Secretary Duncan speaks at Center’s 5th Anniversary Breakfast.
Calls ACI’s Center for Success in High-Need Schools,
“an example, nationally;” lauds ACI’s “collective leadership.”
More than 250 Illinois educators, business leaders, policy makers and funders gathered Friday, September 25, 2009 for the 5th Anniversary Breakfast of ACI’s Center for Success in High-Need Schools, featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the inaugural presentation of the ACI-Arne Duncan Awards for Educational Equity.
Secretary Duncan told the crowd that ACI’s Center for Success in High-Need Schools is, “not just an example here but an example nationally of people from many different walks of life, the business community, many foundations here today, schools of higher ed, local school districts, parents, teachers all saying that our children deserve better, are saying that -- all saying that our children deserve the best, our children deserve great teachers who are going to stay with them for the long haul….So thank you for your collective leadership and sense of partnership and collaboration. Thank for the opportunities that you're giving to children in communities around this state who historically haven't had them, and as we try and improve the country, I think there's so many great lessons to learn here.”
The ACI-Arne Duncan Awards for Educational Equity, which recognize individuals who reflect the Secretary’s commitment to equal education for all American children, were presented to Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University; Barbara Eason-Watkins, Chief Education Officer of Chicago Public Schools (CPS); and Linda Lenz, founder and publisher of Catalyst Chicago, an award-winning print and online news magazine that covers Chicago school reform; Ernesto Matias (Greenville College ‘89), principal of Wells Community Academy in Chicago; Maria Zavala (University of St. Francis ’06), 2nd grade bilingual teacher at Parks Cultural Studies Academy, in Joliet; and Eliseo Martinez, a North Central College senior (’10) majoring in music education.
In accepting her award, Linda Darling-Hammond noted, “What the research shows is precisely what ACI is doing here in your inspiring set of initiatives in Illinois. ACI’s work should inform and lead the nation. If all colleges would follow this example, and all policymakers would take on the courageous and necessary step of equalizing resources across schools, we could provide every child in this nation a right to learn. And I thank you for taking up the charge for demonstrating what is possible, for leading the way so that others all across the nation can follow.”
Learn More.
Case Study: Lake Forest College
Case Study: Quincy University
Case Study: University of St. Francis
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