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 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

parent. both what you're doing with your student at home to support them academically in school as well as participating out of school. we've had a wednesday morning parent volunteer morning, where parents show up in force at the school and are just a force at the school. we have 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 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

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 potentiale 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 presidents of the united states. >> he can have my job first. >> thank you. >> good morning. i'm valerie leaseman with the 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 malia 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 malia 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? little bit of time. three more questions. one, two, three, then 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's it going? i'm aaron hackett, coming from hampton roads, virginia, working with alternatives americorps member. what's up, y'all? i have a question coming from the partners 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 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 forms, those kinds of things. 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 so much.

>> thank you, secretary duncan. i think we heard a, figure out when dakwon turns 35, so we can run him for president. also to carol smith and rose smith. our next speaker is a national treasure and part of his job is to worry about the state of our national treasure. jean the machine by some, for his work ethic, he has been an extraordinary public servant across administrations. first, as director of the economic counsel under president clinton, then to timothy

geithner and now as assistant to the president and director of economic counsel for president obama. what's more, a good midwesterner from minnesota, a great tennis player and a good lawyer. given this year's grad nation theme, education and the economy, he is a perfect speaker for the occasion. to close out this plenary section with keynote remarks, please warmly welcome from the white house, gene sperling. >> well, thank you very much. john got most of that right. it is true i went to college in minnesota, but i'm actually from ann arbor, michigan. that's my home. i am a huge michigan fan. and i'm still in my third day of mourning over the tragic loss to

the university of ohio. none the less, i will pull myself up for this remarks today. i really do want to thank john bridgeland for his enormous commitment and what he's done through civic enterprises, part of the president's white house counsel for community solutions. he is a personal example that there are people in this town who are committed to get iting done as opposed to worryinging about what party party's in power and who's going to get the credit and i thank him for that. and i want to thank general powell for their profounding, chairing the alliance. it is so important this president stays. i'm inspired that today it is still a force in public policy

and obviously, you actually just got to see our commitment in action and seeing arne duncan and all that he has done. i thank them and all of you. you're going to hear from a lot of people. going to try to make five points. quick and let you get, let you move on. number one, focus on how education and the challenge of preventing dropouts, but beyond preventing dropouts, having higher aspirations, higher achievement, higher graduation rates, higher accomplishment is absolutely critical to our economy and our economic growth. now, there is a degree and with that is just common sense. i'm just talking about the you know, the -- the basketball playoffs, if you look at any team, any team is stronger. everybody is stronger when

everyone on that team is at their highest performance and contributing. of course, if you have an economy where women are not contributing as much or not allowed to contribute as much or not allowed to rise. when you have an economy where some people are too many people are droppinging out of high school, never getting the chance to get the skills to compete, that isn't just about the interest of those individuals. though that is crucial. it is about whether you have an economy that is at full strength. now, you've seen the studies, i won't go into all of them. you know they will. you know that somebody graduated from high school is going to make twice as much over their lifetime as somebody who drops out. you know that the unemployment rate for someone without a high school degree is about 13% today, but someone with college education, 4%.

you know what that means to those individuals and their lives and we know what it means just to the cost of our society. that people who have significant education, make more, contribute more, pay higher taxes, cost other taxpayers less funds, those are all things of which the academic evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. but what's important to remember and maybe the most important message is that it benefits all of us. let me give you one example. president held a conference on insourcing the other day and in the conference, a woman talked about what she advised when she was telling people where to locate their company. and she said one of the number one indicators was what was the high school completion rate in the area that you would locate

that particular service business? the college completion rate was a key indicator in where they recommend somebody locate. so, if the high school completion rate is better, it's not just those individuals who benefit. that community as a whole benefits. there will be more job location here. more jobs for everyone. so we need to make very clear that when we're funding and we're inspiring people at higher aspirations, higher achievement, higher academic progress, it is not just about those individuals. it is about our economy as a whole. my second point though is really one that i think all of you feel deeply, which is that even if that was not the case, my guess is everybody was here today would still be here today. because we are fundamentally aa people who believe fundamentally that the accident of your birth

should not be overly determ native ofoutcome of your life. we would not tolerate a law that says if you are born in a poor area to a single parent, only 7 out of 100 can go to college. we would not tolerate a law like that. we would think that law is cruel. but how much better are we if we sit by and do nothing when that reality -- when that is the reality we live in? we have an obligation, every generation does, to move ourselves closer to that aspiration that the accident of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life. and when we know that too many children, particularly too many

children of color in poor, urban areas, are just by the accident of their birth have things stacked against them, that's not something we can sit by and say we'll deal with that some other day. that is something where we have to have a commitment and the commitment has to be from the earliest ages through elementary school to what arnie duncan calls the bermuda triangle of school years. and the commitment has to be deep and it has to be strong and it has to be through that process that gives somebody the opportunity others of us are too likely born with to contribute and create economic security for our families. now the third point i want to make is that i think one of the most critical things for us as a

country in making progress is that we establish, and what is what i believe you're trying to do here. that this commitment is something where there is an overwhelming consensus in our society to achieving. because having been here for 20 years, i will be very honest in saying the following thing. i think there's a deep double standard when it comes to evaluating programs and policies for the poorest children. we do not find out that a particular intervention to cure cancer has failed and therefore, decide that's an argument for not investing in research to cure cancer. we do not decide that if a certain military weapon is not as effective as others that we

give up on the basic security of our country or the basic goal of preventing terrorism. we find another way that's more effective. yet i have seen that when it comes to programs for helping our poorest youth, if it is not 100% effective, people use that as an argument to give up on the endeavor. to defund the endeavor instead of going back at it and trying again. how many times have i heard somebody say, well here's an early intervention strategy, here's an early childhood strategy. but you know what? some of the benefits fade out. so when i hear that, i think, okay, great. what can we do to make sure those benefits don't fade out? what can we do in the the elementary schools and the middle school years and high school years to make sure those benefits accelerate instead of fade out. others say that's why we

shouldn't do the thing that's working even for several years. that makes no sense to me. i'm afraid that it has a negative impact on public policy because when people feel that the admission of any error or any failure to get the performance desired is going to be used as a reason to defund the endeavor. people pull back. they are more afraid of experimentation, of evaluation, of accountability. but if we are all committed to the idea that it is just not right, it's not economically smart, it's not consistent with our values to let an overwhelming -- to let a large numbers of our children have the deck stacked against them by the accident of their birth, then we will all be in this together. we will evaluate and we will analyze and innovate. if something is not working, we

will go back and double down on our commitment. franklin roosevelt said, it is common sense to take a method and try it. if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. but above all, try something. that must be our motto when we engage in the effort to have more children of our young people have higher aspirations and higher achievement in our economy. fourth point i will make is we're in a tough budget time. this is a time of priorities. where are our priorities as a country going to be? i'm so proud to work for president obama. i'm so proud because every time we get to the toughest situations, the toughest budget fights, and the top priorities have to come into play, what the

president puts first, or at least at the top of his priority list, is making sure we are staying with that commitment to invest and innovate in ways to help children who do not come from the the best circumstances have the same opportunities or greater opportunities to succeed. that is why even in this tough budget, a billion dollars more for head start, and every budget we'll continue to fight to not let that get cut back so that tens of thousands of children lose at least the chance they have to enter school ready to learn. that's why when we can afford relatively few new programs, one of them is a half billion dollar early learning race to the top so as we're funding what works, we're also looking to see what can work better and how we can innovate and learn and do better

and invest more in children. that's why amongst all the difficult budget challenges, the president has stayed with the historic commitment to pell grants and fought to not only have the largest increase but to protect that increase budget after budget in the toughest times among the toughest choices. those are priorities that should transcend political party and political division. that should be about our national commitment to being a people where every child has a chance to move up. not just in theory, but in fact and reality. and my last point i would just make is that we really, really as a country have to continue to focus and innovate and rededicate ourselves to particularly ensuring that young people -- we reach young people early enough to ensure that they have the aspirations, not just

to not drop out, but to seek to achieve as much as they can. if college education, a high school education, you know one of the things you realize as you get older is that you're born with many gifts. but i think one gift many of us who are fortunate enough to realize later is that just by our upbringing, by accident of our birth, we have a gift. and that gift is a very high expectation that we will go to college. and i have watched friends and relatives. i have seen how children have gone off looking the wrong path. but that high expectation that they are almost born with is like a magnet that pulls them back on the right track. and so many of them, so many of the children of upper middle

class families, whatever their problems, come back because of that expectation, because of the opportunity. but so many other children are born without that gift. but that is a gift that we can all play a role in. that gift that you can aspire and achieve, but we have got to reach children early enough. and we have to keep looking. we have to keep protecting and investing in programs like europe and trio and youth challenge and career academies. things that reach people, to me, as early as possible. and try to embed in them that aspiration, that expectation that so many of us are just blessed with. that is not an expectation that will necessarily be there for a child born into a family where no one has ever gone to college. but we have that power. we have the power through the