Dana Mitra, associate professor of education policy studies in the College of Education at Penn State, participated in a national education conference at the White House on March 17, at the invitation of First Lady Michelle Obama.
The conference, “Beating the Odds: Successful Strategies from Schools & Youth Agencies that Build Ladders of Opportunity,” is part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative, and features keynote speakers addressing education policy, research and reform. First Lady Obama will give the opening welcome.
The conference will highlight schools and youth initiatives with proven results in moving low-income, vulnerable youth from significant poverty, homelessness or institutional situations — such as foster care and juvenile justice — into successful adulthood. The day will focus on unusually effective youth organizations and schools with decades-long track records that have enabled young people who grew up in challenging neighborhoods and institutional contexts to imagine, reach for and achieve lives different from those around them when they were growing up. Sessions will explore successful approaches to "Beating the Odds" operating in diverse settings — schools, youth organizations, neighborhoods and communities.