every day in each of their schools.

Around the table were state leaders from Minnesota Achieves and ServeMinnesota, local government leaders led by the equally extraordinary Mayor of St. Paul, Chris Coleman, who clearly has education at the top of his priority list, local foundations who are bringing evidence-based high impact practices to the classroom and strategic advice to the table, the new provost of the University of Minnesota, Dr. Karen Hansen, a native Minnesotan, who shared her vision for the university as an anchor institution of the community, ready to bring its world-class education research to the students and educators in these schools, vice presidents of Target and General Mills, Reba Dominski and Kim Nelson, respectively, who understand that corporate investment and philanthropy must leverage what the partners can do together, all for the purpose of getting greater educational gains from the children, local and state philanthropies including MayKao Hang of the Wilder Foundation, Mike Anderson of the St. Paul Public Schools Foundation and Carlene Rhodes of Minnesota Philanthropy, and nonprofits like Step Up and Ramp-Up to Readiness, led by United Way, providing wrap-around services, after school education, healthcare, social services and family engagement support to make a significant impact in the lives of these kids and in the future of the Twin Cities region. Oh yes – the federal government was also at the table, not taking credit for any of this, wanting to be an effective catalyst for positive change. We explained that Together for Tomorrow has four outcome goals that we call the ABCs:  seeking to use these levers of change for community partnerships that are essential to helping the principals and teachers dramatically improve the academic performance of their students. The ABCs stand for boosting key measurable outcomes in four areas: Attendance, Behavior, Course Performance and College Access.

We congratulated the leaders for winning one of the highly competitive federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grants, a Promise Neighborhoods Implementation grant for Minneapolis and a Promise Neighborhoods Planning grant for St. Paul. For the remaining time, we talked a lot about how to build a culture throughout the region dedicated to educational success to ensure that the State’s lowest achieving schools have the capacity to change the lives of their students for the better, and, in turn, build the communities that will sustain our prosperity and democracy as a nation. If we can help these schools turnaround, we will be well on our way to President Obama’s goal “to have the best educated, most competitive workforce in the world by 2020.” I cannot think of a national challenge more exciting, more daunting and more doable than this!

The next morning, Rev. Girton-Mitchell convened community and faith leaders representing diverse religious communities, parents, education leaders and elected officials for the first “Together for Tomorrow” town hall hosted by the Greater Twin Cities United Way and organized in partnership with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships  and the Corporation for National and Community Service. The agenda focused on the importance of communities coming together to change the course of children’s lives for the better. Les Fujitake, Superintendent of the Bloomington Public Schools participated in the summit and shared perspectives about the partnerships he and his staff were expanding to benefit the children of the school district, especially those whose families do not have the economic resources one would hope.

At the town hall, we spotlighted local partnerships to improve K-12 schools, including the multifaceted efforts of the Greater Twin Cities United Way.  I gave an overview of Together for Tomorrow.  Nancy Stachel, Principal of Maxfield Elementary School in St. Paul shared how community partnerships are an essential component of her successful efforts with a Department School Improvement Grant.  AmeriCorps VISTA member Maren Gelle talked about how she and her fellow VISTAs are connecting community resources in the Twin Cities to meet school needs in the ABCs.  We also heard from Dr. Donald Easton-Brooks of Hamline University about the link between higher education and improvement of K-12 schools.

Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell finished the day with a call to action for the entire community to help improve the lowest-performing schools in the Twin Cities, because everyone has a role to play in creating strong schools and a community culture of education success.

The visit and town hall energized our team, and we will continue to be proud partners and supporters for education in the Twin Cities. Brenda and I were delighted to be part of these Twin Cities community conversations and look forward to increasing golden opportunities for each and every student and family in the region and throughout our nation as we truly join “Together for Tomorrow!”

Martha Kanter is the U.S. Under Secretary of Education

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Before Students Sign on the Dotted Line: Help Them Make Smart Financial Decisions

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Phil Martin

We need your help.

On Thursday, May 10, the White House hosted a Financial Capability Summit to shine a spotlight on the importance of helping Americans, and particularly young Americans seeking a college education, make smart decisions about financial matters. One result is a new draft “Financial Capability Toolkit” – which is designed to be a resource guide to help schools, colleges, communities, and employers design a strategy to help students, workers, and community residents make wise decisions that put them on the path to a strong financial future. Leaders of this effort in the White House and here in the Department of Education want feedback on this toolkit before it is released in final form.  Please check out these two sections – one for K-12 schools (link) and another for institutions of higher education (link)  – and kindly share your reactions and suggestions below. In addition, please visit the White House website where you can, if desired, submit feedback on the entire document:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/webform/financial-capability-toolkit-tell-us-what-you-think

The Department of Education would like to extend special thanks to members of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and responding grantees in the Department’s Student Support Services program for their ideas that helped inform the higher education section of the toolkit.

We urge all interested parties to download the toolkit and customize it to suit your needs. We’d also love to hear what you’re already doing and what you plan to do to improve the financial capability and expertise of the students you serve.  And remember, please tell students: don’t sign on the bottom line until they understand exactly what they are signing and all alternatives have been considered.

Phil Martin is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education.

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Crosswalks

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Karen Gross

I had always thought of a crosswalk as that place in a road or street where there are markings designating where pedestrians can, more or less safely, walk from one side to another.  That seems to be close to the current dictionary definition too.

What I did not realize, until I arrive at the Department of Education, is that the noun “crosswalk” and the verb (yes, verb) “to crosswalk” have expanded meanings the public and private sectors that do not even show up in dictionaries.

As now used, crosswalk is a term deployed to describe a mechanism or approach to translating, comparing or moving between meta data standards (http://marinemetadata.org/guides/mdatastandards/crosswalks) or converting skills or content from one discipline to another.  While the term is commonly used in the context of data transfers (http://www.loc.gov/marc/dccross.html), the word “crosswalk” is increasingly used in the educational context; as states transition from their current curricula to the common core, they are creating crosswalks to showcase how to move from the old to the new.

Now that I better understand the term, I can see countless and important ways we can create crosswalks to improve the capacity of people to transition from high school to college and/or a career, from military life to civilian life, from the workforce to career training. The recently released CTE Blueprint showcases this effort.

Here are two examples of possible crosswalks specifically in the context of progression from high school to college that, if created and shared widely, should facilitate greater success in higher education, a key goal of the President and the Secretary of Education.

Consider a crosswalk that translates for high school students the personnel they are used to seeing and engaging with in their schools every day with the corresponding personnel who work at colleges. For positions for which there are no equivalencies, the document can describe or define the personnel whose roles might otherwise be a mystery to a newcomer. (The closeness or distance of the mapping could be revealed through a variant of the SKOS system.)

Some examples:  a high school principal is akin to a college president (although the latter is less frequently on campus); a high school assistant principal (often in charge of discipline and non-academic programs) is akin to the Dean of Students.  A vice-principal charged with teacher oversight and design of classes is matched to a Provost.  A registrar in a college would likely need to be defined in most instances – part advisor, part guidance counselor, part administrator.  As Cedric Jennings pointed out in Ron Suskind’s marvelous story of Cedric’s journey from a high school in Washington DC to Brown University, he had never even heard the word “registrar” when he landed on his chosen college campus.

Consider a crosswalk that showcases how high school classroom homework assignments (often done daily or on the chalk board) align with a sample semester-long college course syllabus.  Although these two items appear vastly different, there are ways to harmonize them to demonstrate key similarities, which if known, would ease the academic transition. To be sure, there are differences for which there is no easy equivalency and those, too, merit attention; these include nature and length of writing assignments and the quantum and quality of reading and proliferation of out of class work.

Distinguishing between the amount of work needed prepare for class in high school and college is key.  As revealed in the BCSSE, new college students often appreciate that the amount of work needed to prepare for college classes is greater than that for high school but they underestimate the collegiate workload.  If that shock could be mitigated through a crosswalk shared before arrival on a campus, the proverbial “deep hole” created in the first semester in college could be ameliorated.

As valuable as crosswalks are as stand-alone documents to ease transition and provide navigational signposts, they can also be used to inform larger systemic thinking about issues such as the alignment between high school and college curricula and cultural transitions that are masked by surface similarities when progressing within the educational system.

In short, crosswalking has much more to offer than providing a literal safety zone for getting from one side of the street to another.

If you have suggestion for a key crosswalk that could be created to facilitate college completion, please send it along.

Karen Gross is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary

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My Conversation with Congressman John Tierney

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Under Secretary Martha Kanter

Most people agree there is a lamentable lack of constructive, civil discourse in Washington, D.C. these days. So you can imagine how delighted I was to be interviewed early last month by Congressman John Tierney, (6^th CD, MA), as his guest on the latest installment of “Conversations with Congressman Tierney.”  Congressman Tierney is the only New England member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which makes him a vital link between hundreds of colleges and thousands of students and the U.S. Department of Education.   In our interview, Congressman Tierney asked me to review our Department’s progress in implementing the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which he co-authored in 2009 and which was incorporated into the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 which President Obama signed into law on March 30, 2010.

“We were working on that issue all the way back during the Clinton administration,” Congressman Tierney noted, as he recalled his longstanding efforts to eliminate subsidies to lenders providing student loans. Congressman Tierney also mentioned the savings from passing SAFRA, which paid back a chunk of the debt, and also increase Pell grants.

I told Congressman Tierney that an estimated $40 billion of those savings were devoted to fund Pell grants for low-income students.  But I wanted to go a step further. I wanted to make sure he understood what his efforts meant in real terms to students and families in his own neighborhood, back in his home district. So I looked it up. It turns out that last year approximately 12,000 students in Congressman’s Tierney’s Congressional District received a combined total of about $43 million dollars in Federal Pell Grants, a program that received much needed support in return for the reforms of the student loan industry.  All told, since the President took office, Congress has increased the annual maximum Pell Grant award by $800, to $5550 for the neediest students, while also increasing the number of Pell recipients from 6.2 million to more than 9.6 million students enrolled in our nation’s colleges and universities today.

Congressman Tierney also asked me to review our progress on the financial transparency provisions included in the bill. “We thought transparency was necessary,” he noted, “families and students need to see the information before they make their choices.”  That goal, like the student loan reforms, is also reflected in our new way of doing business at the U.S. Department of Education, which now features a growing variety of consumer-information designed to help students and families make the choices that are best for them.

These free online resources, which Congressman Tierney highlights on his own web page, include:

The Department of Education’s College Affordability and Transparency Center, which contains comparative information on college tuition and net prices and The College Navigator, which helps students find degree and certificate programs that meet their needs and file a free application for federal financial aid.

I really appreciated the many times Congressman Tierney let me remind his viewers that the Department of Education offers all this information free online. For example, no student who wants to apply for a federal grant or loan needs to pay a fee; and, you can easily apply for a federal grant or loan on our official U.S. Department of Education website. It’s a message I can’t do enough to get out: students do not have to pay anyone to apply for federal financial aid.  We want all students to seek federal, state and campus grants first; then work-study opportunities; and then, federal and state loans. Subsidized direct federal student loans currently carry interest charges of 3.4 percent, and while that may double on July 1, 2012 if Congress does not pass the President’s proposal to freeze that rate in order to help keep college affordable, even then federal loans will be a much better bargain than most private student loans or even credit cards, where the interest rate is much higher and there are far fewer and less generous repayment options.  The first step: file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Congressman Tierney also asked me to review the education and job training related proposals President Obama put forward in his budget proposal for next year – and that led to a lively discussion. I’ll get to that in another post next week.  But in the meantime, let me close with his words, spoken shortly after he remembered his own days as a work-study student at Salem State University.

“I know there are a lot of students who are working a lot of hours [in addition to their studies] but with the states cutting back funds for higher education they still wind up in lots of debt, ” he noted. “We still have a lot of work to do on that.”

Martha Kanter is the U.S. Under Secretary of Education