in discipline. i have fought for such analysis for years, given my personal and professional observation of the overt discipline of african-american boys. unfortunately, the data demonstrate that black students, especially boys, experience much harsher discipline than other students, with 1 in 5 black boys subject to out of school suspension almost three times the rate of their white peers. the data released today unequivocally demonstrates the need for the civil rights data collection and for active federal partnership with states to ensure educational success for all students. i'm also pleased to announce that the congressional black caucus will host a congressional

summit on discipline in april to examine further these data and to discuss federal policy reforms to address the disparities that have been revealed. i know that representative donald paine, who is our senior member of the education committee, would have loved to have been here to note the progress that we have made. so again, secretary duncan, assistant secretary ali, we commend you and the department for the tremendous work that you have done which leads us toward more formation of this perfect union that we continue to seek. thank you very much. >> to the president, to the dean, to the howard family, i'm thrilled to be here today, thrilled to be back.

i'm coming back in a couple of months for the commencement. very happy we can make this announcement here today. to the two congressmen, they have been absolute allies in education reform, i thank you so much for your leadership. and my thoughts and heart today also with congressman paine. he was a great, great partner. he was a leader, one of my bosses on the house education committee, really wish he was with us today as well. we have a lot to live up to his legacy. thank you for your leadership. why do we say education is the civil rights issue of our generation? no other issue holds greater promise of equality and opportunity for our nation. and yet as the data we are releasing today shows, for far too many students and far too many schools inequity remains the reality. last summer we issued the first round of self-reported civil rights data collected from more than 72,000 schools serving 85% of our nation's students. among other things it show schools serving minorities tend

to have less rigorous high school classes. they are more likely to be taught by teachers with just one or two years of experience. in the second round of data, further confirms these discrepancies. if we are serious about not just talking about the achievement gap but doing something about it, we have to close what we call the opportunity gap. this report talks about three different subjects. three parts. teachers, access to rigor and discipline. i'll touch briefly on each of those three. first one, teachers. in fact, through the second round of data which was collected in the 2009-10 school year, we learn that teachers in high minority schools were paid on average $2,200 less per year than their colleagues in other schools. primarily because they are younger and less experienced. these numbers obviously vary by district. in new york, for example, the discrepancy in high schools is more than $8,000. while in philadelphia, the number is even greater. so we've got work to do there. more than $14,000 per teacher.

the best way to challenge this reality is for districts and unions to work together in very different ways and reward great teachers and great principals for taking on tough assignments in school asked in communities where there's historically tie turnover and positions are hard to fill. we have to attract and retain great talent. great teachers and great principals make a huge difference. we have to get them to the children and the communities who need them the most. the news is by no means all bad. some high mind schools pay teachers more on average. for example teachers working in chicago elementary schools serving mostly minorities earn approximately $1,800 more per year than their counterparts in schools serving fewer minorities. chicago high schools teachers learn $5,000 less than teachers in schools with fewer minorities. high school rigor. this is a hugely important one. we have troubling evidence

minorities have less access to rigorous high school classes. for example, only 29% of a high minority high schools offer calculus. 55% of schools with the lowest black and hispanic enrollment. even in schools offering calculus hispanics make up 20% of those schools' student body, just 10% of the students actually enrolled if in calculus. that underrepresentation has to end. overall while blacks and hispanics make up 44% of the students in this survey they make up only 26% of students in gifted and talented programs. something's wrong with that picture as well. many states are already taking steps to try and address these opportunity deficits. several of the top states received grants in part because of their real commitment to increasing subject offerings in their schools. they're partnering with universities and training high school teachers in advance placement courses.

so those schools can give their students more rigorous and challenging classes to set them on a path for college and even give them a leg up. once they get to college ideally with that credit already in their back pocket. but all schools, all districts and states need to challenge themselves. to do more, to create access to rigorous classes for their minority students. third is discipline. perhaps the most alarming findings in the second round involve the topic of discipline. the sad fact is that minority students across america face much harsher discipline than nonminorities. even wind the same school. some examples, african-american students, particularly males, are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than their peers. black students make up just 18% of the students in this survey. but 35% of the students suspended were black and 39% of the students expelled were black. nationally, students with

disabilities are more than twice as likely to be suspended than students without disabilities. chicago, we worked hard to train our teachers and principals to look for alternatives to suspension and seclusion and restraint. we began peer juries where students were responsible for disciplining each other and finding alternative ways to resolve disputes. we found that a tiny percentage, tiny percentage of our schools actually accounted for the majority of our student arrests. we worked hard to challenge that status quo as well. with better training and professional development for teachers and principals in these schools. it's absolutely clear that chicago and so many other cities still have a lot of work to do in this area. we're poiseded to do everything we can to help. schools can use our federal funds from multiple sources including title 1, title 2, special education, school improvement grant grants, to find new and better ways to manage discipline issues. the answer to every behavioral

policemen cannot be out of school suspensions and expulsions. this is where the school to prison pipeline begins and it's on all of us to break these insidious patterns. teacher absences. this is another interesting finding in this survey. we found that in this data pool, almost a third, more than a third of our teachers are absent at least two weeks per year, ten days of school each year. the data doesn't tell us why but i've asked schools to find out what's going on there. it shows 15% of america's high schools have no, zero, guidance counselors. at a time when more and more young people must go on to some form of higher education beyond high school this absence of guidance counselors is totally unacceptable. young people need help and guidance counselors are absolutely part of the solution. this data's cut by gender as well as by race. we have breakdowns at the school, at the district, and the state level on our website which will be up as soon as this press conference is done.

we all know the real power of data like this is not only in the truth behind the numbers, but in the impact it can have when married with the courage and the will to challenge the status quo and to change. the undeniable truth is that the everyday educational experience for far too many students of color and students with disabilities violates the principle of equity that's at the heart of the american promise. it's our collective duty to change that and to work with the real sense of urgency. i also caution everyone to avoid simplistic conclusions when looking at this data. we are not alleging overt discrimination in some or all of these cases. these are often long-held patterns of behavior and until this data is tracked and evaluated, many educators may not even be aware of these huge discrepancies. this is a total opportunity to look in the mirror with eyes wide open and find ways to do better for all of our children. there's a treasure trove of information here that can inform

conversations and actions at the school and the district and the state level. so today, we're issuing a challenge to educators and community leaders across america to work together, to address these inequities. president obama has challenged all of us to again lead the world in college graduates by 2020. we cannot reach that goal unless educational opportunity is extended to everyone fairly and equitably. it is now my honor to introduce russa ali. she and her team have done an amazing job of reinvigorating that office. for the first time we have this amazing level of transparency. from transparency, from looking at the cold, hard truth i think will spur our nation thank you so much for your leadership. i thank your team for your hard work. please welcome russa ali.

>> hi, thank you all for being here today. and for taking the time to both listen to the story that is painted by these data, to dissect them more, and to help change the conversation that's happening in the country around equity and opportunity. as arne said, our work is all geared towards ensuring that the achievement gap closes. but without more information on where it exists, where opportunity is provided, how resources are being distributed, getting to our common goal is all the more difficult. i'd like to for just a few minutes walk you through what some of the data say a little deeper. you're receiving snapshots of the kinds of natural seals that

can be done with these data. this document will also be on our website as soon as this conference is over. but for the cooperation of 7,000 school districts, over 72,000 schools, representing 85% of our public schoolchildren, but for their cooperation, we wouldn't have these data before us today. these were self-reported data. the districts have been collecting -- reporting data like these since 1968. but under the call of this administration, much more data was collected than ever before. lots of methodological problems were tweaked and fixed. more students were surveyed. and for the first time we are providing user-friend lly toolso

that you can do your own kinds of queries, ask these tough questions about your schools. help parents understand what's happening as their students and their children journey from prekindergarten all the way through the end of high school. so you will be able to download school-level reports. you'll be able to download district-level reports and query all these data yourself. let's take a moment to look at what some of these data say. and i will tell you as arne just closed his remarks with, these are the kinds -- we look at these data wanting to understand them, help districts and schools change the patterns, ask ourselves the tough questions, and support people with the will to change.

from the data -- thank you so much, tim. from our website, you'll be able to see longitudinal tools. you'll be able to see state and national estimations. i want to caveat everything you're seeing in this document and that i'm about to show you with, we ought not make national projections or estimations from the data we have now. those are coming soon. that said, as we look deeper into these data, they reveal some very important patterns that the students in the sample undergo as they journey k-12. what you're looking at here is across all discipline sanctions, in-school suspensions, out of school suspensions, once or more than once, and expulsions. the left is enrollment. african-american students in particular are overrepresented in these disciplinary actions. you can also for the first time look at what happens to students

when they are -- if they are referred to law enforcement. or whether they are arrested. nowhere before have we had one place where we could understand these data, though we have learned disturbing anecdotes across the country. as arne mentioned and congressman davis put so eloquently, looking at race and gender is also hugely important. what we are seeing is that black girls and black boys in this country are suspended at higher rates than almost any of their peers. in fact, black girls are suspended at higher rates than are even latino boys. seclusion and restraint. for the first time we have a national data set that indicates how many instances of seclusion and restraint there are and broken out by type. here you are looking at seclusion data.

what this shows is in the yellow, latino students are overrepresented in seclusion when it comes to mechanical restraint you'll see that african-american students are overrepresented in the red bar. these data, though, allow us to always point to solutions. the patterns that we are showing you may be the norm in far too many places. but the key is studying and understanding those places that are defying these trends, that are closing these opportunity gaps. one in chicago where despite its demographics, it is largely ensuring that it has lower disciplinary actions than the splikt as a whole. retention rates you can study for the first time in this data. grade level retention, disaggregated by not only race, by gender, by disability status,

as broken out byi.d.e.a. and 504 and english language learners. while english language learners represented about 6% of the high school students in the sample, they represent about 12% of those students retained. as arne mentioned, we're digging deep into the access that students have to the courses they'll need to succeed. we have seen amazing work by states over the last few years in particular where 46 of them are adopting and implementing college and career-ready standards. if students don't have access to the courses, though, they will be hard-pressed to learn that rigorous material. what you're looking at is high schoolth in the sample that off irregular russ math and science courses, as arne mentioned wheni do get down to calculus about half of the high schools in the country offer that rigorous course.

when we compare schools that are offering that course, relative to their demographics, we see that high schools with the highest black and latino enrollment in the sample relative to those with the lowest enrollment of those students are far less likely to have access to those rigorous courses, whether it be algebra 2, physicianics or calculus. we can also study who is enrolled in those courses by subgroups. so for example, latino students make up 20% of the student body of high schools in the sample that offer calculus but still only 10% of the students taking call cluls. ap course taking. the data collection for a long time has been a repository for ap access. studying both who's enrolled in those courses, now we're seeing who's taking at least one test and who is passing at least one

of those tests. you'll see that the good news is that white students are extraordinarily successful in both being enrolled in the class and taking it and in passing ap exams. we don't see similar success rates for student s of other races. finding those places that are defying the odds. studying those places here. albert einstein in montgomery county. seeing what they're doing to ensure that so many of their students are enrolled in high rigorous science classes and learning how they can be successful in them and taking those lessons and sharing them with their colleagues. you can also in this data set look a little deeper into algebra. for a long time we've called algebra the gate keeper. understanding when students are taking it and whether they are successful in it is hugely important. what we're looking at here is just one way you can cut the

data on algebra in the collection. middle school algebra. who's getting it early. what and what we see is that when students get algebra early, this jello bar represents latinos, red, african americans and when they get it early, they are successful in it. they pass it at rates proportionate to their enrollment. 79% of the latino and african-american students get algebra and pass it and 80% of white students get algebra and pass it. finding the success stories and places that are enrolling most of their students and algebra early and successful in them as we are seeing here in elizabeth, new jersey. the places closing the gap and showing us it doesn't have to be the way the trends too often

reveal. this data set allows you to look at talented and gifted programs throughout their career and finding those place doing a great job at enrolling students like we are seeing in dade county, florida and fullford elementary. when it comes to teachers, these data allow you to study first and second year teacher placement in particular. of course no matter how good a teacher will eventually be, they won't be as good as you will be in one or two of their professio professions. while the data don't make any statements about teacher experience, they simply show us where our newest teachers are housed and we see that across the sample they are more likely teaching students that aerving

african-american and latino students. the question here is to understand whether the teachers are supported to stay in those schools. when you look at the turn rates, it's about ensuring the teachers that go to these schools stay in these schools and are supported so these patterns can change. those data translate into real dollar differences and money does matter as we look at how our resources are being distributed. across the country in elementary schools for the schools in the sample, they are spending about $2500 less per teacher if the teachers are teaching mostly african-american and latino students. they are here too and are useful to identify places bucking the

trends. where they are ensuring equitable distribution of all of their most precious resources including that which we know matters most when it comes to students learning and that's the power of the instructor in front of the classroom. you can also find data about sat and act taking. find data about interscholastic athletics and being disciplined for and subjected to bullying and harassment based on race, color, national origin, jend or disability status or english language learner status. this is the kinds of ways you can do your own analysis. the tool will allow you to select from all of the indicators available. it will allow you to create charts to better visualize the data and print out

issue-specific reports. it can be found at ocr data.gov. let me conclude by saying as much as these data are revealing a very important truth, they need to be studied further. this is also the first time that most of the districts have reported the indicators. data especially the first run of data, especially when there is no audit function to ensure the technical accuraciy, we want to caution to make no sweeping conclusions to any one of the elements that you see in the data set. to consistently check back on our website for updates in the event that any of the data needs to be corrected moving forward. thank you very much for your

time. we will open it up to questions. [inaudible] >> relative to the fact finding that you have done, is the department of education going to do anything to link monies to this treatment? >> we are trying to do a number of things. i talked about whether it's title one dollars or tens of billions or title two money or race to the top money or neighborhoods. we are trying to create unprecedented opportunities for folks to address this. again, there has been a lack of transparency and the districts are going to be surprised to see this and understand. we have an opportunity to get it and collect the responsibility to move in very, very different

ways. there resources and we hope it will be used to address the major inequities. >> in addition, the department is joined with the department of justice and other agencies and the school discipline initiative that seeks to bring the best minds together to study these problems. we had a few amazing conferences for educators and school district officials that are struggling with discipline. we will release guidance on the subject and our hope is to provide a tool kit on how to study these patterns and do something about it. we are also working with law enforcement throughout the country to also deal with the patterns on a local level in conjunction with the colleagues at the department of justice. . >> my question is you highlighted examples of school

districts bucking the trend and solving these disparities. i'm sure a subset have egregious disparities. will that begin to do enforcement actions whe out lia es parities. >> data alone will never be sufficient to find a civil rights violation. they give us places to study. that said, over the last couple of years they launched 14 proactive systemic investigations into discipline practices and districts across the country. we receive hundreds of complaints on the discipline practices and work to resolve all of them. enforcement is but one tool as arnie indicated. these numbers, though they tell

a disturbing trend and they are a call to action to all of us to study what's happening. they don't automatically suggest that there is evidence of discrimination sufficient to rise to the level of a civil rights violation under the federal civil rights laws and education. >> i had a discipline information. is there a distinction made between the types of infractions for which people are disciplined? i don't know if that's available on the website. >> this collection does not look at a fence type. it looks at the sanction as we have seen the numbers of suspensions more than once or single instances in school or out of school. expulsions or referrals to law enforcement or arrests.

it doesn't brick out by types. some studies have analyzed this and many schools and districts are posting this information on the websites. >> thank you. >> hi. secretary duncan, you munention the school -- i want to know how you are addressing this through policy on the ground through programming and who you are working with to accomplish the goals? >> let me talk about this one sort of personal level. we started looking at arrest dates and found that we as chicago public schools were producing the vast majority of juvenile arrests in the city. it wasn't at 2:00 in the morning or midnight. we had to look at ugly truths and look at what was going on. we found this fascinating. about