Still, the president spent mounds of political capital pushing policies designed to pressure schools to help minority youth, and «it puts him in a difficult position to be signing onto something that clearly empowers states to be less aggressive in addressing inequity,» said Peter Cunningham, former assistant secretary at the Education Department and a past adviser to Secretary Arne Duncan. (politico.com)
Speakers included former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, Academy Award - winning actor Matt Damon and Damon's mother, Nancy Carlson Paige, a former Massachusetts public school teacher. (huffingtonpost.com)
The U.S. team consisted of Johnson, former U.S Secretary of Education Dick Riley, former Assistant Secretary Susan Sclafani, Ohio Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney, and former San Francisco Public School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. (gse.harvard.edu)