Category Archives: News

By: Frances W. Hopkins is Director of the Recognizing Inspiring School Employees Award, as well as Director of President’s Education Awards Program.

A charge: Shine a Light on the staff that have been designed to have such impact within the school walls. These staff are often not highlighted nor recognized nearly enough. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is thrilled, along with the RISE Coalition, to honor one extraordinary education support professional annually and to generate appreciation for all classified school employees under the Recognizing Inspiring School Employees (RISE) Award. This is the third year of the award, with nominations from governors and state education agencies, often working together, due by November 1 annually. 

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By: Ángel Gabriel Garcia, Student at Oxnard College

My name is Ángel Gabriel Garcia, and I am a proud first-generation community college student at Oxnard College. I was born and raised in Oxnard, California, a city that’s often ridiculed and overlooked due to its high concentration of immigrant families and poverty. The ugly and negative stereotypes I’ve heard about my community over the years have instilled a burning passion in me to prove the cynics wrong and show my community’s beauty. Thanks to my community college, I’ve been able to start doing just that. 

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Congratulations to the 2023 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, District Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees! The 2023 cohort, announced April 20th, includes 26 schools, 11 districts, and four postsecondary institutions. These honorees employ sustainability practices and policies to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and ensure effective environmental sustainability education. This year, two-thirds of honorees are schools and districts in underserved communities, illustrating that any school can adopt sustainability into their daily operations, wellness programs, and curriculum.

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By: Amy Loyd, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education

With the founding of Joliet Junior College near Chicago, Illinois in 1901, America’s community colleges have a long history of transforming lives and serving as on-ramps to economic and social mobility. Over the past 122 years, our nation’s community colleges have grown to become integral in the fabric of our education system, serving 30% of all postsecondary students. They are situated to be accessible to virtually every community across the country, rural to urban, our community colleges provide open access to students from all walks of life, including incumbent workers and adults seeking to upskill through credential and degree programs as well as youth—both in high school through dual enrollment, and after high school as they pursue higher education and career-connected learning. For all students, community colleges create seamless pathways to economic opportunity and financial stability.

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By: James Kvaal

As the Department of Education (Department) strives to make postsecondary education more affordable and student loans more manageable than ever before, we are also working to identify and remedy the root causes of unaffordable debts. President Biden has called for a postsecondary education system that’s not only more affordable, but more accountable to students, families, and taxpayers. For many families, an education beyond high school is among the most expensive and important purchases they will make in their lifetimes, as the quality and value of an individual’s postsecondary experience plays an immense role in their lifetime earnings and career options.  

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By Roberto Rodríguez, Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, and Kristina Ishmael, Deputy Director, Office of Educational Technology

During the U.S. Department of Education’s National Digital Equity Summit, Secretary Miguel Cardona emphasized that “interagency collaboration matters.” Siloing efforts to close the digital divide between different sectors can impede the capacity for collective, sustainable impact.

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The U.S. Department of Education has announced the launch of the Your Place in Space Challenge. This is the first challenge in the CTE Momentum series, an annual challenge series to prepare high school students for rewarding careers and increase access to career and technical education (CTE). The Your Place in Space Challenge invites high schools to submit designs for a product or service that will contribute to space missions and exploration.

Teams may pursue designs of their choice or find inspiration from one of four suggested areas of exploration — covering topics such as space debris, the International Space Station, space travel, and the environment. Submissions are due by 6:00 p.m. ET on October 30, 2023. An independent judging panel will review submissions based on the challenge selection criteria and recommend up to 10 winners, who will each receive at least $5,000. The Department anticipates announcing the winners and launching the next annual challenge in early 2024.

Helping Students Pursue Space Careers

The space industry is expected to triple in size over the next 30 years, employing over 1.5 million people and generating $780 billion in economic activity by 2050. From welders and cybersecurity experts to communications professionals and botanists, space careers promise higher-than-average wages and strong growth expectations over the coming decades. But space careers demand specialized skills — and students need new opportunities to build skills for future success. CTE programs are uniquely positioned to meet these needs because they offer students hands-on opportunities to apply knowledge and skills that they learned in a classroom setting.

“Our students need interdisciplinary opportunities to gain the skills critical for valuable careers — and our teachers deserve support in creating these inspirational educational programs. Through the Your Place in Space Challenge, the U.S. Department of Education is helping students connect the dots between the skills they build in CTE programs and fulfilling careers in the space industry.”

— Dr. Amy Loyd, Assistant Secretary, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education

Learn How to Get Involved

Get started by exploring the curated resources for inspiration on how to bring the Your Place in Space Challenge into classrooms during the 2023-2024 school year. To learn more about the challenge and receive updates on all CTE Momentum challenges, visit YourPlaceinSpaceChallenge.com and sign up for the series newsletter.

By Nasser H. Paydar, Assistant Secretary, Postsecondary Education

In September 2021, the Department announced it was conducting a review of regulations related to First Amendment freedoms, including religious freedoms, which impose additional requirements on its higher education institutional grant recipients. The Department’s review of these regulations focused on ensuring several key elements, including First Amendment protections, nondiscrimination requirements, and the promotion of inclusive learning environments for all students. As noted in this blog post, the Department believes that protecting First Amendment freedoms, including protections for free speech and the free exercise of religion, on public university and college campuses is essential.

After its thorough review,  the Department today issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to rescind a portion of the regulation related to religious student organizations because the Department believes it is not necessary in order to protect the First Amendment right to free speech and free exercise of religion given existing legal protections, it has caused confusion about schools’ nondiscrimination requirements, and it prescribed a novel and unduly burdensome role for the Department in investigating allegations regarding public institutions’ treatment of religious student organizations. We have not seen evidence that the regulation has provided meaningfully increased protection for religious student organizations beyond the robust First Amendment protections that already exist, much less that it has been necessary to ensure they are able to organize and operate on campus.

Where complex questions over the First Amendment arise, Federal and State courts are best equipped to resolve these matters. In its proposed rule, the Department is proposing to return to this longstanding practice of deferring to courts. If public institutions of higher education (IHEs) do discriminate against religious student organizations on the basis of the organizations’ beliefs or character, such organizations can and do seek relief in the courts, which have longstanding expertise in and responsibility for protecting rights under the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses. Thus, while the Department certainly shares the view that public institutions should not treat religious student organizations less favorably than other student organizations, we do not, at this time, believe that a threat of remedial action with respect to the Department’s grants helps achieve this goal.

Today, the Department also issued a request for information on other portions of the rule related to public institutions’ compliance with the First Amendment and private institutions’ compliance with their stated policies and procedures on free speech and free inquiry. The Department is seeking additional input from stakeholders on the impact of these portions of the regulations, including whether they have had any beneficial or detrimental effects.

We encourage stakeholders and the public to submit comments through the public comment process.  The Department’s proposed rescission and request for information will each be open for public comment for 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.  The unofficial version of the proposed rescission is available here and the request for information is available here.

This proposed recission does not alter the Department’s commitment to religious freedom, which is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a fundamental human right that contributes to the vibrancy, diversity, and strength of our nation.  This proposed rescission also does not alter the Department’s commitment to emphasize the importance of First Amendment protections, including religious freedom protections, at public IHEs. The Department will continue to encourage all IHEs to protect students’ opportunities to associate with fellow members of their religious communities, to share the tenets of their faith with others, and to express themselves on campus about religious and nonreligious matters alike.