Local Educator to Participate in White House Meeting

Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendent Darryl Adams and other educators will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House Wednesday to discuss connecting students with technology

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also will participate in the discussion -- dubbed “ConnectED to the Future.”

Adams told City News Service that participants were chosen based on their focus on using technology and working with others to change education and give students “a 21st century teaching and learning environment.”

“I am honored to represent the good people of our school district and to support the president’s call to action,” he said. “We as educators and as a freedom-loving people have a moral obligation to ensure that we ‘eliminate the digital divide’ and ‘leave no child offline.”’

Adams, who left Sunday and returns Thursday, will blog and post on Twitter from the event.

The meeting builds on Obama’s 2013 ConnectED Initiative, which aims to connect 99 percent of students to high-speed Internet and “empower teachers with the technology they need to transform teaching and learning,” according to the White House. This fall, the administration started the Future Ready Pledge, in which superintendents commit to “innovative” teaching using technology, and to work with other school districts to develop best practices.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Obama will host a digital pledge signing ceremony with the superintendents present and those participating remotely, according to the White House.

--City News Service

--Image via Wikimedia Commons