Speeches

Under Secretary Martha Kanter’s Remarks to Women Administrators in Higher Education

I am thrilled to be here today at WAHE conference and to address a group of women who share my priorities.

First I would like to start with the story of how I got my present job at the US Department of Education.

Remarks of Joanne Weiss to the Annual Meeting of the American Diploma Project Network

Thank you for inviting me here today.

HBCUs and Higher Education: Beyond the Iron Triangle

Thank you very much, John. John Wilson is a forceful and thoughtful advocate for HBCUs—and he already has begun to reinvigorate the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

From Compliance to Innovation

Good morning. It's a pleasure to speak to America's Choice Superintendent's Symposium. The National Center on Education and the Economy, which helped father America's Choice, has been at the forefront of efforts to develop school improvement models that align rigorous standards and assessments.

Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks to the National Council of La Raza

I realize that I am speaking at the end of a conference where you've already heard from a roster of impressive speakers. I am going to try to keep my comments brief. Adlai Stevenson once said that the best after-dinner speech he ever heard was: "Waiter, I'll take the check."

The Race to the Top Begins

Today is a great day—not just for those of you here to listen to President Obama in a few minutes but for tens of thousands of teachers, parents, principals, school superintendents, and lawmakers across the country who have devoted their energy, their passion, and their commitment over the years to improving our nation's schools.

Deputy Under Secretary Robert Shireman's Remarks at the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators

Thank you for the generous introduction. As someone who has spent much of a career immersed in federal education policy, it is a thrill to have a large audience of people who won't bolt for the door if I talk about things like ISIRs, dependency overrides, and Experimental Sites.

Partners in Reform

Good morning. Thank you for having me and thank you for hosting one of our Listening and Learning events. We embarked on this tour to hear from people in classrooms and schools—people who are facing educational challenges and finding solutions.

Turning Around the Bottom Five Percent

The secretary introduced his speech with an overview of his Listening and Learning Tour and a summary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He occasionally deviated from this prepared text.

Today, I want to focus on the challenge of turning around our chronically low-achieving schools. These schools have failed to make progress year after year.

Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the Interagency Committee on Disability Research

Thank you so much. I'm really pleased to be here, and I will be pretty brief, I know I'm the warm up for Kareem. I want to thank you all for your collective efforts and thinking about doing business differently. And it has just been amazing to me as we have gotten started here, this idea of collaboration, how critically important it is for everything that we do.