Will Hold Roundtable with Community Organizations on Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; Host Student and Parent Discussions on Importance of College

JACKSON, Miss—Alberto Retana, U.S. Department of Education's director of community outreach, will visit Jackson, Miss., on Thursday, Sept. 2, to meet with community-based organizations to discuss reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Department's reinvigorated Civil Rights Office. The meeting will take place at 1 p.m. at the NAACP-Mississippi Branch, 1017 JR Lynch St.

Later that afternoon, Retana will discuss college access and completion with youth and parents. The youth listening session will take place at 4 p.m., and the parent session will begin at 5:30 p.m. Retana will engage both groups in a discussion on how schools, family and community can work together to establish and promote a culture where college graduation is the norm rather than the exception. Both discussions will take place at Brinkley Middle School, 3535 Albermarle Rd.

The youth session is part of a National Youth Listening Tour that engages students and uses their feedback to inform federal policies on turnaround strategies for low-performing schools, enhance family engagement to support student achievement, improve graduation rates, and promote efforts to meet the President's national goal of once again leading the world in college completion by 2020.