Neera Tanden Remarks to Press on Improving Student Success

As Prepared For Delivery:

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks so much for joining today’s call on improving student academic success.  

As we start the new school year, the focus of the Biden Harris Administration is ensuring every child, in every school, is succeeding academically. That means learning on grade every grade. 

There’s no doubt our kids and our schools have been through a lot these last few years. And that’s why we are laser-focused on ensuring our schools are improving and that they are providing a high-quality education to every single child.

The President is committed to working with parents to tackle critical issues and make sure they have a voice in their schools and in their children’s education.

As Secretary Cardona highlighted through his bus tour last week, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken a number of crucial actions to  help students thrive. These include:

• Ensuring schools had the resources they need to help all achieve academic success;
• investing in school-based mental health.
• bringing more tutors and mentors into schools; and
• building a pipeline of well-supported teachers.

While we’ve made progress, we are focused on student academic achievement. And that is why, today, we are announcing a new education agenda laser-focused on student success for every child.

The Department of Education’s new strategy will build on our past efforts and continue to support students’ academic success. The Department will take a number of steps.

Under our new plan, we’re providing at-risk kids with high-dosage tutoring, adding extended learning time, and increasing instructional capacity with high-quality professional development for teachers.

First, we will work to improve students’ reading and math outcomes by funding literacy interventions and elevating evidence-based practices to improve student outcomes.

Second, we will address the declines in student attendance by providing guidance to states on leading practices to address absenteeism and holding states accountable for monitoring absenteeism. Among the disruptions caused by the pandemic, we know that many students and families lost a sense of connection to their schools, and students are attending school less regularly

Third, we will expand the capacity of schools to deliver high-quality supports for students, such as high-dosage tutoring. For example, we’ll enhance the work of the President’s National Partnership for Student Success. This partnership has already brough-in more than 180,000 tutors and mentors into schools

And we will leverage the historic resources the President secured through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to address gun violence and students’ mental health.

With that, I will turn it over to my friend, Secretary Cardona, who will delve into detail on our strategy. Thank you, Secretary Cardona, for your leadership, which has been so crucial as we work to get our students back on track.