Standing Up for Teachers is an International Endeavor

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Guest Blogger
2012 International Summit on the Teaching Profession

The 2012 International Summit on the Teaching Profession was held in New York City. In 2013, the Summit will be hosted by the Netherlands, OECD and EI. It will be held in Amsterdam.

Today teachers across the globe, from Budapest to Ramallah, are celebrating World Teachers’ Day. Using the theme “Taking a Stand for Teachers!” educators are meeting with students to encourage them to become teachers, holding rallies and leading discussions about the strengthening the teaching profession. Learning about these events excites me and makes me want to connect with my international peers.

In 2011, leaders in the US Department of Education did just that when they met with some of their peers from around the world at the First International Summit on the Teaching Profession. As a result of their participation in the Summit, the Department developed the RESPECT project. Over 3500 teachers provided input into the RESPECT vision statement for strengthening and elevating the teaching profession in the United States.

Building on that work, leaders gathered again in March 2012 for a second international summit.  The US participants (including Secretary Duncan, the Presidents of AFT and NEA and the Executive Director of CCSSO) developed a framework to guide their respective work. This vision aligns with RESPECT, by calling for better teacher preparation, building the capacity of teachers to share leadership and responsibility, and improving professional development for teachers and principals.

A teacher and 2010 Teaching Ambassador Fellow, Linda Yaron, recently worked with teachers in India as part of the State Department’s Teachers for Global Classrooms Program. Linda feels “that the more we can structure relevant, global experiences in and out of the classroom, the more we can deepen what it means to teach and learn in the 21st century.”

Secretary Duncan’s statement for World Teachers’ Day echoes Linda’s words. Teachers, he said, “empower students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the 21st century, and they connect them to people, languages, and experiences beyond their home borders. “

As a teacher I try to prepare my students to succeed in the 21st century. Yet, on World Educator Day, I find myself inspired to model 21st century skills for my students by connecting with teachers across different languages and beyond borders at the local and global level just as Secretary Duncan did with his colleagues from around the globe at the international summits.

Do you know of ways to connect with teachers in other countries?

Lisa Clarke is 2012-2013 Washington Teaching Ambassador Fellow on loan to the Department from Kent, Washington.

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Driving Productivity in Postsecondary Education Through Innovation

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Guest Blogger
Innovation Symposium

Secretary Arne Duncan and Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton discussed discuss technological innovations to improve higher education. Official Department of Education photo by Joshua Hoover.

The Department of Education (ED) seeks to encourage innovation in higher education teaching and learning to drive productivity, quality, and equity. To contribute to the national conversation in this arena, ED, in collaboration with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, convened 175 people at Georgetown University this week to discuss technological innovations that can be instrumental in transforming teaching and learning.

The group was intentionally diverse: college and university leaders; innovators in the education technology space; foundation officials; associations and accreditors; researchers and policy analysts as well as state and federal officials. Participants were encouraged to talk across sectors and blur any real or perceived boundaries.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan kicked off the symposium by challenging the participants to continue to be innovative and to push ED to support innovation.  “We need to catalyze innovative changes that can be sustained and have the potential to dramatically increase completion while enhancing quality and gaining productivity,” he said.

The need to discuss innovation in teaching and learning for higher education has never been more pressing, with at least three dynamics converging at this moment in time. First, we know more than ever before about the learning sciences. Second, there is a proliferation of innovative resources that aim to transform teaching and learning, many of which take advantage of rapidly changing technology. And third, it is a time when colleges and universities are being asked to do more with less, in a climate of increased attention to affordability.

While participants reported leaving with new energy and armed with new information and tools, the symposium was not just a series of conversations. Its success is measured by the commitments made and actions taken after the event.  Near the end of the day, participants had the opportunity to gather with one another to discuss collaborations, partnerships, and commitments.  ED collected these written commitments and will follow-up with the participants to ensure that this symposium is a catalyst toward creating new momentum and broader action around innovation to drive productivity, quality and equity.

Tweets from the day:

Rosemarie Nassif is a special advisor to the Assistant Secretary in the Office of Postsecondary Education, and David Soo is policy adviser to the Under Secretary of Education

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Schools That Can

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Jim Shelton
Shelton Visits Berea Clay

Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton talks with students during a stop at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky as part of the Department's back-to-school bus tour.

For each of the last three years, Secretary Duncan has started the school year with a bus tour visiting schools and communities across the country to find what’s working in education and to hear the concerns, insights, and lessons learned from students, teachers, principals, parents, and the communities supporting them. It’s always a welcome grounding in “real education” — the kind that children and families experience everyday — versus the “education system” policymakers and pundits love to caricature and debate.

This year, I participated more fully than I have in years past — visiting schools, grantees, education reformers, and advocates in California, Missouri, and Kentucky.

In California, I watched a Sequoia High School (Redwood City) student, who entered the school as an English Learner, introduce the music video he produced with his classmates on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus to an audience of more than 500 attendees. Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, then shared anecdotes of individual students, whole classes, and entire schools achieving dramatic gains and fundamentally changing learning and teaching practices.

Shelton discussing eMints

Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton discussed eMINTS during a "Education Drives America" bus tour stop at the University of Missouri.

In Missouri, I visited the New Franklin School to see Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grantee eMINTS at work. Teachers and students were using relevant and engaging project-based and personalized learning powered by technology to improve student engagement, effort, and outcomes. A class of self-directed 5th-grade teams pursued Web quests on American Indian civilizations. High school juniors and seniors completed self-paced accounting courses. Teachers spoke of being renewed by the approach and the new tools. Everyone used words like “ownership,” “empowered,” and “independence” to describe the shift in the school’s learning culture. All of this was especially exciting after hearing from school and system leaders working hard to implement the program despite the challenges of decreased funding, lack of technology infrastructure, and burdensome regulation.

In Kentucky, I visited Sayre School, a high-performing and well-resourced independent school focused on building great character as well as providing rigorous learning opportunities. The students showed extraordinary poise and confidence as we discussed the relative strengths of their program and the infusion of technology as a new, but increasingly ubiquitous, tool. This visit served as an excellent benchmark as I traveled to rural Kentucky to visit the i3 Development and Promise Neighborhoods (PN) Implementation grantee, Berea College, to see their work at Clay County High School (CCHS).

Clay County suffers from all of the ills often associated with Appalachia; but CCHS has leveraged the PN and i3 grants to substantially increase the number of AP classes offered and multiply the number of students taking AP classes and, most importantly, passing AP exams with a score of 3 or better. They’ve used the PN grant to create more comprehensive and coherent student supports that have begun to reverse the dropout trend and increase college going.  Teachers and students spoke eloquently about the impact these efforts have had, not only on their practices, but also on their belief systems.

One student in particular helped me synthesize everything that I had seen in the past two weeks. As I was ending my visit at CCHS with a student roundtable, I asked the students what impacts the programs had on the school and them. They spoke about the access to more AP courses, the heroic efforts of the new academic specialists to keep kids in school, the impact of grant-funded college visits, and the difference tiny amounts of resources made to teachers who cared but had nothing to work with. Then one standout student I had met earlier in the day, Rex, said:

I know I talked about the AP classes; but that’s not the most important thing.  And, I know I talked about the resources—ROTC students finally having real equipment after having used brooms for years—but that’s not the most important thing. CCHS used to be an I-can’t-school… Now, we are an I-can-school… I can take AP courses. I can go to college. I can do better than my parents.

Evidenced-based programs, technology, professional development, funding — I firmly believe all these are important; but in the end, nothing is more powerful than schools, teachers, and students that believe they can.

The question that motivates me is, what combinations of tools, resources, and know-how can make every school an I-can-school?

Jim Shelton is assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education

Click here to keep up with news and other developments of the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) by receiving email alerts about new posts on the OII news page. 

Posted in Back To School Tour, Back to School Tour 2012, Innovation, Promise Neighborhoods, Success Stories | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Giving Teachers Tools to Stop Bullying: Free Training Toolkit Now Available

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Deborah Temkin

Over the past three years, at our annual Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summits, we have heard the same call by educators-– teachers want to help stop bullying, but they don’t know how. Most try to help, but few receive training on how to do so. There are bullying prevention trainings available for teachers, but many are very expensive or not based on the best available research.

Save and Respectful LogoThat is why the Department of Education and its Safe and Supportive Technical Assistance Center, set out to create a free, state-of-the-art training for classroom teachers on bullying. The two-part training aims to help teachers know the best practices to stop bullying on the spot and how to stop it before it starts.  The training toolkit consists of PowerPoints, trainer guides, handouts, and feedback forms that school districts, schools, and teachers can use free of charge. Both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers gave feedback on the modules and made suggestions on what teachers would find most useful.

The research-based training gives teachers practical steps to take to respond to bullying. These skills include how to deescalate a situation, find out what happened, and support all of the students involved. The training also shows the importance of building strong relationships in the classroom, as well as creating an environment respectful of diversity, in order to prevent bullying.

The classroom teacher toolkit is based in part on a toolkit specific to bus drivers, released in June 2011. Many states and school districts have used that toolkit; it has been used to train over 100,000 of the nation’s estimated 550,000 school bus drivers in the past year. Trainees have reported feeling better equipped to address bullying on their school buses following the training.

We hope that the districts, schools, and teachers will use this toolkit as a resource. When more people know how to stop bullying, the more likely we will be to ensure that all students are able to learn in a safe and supportive school.

Deborah Temkin is a Research and Policy Coordinator for Bullying Prevention Initiatives at the Department of Education

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The State of Education

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Cameron Brenchley
Arne_Press_Club

Secretary Duncan spoke on the state of education at the National Press Club. Official Department of Education photo by Joshua Hoover.

“States and districts, schools and communities are driving more change than ever before,” Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters during a speech at the National Press Club yesterday. “Educators at every level are being more and more creative — pairing good schools with struggling schools, creating smaller, more manageable districts, and building partnerships between both high schools and colleges – and between colleges and industries,” he said.

During his speech and follow-up question and answer, Duncan reflected on the Department’s recent Education Drives America cross-country back-to-school bus tour, as well as explained how far we’ve come in last three years, and how far the country still needs to go.

On Flexibility Under No Child Left Behind

Above all there is enormous enthusiasm at the state level to build more effective accountability systems through the waiver process we began last fall – and now affecting more than 60 percent of the schoolchildren in the country in 33 states – with about 10 more in the pipeline.

Waivers are not a pass on accountability – but a smarter, more focused and fair way to hold ourselves accountable. In exchange for adopting high standards and meaningful systems of teacher support and evaluation:

  • States set ambitious but achievable targets for every subgroup.
  • More children at risk – who were invisible under NCLB – are now included in state-designed accountability systems — including low-income students, English-language learners and students with disabilities.
  • Finally, local districts decide the most effective way to intervene in underperforming schools, instead of applying rigid, top-down mandates from Washington.

On Race to the Top

Our job — for the last three and a half years – has been to support that work – to support bold and courageous reform at the state and local level. That’s what Race to the Top was all about.

We offered the biggest competitive grants in our department’s history – and 45 states raised standards and 33 states changed laws – in order to compete and accelerate student achievement. In a fascinating lesson on the power of incentives, we have seen as much reform in states that didn’t receive a nickel as in states that received tens of millions of dollars.

The fact that 45 states have now adopted internationally benchmarked, college and career-ready standards is an absolute game-changer. Virtually the entire country has voluntarily raised expectations for our children.

On Strengthening Teaching

I also know that some educators feel overwhelmed by the speed and pace of change. Teachers I speak with always support accountability and a fair system of evaluation. They want the feedback so they can get better and hone their craft.

But some of them say it’s happening too quickly and not always in a way that is respectful and fair. They want an evaluation system that recognizes out-of-school factors and distinguishes among students with special needs, gifts and backgrounds.

They certainly don’t want to be evaluated based on one test score – and I absolutely agree with them. Evaluation must be based on multiple measures.

On Investing in Education

And the choice facing the country is pretty stark – we are at a fork in the road. Some people see education as an expense government can cut in tough economic times. President Obama sees education as an investment in our future – the best investment we can make, especially in tough economic times.

Duncan ended by calling for the country to unite behind the cause of public education and realize that the solutions won’t come from one party or ideology, but that all of us need to challenge and hold ourselves accountable.

Read the entire speech here, and watch the video from C-SPAN here.

Cameron Brenchley is director of digital engagement at the U.S. Department of Education

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From Farming to the Forefront of Education: A College President’s Story

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Julie Ewart
Rend Lake College President Holds a Tree

Rend Lake College President Terry Wilkerson demonstrates a process to agriculture students in a photo from his teaching days. Photos courtesy of Rend Lake College

As a teen growing up on his family’s 1,000-acre farm in southeastern Illinois, Terry Wilkerson had no plans to go college.

“At that point in my life, I didn’t see the value of an education.  I just needed to get to farming and to making a living,” said Wilkerson, recently named the president of Rend Lake College in Ina, Illinois, site of Special Assistant for Community College Sue Liu’s Sept. 19 visit during the Department’s back-to-school bus tour.

However, he never completely closed his mind to the possibilities of higher education. After much hounding by friends and family, Wilkerson registered for some classes at RLC.

“I got curious to see what it would do for me,” he explained. “The college was close to home and the class times were flexible. I could still farm.”

Wilkerson meets with others

Wilkerson, right, speaks with Special Assistant for Community Colleges Sue Liu and RLC Applied Science and Advanced Technology Division Chair Chris Nielsen during a Sept. 19 visit to Rend Lake College as part of the Back-to-School Bus Tour. Photo courtesy of Rend Lake College

For the first time, Wilkerson found himself in a room full of people who were really interested in developing a deeper understanding of agriculture, and he realized that he wanted that too. It was a good fit:  he went on to earn an associates degree in applied science at RLC; followed by a bachelor’s degree in plant and soil science and a master’s degree in agronomy, both from nearby Southern Illinois University.

He continued to farm as he pursued his college education, and successfully used knowledge he gained in school to improve his farming practices. Wilkerson soon realized that he wanted to help other farmers and future farmers to also thrive in the changing agricultural industry. He’d stayed in contact with RLC staff members, and soon landed a faculty position in the agriculture program.

“Teaching is a lot like farming. Every year there’s a new crop, and you help it grow,” said Wilkerson. “I enjoyed bringing practical lessons I learned on the farm to the classroom.”

After teaching for 11 years and then serving 4 years as RLC’s chair of the Applied Science and Technology Division, Wilkerson was selected by the college’s board to serve as its president, beginning this past July. While he’d never dreamed of achieving his current position as a teen, he’s found that the same fundamental lessons learned from a lifetime of farming help him in his role as the top executive of Rend Lake College.

“If it’s time to plant corn, it’s time to plant corn. You can’t be stagnant and do nothing,” said Wilkerson, who still farms. “Education is like that. If you stand still, you fall behind.

Julie Ewart is the Director of Communications and Outreach in ED’s Chicago Regional Office. 

Posted in Back To School Tour, Back to School Tour 2012, Community Colleges, Headlines, News, Teachers | 1 Comment

Intern at ED

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Guest Blogger

Do you have an interest in education policy analysis or research? In intergovernmental relations or public affairs? Does working with social media while learning about the role of the Federal government in education sound like your cup of tea?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, or if you think you might have a future in government or education, then an internship at the Department of Education could be for you.

Not only will an internship at ED provide an opportunity to learn first-hand about federal education policy while developing a variety of other skills, including writing, researching, communication, and time-management skills, but interns are also encouraged to participate in group intern events, such as brownbag lunches with ED officials, movie nights, and local tours. For many, one of the many advantages of an ED internship is the proximity to such historical and celebrated sites it provides via its location at our nation’s capital.

Secretary Duncan joins ED interns for a Q/A

Secretary Duncan took questions during a recent intern lunch meeting at ED. Official Department of Education photo by Leslie Williams.

ED accepts intern applications on a rolling year-long schedule, but due to the competitive nature of securing an internship at ED, applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. If you are interested in interning this upcoming spring term, there are three materials you must send in  before being considered for an interview:

    1. A cover letter summarizing why you wish to work at ED and stating your previous experiences in the line of education, if any. Include here what particular offices interest you, keeping in mind that due to the volume of applications received, you may not be awarded with your first-choice office upon acceptance.
    2. An updated resume.
    3. A completed copy of the Intern Application.

Once these three documents are finalized, prospective interns should send them in one email to StudentInterns@ed.gov with the subject line formatted as follows: Last Name, First Name: Spring Intern Application.

An internship at ED is one of the best ways a student can learn about education policy and working in the civil service, but it is not limited to this definition. Your internship at ED is where you will develop crucial workplace skills that will help you down whatever career path you choose, and it is also where you will meet fellow students like yourself who share your passions for education, learning, and engagement.

Click here for more information or to get started on your application today.

Alexandra Strott is a student at Middlebury College and a recent intern in ED’s Office of Communications and Outreach

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Strengthening the American Workforce through Innovation

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Patrick Kerr

St. Petersburg (Fla.) College engineering and technology student Tungo Harris has a plan: “I want to get gainfully employed — and I figure I will be after this — with a decent salary,” Harris told the Tampa Bay Times. Thanks to a new $15 million grant announced last month by U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at St. Petersburg, Harris, a Navy veteran who is recovering from a brain tumor, can now get help in fulfilling his plan.

Overall, $500 million in grants will go to almost 300 community colleges and universities around the country as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training initiative. The grants promote skills development and employment opportunities in fields such as advanced manufacturing, transportation and health care, as well as science, technology, engineering and math careers through partnerships between training providers and local employers.

The Department of Labor is implementing and administering the program in coordination with the Department of Education. The grants announced in September are the second installment of a $2 billion, four-year initiative.”These federal grants are part of the Obama administration’s ongoing commitment to strengthening American businesses,” Solis said.

“It’s a big deal,” St. Petersburg College President Bill Law said in the same Tampa Bay Times article. His college is leading a consortium of a dozen Florida colleges in developing programs to prepare workers for advanced manufacturing jobs. “Our goal is to take the Florida college system and see if we can build on some success across the state.”

Patrick Kerr works in the ED Office of Communications and Outreach’s Region VII office, based in Kansas City, Mo.

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A New, Single Home for ED Data

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Guest Blogger

Starting today, the data sets and content you’re used to seeing on data.ed.gov can be found on education.data.gov.

(Developers: Please note that the 16 available education data APIs were already hosted by data.gov. These URLs did not change and existing applications using these APIs should not be affected.)

Digital Strategy LogoWhy the move?

In addition to saving the costs associated with hosting and maintaining a separate education data website, merging the information on data.ed.gov into the existing Data.gov Education Community will allow researchers, developers, and interested members of the public to meet all their education data needs in one central location.

Originally, we created the separate data.ed.gov portal because we wanted to provide the public with advanced features and visualization tools that were not yet available on Data.gov. Today, the Data.gov Education Community not only fully supports visualization and mapping technologies, but it benefits from the continual addition of new enhancements, tools, and features. A key new tool is an API “wizard” that will make it faster and easier to create APIs for existing and upcoming open datasets, increasing the ways developers can interact with this data.

Continue reading →

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Top 5 Highlights from Education Drives America Tour

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Cameron Brenchley

After more than 100 events in 48 communities in 12 states, the Education Drives America bus tour came to a close last Friday at the Department’s plaza in Washington. Secretary Duncan wraps up the tour in the video below, and we’ve put together our top five highlights from the road.


Click here for an alternate version of the video with an accessible player.

 Top 5 Highlights (in no order of importance): 

Public-Private Partnerships Image

Deputy Secretary Tony Miller stopped at Continental Tire North America in Mt. Vernon, Ill., to discuss Continental’s successful partnership with Rend Lake College. During many of our stops we witnessed how communities are coming together for the benefit of students of all ages—and for their local economies. 

Outstanding Teachers Image

The Education Drives America tour brought top Education officials right into the classrooms of teachers across the country. With town halls, meet-and-greets and more than 50 roundtable discussions with teachers, we were reminded once again that teachers are truly nation-builders. At Emporia State University in Kansas, Secretary Duncan and National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel visited the National Teacher Hall of Fame and held a town hall with future educators. 

Shooting Hoops Image

It’s no secret that Secretary Duncan is partial to basketball, and there were plenty of opportunities to shoot hoops during the tour. In Denver and Richmond, Va., Duncan spoke of the importance of keeping active while highlighting the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative. Duncan also signs an official Department of Education basketball for each school he visits. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Student Voice Image

Nothing is a better reminder of why we come to work each day than meeting and listening to students. Students were part of our roundtables, town halls and classroom visits, and student bands, dance groups and choirs enlivened events all along the route. 

Education Drives America image

With more than 100 events during the Department’s Education Drives America back-to-school tour, we are more convinced than ever that education really does power our country, and that investing in students and educators is essential to a strong and prosperous nation. Here’s to a great school year for everyone!

Read about the entire tour by visiting www.ed.gov/bustour.

Cameron Brenchley is director of digital engagement and blogged and tweeted his way from coast to coast during ED’s annual back-to-school bus tour.

Posted in Back To School Tour, Back to School Tour 2012, Headlines, News, Schools and Community, Teachers | Leave a comment

Teachers@ED: Assistant Secretary Deb Delisle

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Cameron Brenchley
Deb Delisle at a bus tour stop

Assistant Secretary Deb Delisle speaks in Elko, Nevada during ED's back-to-school bus tour. Official Department of Education photo by Joshua Hoover.

Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education Deborah Delisle, says that after thirty-seven years in education, her “heart lies with kids everyday,” and is grounded in her role as a teacher.

Delisle joined the Department of Education in April after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), she directs, coordinates and recommends policy for programs designed to assist state and local education agencies with improving the achievement of elementary and secondary school students.

Teachers@ED LogoAssistant Secretary Delisle’s career has been dedicated to students across the country. Starting her elementary and middle school teaching career in Connecticut, she later moved to Ohio where she served as a gifted education specialist, curriculum director, elementary principal, associate superintendent and superintendent.

Delisle served as state superintendent of Ohio from 2008-2011, where she was instrumental in leading a successful application for ED’s Race to the Top Program.

With all of her experience, Delisle’s roots as a teacher remain a strong foundation for the decisions she makes each day. “When I think about the work we’re doing, and behind every piece of data,” she says, “there is the heart and soul of a child who wants someone to care about them.”

Click here to keep up to date with Assistant Secretary Delisle and OESE by receiving email updates.

Teachers@ED profiles some of the hundreds of current and former educators who work at the U.S. Department of Education, and how their experiences in schools inform their work for the agency.

Posted in Headlines, News, Teachers, Teachers at ED | 2 Comments

Institutions Commit to Providing Millions of Students with Easy-To-Understand Information About College Costs

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Arne Duncan

We know that students and their families face a difficult task in deciding where to enroll for higher education, and understanding the cost of college—and how to pay for it—can be daunting. Too often, students are left without a clear explanation of what the costs mean or how they compare to other colleges they are considering, and as a result, many students leave college with debt that they didn’t fully understand at the time they entered school.

While many financial aid award letters provide understandable information, some can be confusing, lacking clear distinctions between grants (which don’t have to be paid back) and loans (which do), as well as important information about outcomes like graduation rates and default rates. This confusion can make it difficult for students to decide which college is the right fit for them, best suited to their needs, priced affordably, and consistent with their career and educational goals.

In July, I sent a letter to college presidents nationwide, asking them to adopt a new Financial Aid Shopping Sheet clearly showing prospective students what a college education would cost. For prospective students, this model disclosure letter for financial aid offers helps explain the total cost of a program—including tuition and fees, the costs that are covered by federal loans and grants, the type and amount of financial aid they may qualify for, their estimated student loan debt upon graduation, and information about graduation rates. This information can help students easily compare financial aid packages offered by different institutions, and ultimately make an informed decision on where to invest in their higher education.

Our goal is to help students arrive at school each fall less worried about how they will pay for college, and more focused on how they will complete college. Institutions of higher education share that goal, and many have shown their support by adopting the Shopping Sheet for use as part of their financial aid award packages starting for the 2013-14 school year.

To date, 316 institutions serving over 1.9 million undergraduate students, or 10 percent of all undergraduates, have agreed to adopt the Shopping Sheet [MS Excel, 67K]. Of those schools who have signed on, about 43 percent are public institutions, 43 percent are for-profit institutions and 14 percent are private schools. Among the institutions that have voluntarily agreed to adopt the Shopping Sheet are several state college and university systems—including the University System of Maryland, the State University of New York System, the University of Massachusetts System, and the University of Texas System—as well as several institutions with large undergraduate populations, including Arizona State University, Miami Dade College, and the University of Phoenix online campus. All of the systems and institutions that committed to financial aid transparency at the June roundtable with Vice President Biden—including North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, Syracuse University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Vassar College—have also adopted the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet for the 2013-14 school year.

Additionally, to ensure that service members, veterans, spouses and other family members have the information, support and protections they deserve, in April 2012 the President signed an Executive Order establishing Principles of Excellence for Educational Institutions Serving Service Members, Veterans, Spouses, and Other Family Members. This Executive Order requires educational institutions receiving funding from federal military and veterans’ educational benefits to provide prospective students with the financial aid Shopping Sheet to help students understand the total cost of their education. Already, more than 2,900 institutions have agreed to implement the Principles of Excellence.

Students should not have to wait until after graduation to learn the size of their monthly student loan payment. Families choosing a college should have clear and comparable information, in a common format, to guide their choice. And no one should forego college because they think they cannot afford it. We will continue to work with the institutions that have already signed up to use the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet for the next school year, and we look forward to more colleges and universities committing to use this common-sense tool to provide students and parents with clear information about costs.

Arne Duncan is the U.S. Secretary of Education

Posted in College Completion, Headlines, News | Tagged , | 3 Comments