Canton resident attends White House summit

Gary Kaplan, the executive director of JFYNetWorks and a Canton resident, joined a select, invitation-only group of 500 college presidents, superintendents, nonprofit executives, and other education leaders from every corner of the country in Washington, D.C., for a White House summit on college opportunity December 4. Kaplan led a team including Middlesex Community College that is planning a statewide college readiness initiative.

Gary Kaplan (right) with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Called the White House College Opportunity Day of Action, the gathering was designed to support the president’s commitment to partner with higher education, elementary and secondary education, business leaders and nonprofits to help more students prepare for and graduate from college in order to reach the goal of leading the world in college attainment. The conference was addressed by President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro.

“No educational goal is more important today than graduating from college,” Kaplan said. “As the president said, we need an educated workforce for both moral and economic reasons. Every young person deserves the opportunity to reach his or her dream, and from the economic perspective, we need all our young people in the workforce at a skilled level. We’re facing a shortage of skilled workers. It’s the right thing to do, but it’s also the necessary thing.”

“We want every high school student to graduate fully college ready,” Kaplan added. “That means able to pass the Accuplacer or any other standard colleges might use to measure skills. We’re all here today to translate our values into concrete commitments. We all agree that college readiness is the goal of secondary education.”

JFYNetWorks is a Boston-based nonprofit that establishes and manages blended learning programs in high schools, community colleges, and community agencies. The focus is on bringing all high school graduates to the skill level required by colleges for admission to credit-earning courses. The goal is to significantly reduce the number of non-credit remedial courses students are required to take.

Summit participants were asked to commit to new action in several areas of college opportunity. The JFYNetWorks team, including Kaplan, Middlesex Provost Philip Sisson, and Malden High School Principal Dana Brown, the president of the Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators’ Association, is working on a statewide network of high school-community college partnerships based on the JFYNetWorks model of college readiness.

President Obama opened his remarks by noting the growing divergence between those who have the skills required by today’s economy and those who don’t. He said that broad-based mass education is what drove the U.S. economy to world leadership.

”Education is an investment in human capital,” he asserted. “It’s both a moral and an economic issue. When we give young people the opportunity to chase their dreams, we’re investing in our collective future.”

He said that some form of post-secondary education is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity. “Our higher education system is one of the things that makes America exceptional. People from all over the world want to come here to study. Our own young people should have that opportunity too. The path to college begins long before students come to the campus. That’s why community-K12-higher education collaboration is so critical.”

He concluded by saying we need to restore a sense of common purpose. “All young people should have access to the possibility of success. We can’t guarantee equal outcomes, but we can provide equal opportunity to succeed. It’s a big challenge, but big challenges should galvanize our country to rise to meet unmet demands. This is a big challenge, but a solvable one. Today’s summit is a step toward that solution.”

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Posted by Canton Citizen on Dec 11 2014. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.