Secretary Arne Duncan sat in on a class while visiting L.G. Pinkston High School in Dallas. Official Department of Education photo by Paul Wood.
Secretary Arne Duncan traveled to Dallas on Tuesday, where he visited L.G. Pinkston High School and addressed business and civic leaders working to prepare Dallas’s students for college and careers.
While visiting classrooms with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles, Duncan praised the progress made by Dallas ISD in raising graduation rates and taking a comprehensive approach to improving low-performing schools, but he noted that there is still much work to do.
Pinkston is part of a new cradle-to-graduation partnership among the school district, Southern Methodist University and nonprofit organizations to boost academic progress by increasing early childhood educational opportunities, improving teaching and learning and engaging parents in their children’s development.
Duncan offered his support to “help Dallas achieve that ambitious but extraordinarily important goal of becoming the best urban district in the nation.”
Dallas ISD is also among 61 finalists announced earlier this week for the Department of Education’s $400 million Race to the Top-District competition. Read more.
Great to see the hard work of Principal Villegas, teachers & students at @dallasschools‘ Pinkston HS- a school on the rise.
— Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) November 27, 2012
Following his visit to Pinkston, Secretary Duncan spoke on the condition of the nation’s education system at a luncheon hosted by Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas.
“I fundamentally believe that education is an investment, not an expense,” Duncan said. He also urged stronger public-private partnerships in local communities throughout the country, applauding the collaboration of Dallas’s business, civic and education sectors and saying that we all need to work together to improve education.
Duncan closed out his trip by meeting with the reporters and editors at the Dallas Morning News. Watch a video of the meeting here.