INDIANAPOLIS — If Toby Dewayne Daughtery writes a biography, the title will be “My Heroes at My Community College.”
His college: Pulaski Technical Collegein Arkansas. His heroes: Pulaski’s faculty and staff members who patiently explained financial aid and registration and in countless other ways helped him transform himself from a prison inmate into a straight-A student.
“If this is a dream, I pray no one wakes me up too soon,” Daughtery said during his alternately humorous and heart-wrenching speech at the opening of the 2011 Achieving the Dream (ATD) Strategy Institute this week.
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INDIANAPOLIS — Achieving the Dream educators this week received a boost from the Obama administration.
Leaders of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and thePresident’s Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities attended ATD’s Strategy Institute this week.
“On behalf of President Obama and our Education Secretary Arne Duncan, way to go—congratulations—we know the hard work you’ve been doing,” said Juan Sepúlveda, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, as he gave the thumbs up to the 1,400 people attending the institute.
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INDIANAPOLIS — A plenary discussion at the close of the 2011 Achieving the Dream (ATD) Strategy Institute on Friday was dominated by two 
topics: community colleges’ important role in addressing the nation’s workforce development needs and their role in ensuring the availability of public higher education.
Carol Lincoln, senior vice president of ATD Inc., urged ATD college leaders to set institutional completion goals to help produce their colleges’ share of the national goal of 5 million additional community college graduates by 2020. The 130 ATD colleges use data to develop strategies to close achievement gaps and increase the attainment of certificates and degrees.
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