that is spans a lot of different kinds of activities, but they are a mechanism for individuals to support the school and then the alumni association has been hugely engaged in as businesses in supporting roosevelt, and the university has engaged individual students with our students that those relationships carry on once the students go onto college, and actually there is a bunch of really specific but they have taken different shapes of just figuring out where does the what the community organization or individual have to offer with what the school needs and really focused on what the school is trying to achieve. they're not random partnership. they're all focused and aligned on what roesz velt is trying to accomplish with their students. >> thank you. good morning, alice, thompson, detroit, michigan. my question is to ms. smith. can you identify for us three or four of your specific and salient changes that create a

transformation in your school? >> so i will draw you back to bob's presentation because we have done some things as roosevelt we're also doing as a district. one of those is identifying what we call academic priority students as students that are coming out of eighth grade and moving into ninth grade and putting a special kind of emphasis on tracking kids in ninth grade. we have i aninth grade axd and students being on track to 2k3wr5ds wait as they enter tenth fwrad and having the appropriate amount of credit, six credits with a c or better and that predicts their graduation, on time graduation at five times greater rate than if they were not on track in tenth grade and doing everything we can to make sure that occurs. that's very specific, and then the instructional coaching and the collaborative work amongst teachers i would say is a huge piece of the collaborative problem solving that teachers are doing about instructional

practice and about individual strategies to support individual students has been hugely powerful. >> hi. my name is amanda from united way of tucson in southern arizona. my question is parent involvement and if that was part of your strategy as well and you mentioned family engagement night. wondering what those look like as well as if you used community-based organizations to help you with parent engagement. >> yes, we do. so we have used culturally specific service organizations that already have relationships with families as a way of linking families with the school. we have a broad definition of what it means to be engaged as a parpt parent, what you do with the opportunity at home to support them academically in school as well as participating and what's going on at school. we had a wednesday morning parent volunteer meeting where parents show up in force at the school and are a presence at the school and we have again an

outstanding individual who organizes the parent engagement and is just like a hugely energetic and looks for ways that are the right match for how parenting can engage. >> good morning. my name is brian diaz, serving with city year, and i want to ask specifically what did you find that you held onto and you were able to come out and make these four years and if you saw peers that did not, how were your parents involved in assisting you to get to where you're at this current moment? >> i held onto a couple of the staff, like they was really behind me. they was pushing me along like great amount, like they was really behind me. without them i wouldn't be here right now. they helped me a lot. my parents, they also pushed me. they made me see beyond high school, and i don't just have to follow the crowd and be my own

leader and things like that. i really thank them a lot for that. >> good morning. my name is jim and i am the founder of creative concepts in connecticut, and i want to say give inspiration, get inspired. i think inspiring the potential so students achieve greater life outcomes is what i am hearing here. my question is for daykwon. martin luther king, one of life's greatest legends said intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education. what have you seen over the last several years as roosevelt school that has -- how has it affected your character and the character of the school and what percentage of that has helped

you thrive? >> 100%, 100%, like my character, it kind of matured a little bit since i have been in luke, before my two years. i really think because when i was there the first couple of years, i really wasn't like in my mind i already knew school wasn't for me like after high school. when the new change has come, i just settled down, matured a little bit, started getting my head in the books, things like that. i think many i character has matured 100%. >> so you are realizing martin luther king's dream, and i would like to encourage you to become one of the next residents of the united states. >> he can have my job first. >> thank you. >> good morning. i am valley smith with bose

organization for volunteers. i am very proud of you. >> thank you. >> i look back at myself and i think back and have a flashback of being an intern for senator strom thurman. i am from edgeville, south carolina, so small town, but we have a lot to offer. and i would like to ask the audience. are you proud of sasha and maleah obama? can i get a yeah? i am also proud of our nation's children and i will keep this short. i worked on a proposal that says the objective is to invite students to assist with organizing and wishing well which would showcase our nation's children and honor america's first children, sasha and maleah obama. i know the president and mrs. obama are very protective of their children as well. they should be, but mr. duncan, i would like for you to review this. can i give this to you? >> that's fine.

three more questions. that's fine. 1-2-3 and finish up. >> thank you. >> good morning, everyone. my name is andre stiff, affiliated with the zone 126 out of long island city, new york, and i don't really have a question because everybody pretty much already asked the questions i want. i want to commend you, young brother, because where i come from i have seen the distractions. i have a little brother distract like that and i know what it can do to you and for you to be able to focus and put your mind in the right place just know there is nothing you can't do if you want to do it, young brother. you can do anything you want. are you on the right track. you have the path. you have the right people with you, and i just commend you. >> thank you. >> how is it going in i am aaron hackett. i am coming from hampton roads, virginia, working with

alternative s.i.g, so i have a question from the side of the partners that you mentioned. you said there were a lot of non-profit organizations helping out. first of all, what are those non-profit organizations? what are the best kinds? what has been like the best kind of activities after school programs that are most effective and also for us trying to engage the high schools, what would you advise for us on how to get really involved? it seemed like you guys were reaching out as schools to them, this is us reaching out on the other side. >> i am thinking that is to me. >> yes, go ahead. >> i am going to offer one of our non-profit partners, self enhancement inc. is actually here at the conference and will be presenting this afternoon on scaling up, and s.e.i. has been a longstanding partner in the community that works with young

people and their families in second grade and it is all about keeping kids in school and all about the relationships they build with those students and they have a 98 graduation rate of young people they have supported. so they are -- yeah. they are part of a presentation here and i would say of a session that would be worthwhile to go to, the partnering they're doing with us right now is a whole school model at one of our high schools, jefferson high school, that is partnering with our community college on a middle college model and s.e.i. as the non-profit partner is really ensuring we're going to be able to guarantee success for every one of the students that are part of that program. i would suggest that's a great place to start and use your time here at this conference. >> what was that again? >> it is self enhancement inc., and the session here at the conference is about scaling up successful practices. it is later this afternoon. it is a great example of one of our partners.

>> thank you. final two questions here and here. >> good morning. my name is vanessa green, a practicing school counselor from chicago public schools. we know that school counselors are under utilized resource nationally. my question is how are school counselors engaged in the transformation process at your two respective schools? >> at our school, our school counselor does a myriad of things, first of all, creative scheduling to make sure our students are enrolled in the courses they need to graduate and just not frifl lous to fill up the daily schedule. secondly, our counseling staff takes the time to work with individual students to meet the social andy emotional needs that they come to us with, and also career planning as well as college planning.

we have counseling staff available to work with students to fill out the fafsa, the federal student aid arms, those kinds of things, college applications, job applications. we work on interviewing techniques and strategies for those students who desire to go out into the world of work. just all of those wrap around services that students need. that's what our counseling staff is busy and tasked with doing each day. >> and ours is very similar. i would say that flexibility in terms of making sure students are getting the classes that they need and changing that if they're not atrack with the things this he need is huge and often overlooked strategy that you don't want somebody putting hard work down a path not what they need to be working on, and also linking students with community resources that they need as well as paying individual personal attention. we have an exceptional counseling staff at the school. >> there is a national movement

for school counselors to own the turf of college and career readiness, if your counselors have not already signed on, please have them do so. thank you. >> thank you. >> i am executive director of stockton urban academies in stockton, california. my question is specific, you mentioned during the speaking time the culture associated with your school and in response to a question that someone asked you,ing you said you were able to be your leader. i know through some of the other states there is a pervasive gang problem. what we often find is that some of the best students that we work with are still overwhelmed by this gang issue, whether it be generational or neighborhood wise. so i was wondering for you, did you find your success was more specifically linked to the fact you may not have had those family ties or didn't feel that overwhelming burden to join a gang, be part of a gang or represented by that community or was that something you also

struggled with? >> it wasn't necessarily a struggle because i know pressure is a lot, but if i don't want to do something, i am not going to do it mainly. where i came from, gangs were a big part of the streets, so me being me, i just stuck to the books, listened to my parents had to tell me, the teachers, a couple of my friends that had done it before me and graduated and gone onto college, so i just follow my own route. >> and the teacher, i am sorry, i forget your name. do you find you have students highly motivated that have the potential to succeed and overwhelmed by that gang issue to the extent it interferes with their academics? >> the streets are a major distraction for all young people nationwide, and the district of columbia certainly is not exempt from that. our students come to us and they see our school as a safe haven.

we have students who attend from every area of washington, d.c. many times the neighborhoods are very dangerous. many times they're over ridden with gangs and negativity and drug selling and all kinds of negative things. the students come to our school and see it as a safe haven. they come into the doors of luke moore and lay down the neighborhood beeves if will you and everyone is a family and all there to serve one common purpose to learn to graduate and become a successful citizen. >> thank you. >> thanks for all of your thoughtful questions. give a huge around of applause to carol and rose and dakwon. these are champions of this movement. thank you very much. the associated press is reporting a u.s. official says army staff sergeant robert bales will be charged with 17 counts

of murder in the massacre of afghan villagers. they say the charges against bales include six counts of attempted murder and six counts of aggravated assault and other violations of military law. the official spoke to the associated press on the condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced. earlier today general john allen, commander in afghanistan, testified before the senate armed services committee. we'll show you that entire hearing tonight at 8:00 eastern on our companion network c-span. the general said specifically about the killings in afghanistan and other incidents they have, quote, struck a blow at the core of the relationship but he believes afghan president hamad karzai is committed to partnering with the u.s. and nato. here is part of the opening comments at the hearing. >> chairman levin, senator mccain, distinguished members of the committee, i take this

opportunity to appear before you today to discuss our operations in afghanistan. it is a pleasure to be here with my friend, dr. jim miller, the acting under secretary of defense for policy, and it has been a pleasure for me to get to know him over the last several weeks as he has been a very important ally of mine in helping to explain some of the policy issues with which we deal on a daily basis. let me begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to all of you for the support you provide to our men and women in uniform every day. , that they are well equipped, well trained, and well led is a great testament to the efforts of this committee and to the work of this congress. on behalf of those troops, and on behalf of their families, thank you for all that you have done for them. in the past eight months i have walked the ground of afghanistan with many of those troops, along with many i friend and partner and ambassador ryan crocker and

my nato come patriot, senior civil representative simon gas and i have met with the leaders of most of the 49 other nations serving alongside us in the international security assistance force, and all through this i have been in close consultation with afghan civilian and military leadership most of whom have been meshed in this country's conflicts from the soviet era to the civil wrar and the darkness of the taliban and the ten years plus of this conflict and well over 0 years and i have gotten to know them all quite well. from those experiences i can tell you unequivocally three things. first, we remain on track to ensure that afghanistan will no longer be a safe haven for al qaeda and will no longer be terrorized by the taliban. second, as a coalition, the

largest and recent history we are well along in our progress to meet our 2010 lisbon summit commitments to transition security lead to the afghan national security forces by december 2014. third, our troops know the difference that they're making every day and the enemy feels that difference every day. now, to be sure, the last couple of months have been trying, and in the wake of the revelations that american troops mishandled religious texts to include the quran protests, some violent, occurred in several but only a few regions across afghanistan and 32 afghans lost their lives in these riots and even more were hurt. just since the first of january the coalition has lost 61 brave troops in action from six different nations and 13 of them

were killed at the hands of what appear to have been afghan security forces, some of whom were motivated we believe in part by the mishandling of religious materials. just as tragic we're investigating what appears to be the murder of 16 innocent afghan civilians at the hands of a u.s. service member of each of these events is heart wrenching and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by this violence, coalition, and afghan alike. i assure you the relationship between the coalition and the afghan security forces remains strong. just to weeks ago i was in the helm and province visiting with marines and local afghan commanders in the wake of the quran burning incident when the violence was at its peak. a young marine said he and his unit were told about the demonstrations by their afghan counterparts. the afghan troops told them,

quote, let us patrol outside the wire a couple of days. we've got understanding the gravity of the risk, the afghans had assumed for them the marine continued, our afghan brothers, we're trying to protect us. this one statement spoken by a young marine conveys the power of this brotherhood in arms forged in battle over the years. it speaks to the trust we have built with the afghans nod the shock absorbency of this relationship. and yet we know there is much hard and deadly work yet to be done. but the progress is real, and importantly, it's sustainable. we have severely degraded the insurgency. as one afghan commander told me in the south, in the latter part of 2011, quote, this time around, the taliban was the away team, unquote. on much to that success and as a

result of our recent winter operations, we have seriously degraded the taliban's ability to mount a major spring offensive of their own. this spring, they'll come back to find many of their caches empty. their former strongholds untenable and many of their foot soldiers absent or unwilling to join the fight. indeed, in kandahar, back in december, 50 former tal ibs decided to formally reintegrate back into afghan society. and when asked why they laid down their arms, they complained of the unrelenting pressure they were under. they said they found themselves up against capable afghan forces in greater numbers and with greater frequency. and while they were willing to fight foreigners, they were unwilling to fight their afghan brothers, especially afghans who fought back with courage and skill because of the training that we had provided them. and the training we provide them is critical to our mission.

throughout history, insurgencies have seldom been defeated by foreign forces. instead, they have been ultimately beaten by indigenous forces. so in the long run, our goals can only be achieved and then secured by afghan forces. transition then is the linchpin of our strategy, not merely the way out. during the last 12 months the afghan security forces have expanded from 276,000 to more than 330,000. and they will reach their full surge strength ahead of the scheduled deadline in october. the expansion and the professionalization of the afghan security forces allows us to recover the remaining 23,000 u.s. surge troops by this fall. enables us to continue to pressure the taliban to reconcile and makes possible security transition to afghans in accordance with our lisbon summit commitments and on time.

security conditions remain very good in areas that have transitioned thus far from kabul in the east to herat in the west, from mazar-e-sharif in the north to lash car gain the south. and later this year afghan security forces are expected to assume the security lead for two-thirds or possibly more of the afghan population. and as the potential unifying influence in afghanistan, the afghan forces are better than we thought they were to be. importantly, they are better than they thought they could be. and as they move to the fore, they are gaining more and more confidence and they are gaining more and more capability. in the past five months, 89% of the total conventional operations were partnered with both conventional and afghan forces. and 42% of those operations had afghans in the lead. over the next two years, coalition forces will remain

combat ready but increasingly focused on security force assistance and supporting afghan combat operations. afghan leadership then is simply key. and i can tell you the afghans want to lead and they want the responsibility that comes with it. in fact, for the first time our joint coalition afghan operational campaign plan from january 2012 to june of 2013 was conceived and developed and planned with afghans in the lead. they are truly emerging as the real defeat mechanism of this insurgency and increasingly as an emblem of national unity. and this is essential for the long-term security of afghanistan. but none of us harbor illusions. we know that we face long-term challenges as well. we know that al qaeda and other extremist networks, the same

networks that kill afghan and coalition troops every day still operate with impunity across the border in pakistan. we know that the taliban remains a resilient and determined enemy and that many of them will try to regain their lost ground this spring through assassination, intimidation, high-profile attacks and the placement of ieds. we know that iran continues to support the insurgency and fuels the flames of violence. we know that corruption still robs afghan citizens of their faith in their government and that poor governance itself often advances insurgent messages. this campaign has been long. it has been difficult. and it has been costly. there have been setbacks, to be sure, and we're experiencing them now. and there will be more setbacks ahead. i wish i could tell you that this war was simple. that progress could be easily

measured, but that's not the way of counterinsurgencies. they are fraught with successes and setbacks which can exist in the same space and the same time. but each must be seen in the larger context of the overall campaign. and i believe that that campaign is on track. we are making a difference. i know this, and our troops know this. i'd like to take just another moment of your time today, mr. chairman, distinguished members, to end where i began this morning with our troops and the thousands and thousands of american and coalition partners that are bearing the weight of this conflict and to remember that there will be a number that will never return to their families. and i ask you to please know this, that they are central to my every decision and to every word that i speak before this committee. one of them, a young marine who

was laid to rest last tuesday at arlington cemetery was a hero. he knew what he stood for and he knew his mission. he knew the risks and he knew he might have to give his life or this cause for which we fight. so sergeant william stacey prepared a letter for his family to be read in the event of his death. and in it he said, there will be a child who will live because men left the security they enjoyed in their home country to come to his. and this child will learn in new schools that have been built. and he will walk his streets not worried about whether or not his leaders' hinch men will come and kidnap him. he will grow into a fine man who will pursue every opportunity his heart could desire. and he will have the gift of freedom which i have enjoyed for so long. and if my life buys the safety of a child who will one day

change the world, then i know that it was all worth it. mr. chairman, i can only add that i am confident that americans are safer today because of the sacrifices of the magnificent men and women in uniform, our service members represented in this letter by sergeant stacey. and i am confident that we will prevail in this endeavor. i want to thank you again for this opportunity to appear before you today for the extraordinary support of this committee. y is the support you provide every day to the young men and women of our armed forces who i am so privileged and honored to lead. and i look forward to answering your questions. thank you, mr. chairman. >> and all of that hearing tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span and any time in our video library at c-span.org. in march of 1979, c-span

began televising the u.s. house of representatives to households nationwide. and today, our content of politics and public affairs, nonfiction books and american history is available on tv, radio and online. >> when we put that force together to go to desert storm, i viewed every one of those youngsters as somebody that i had a personal responsibility for. i know that george schwarzkopf felt the same way. we knew they were going into a very dangerous conflict perhaps. and we wanted to give them every benefit that would allow them to come home safely. i am as distressed -- more distressed than any member of this committee could ever be that there are veterans who are suffering illnesses that may have been a result of their service in the gulf. i do not know if those illnesses are a result of the service in the gulf or not, but i think we have to keep that as an operating hypothesis until we find out otherwise. we have to get to the bottom of this to find out what the