This years summit theme centers around the key question: How can we meet President Obama’s goal of leading the world in college completion by 2020? President Barack Obama has set a goal that by 2020 the United States lead the world in college completion. In response to the presidential goal this summer the the ED conducted a National Youth Listening Tour to engage youth in a conversation on what it will take to meet the President’s goal. The tour, which met with more than 1800 middle and high school students from across the country. Now the ED brings the question and tour to head as they seek to leverage the voices of America’s youth to help shape education strategies which will enable all youth to get on track to achieve their high school and postsecondary credentials. Following the summit the ED will take the viewpoints and ideas they heard from youth directly to senior administration officials, and allow students to plan ongoing youth-led, youth-directed efforts which will continue after the summit.
While the summit registration is now full, it did so in only 48 hours, students can also participate by hosting a “Watch Party” with other students and they can also sending questions via e-mail to robert.gomez@ed.gov or by posting on the Education Departments Facebook page for the summit.