Last week, President Barack Obama passed a new initiative directed at equaling the educational playing field for African-American children. The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans was signed and put into action Thursday, July 26th, aiming to improve educational outcomes for African Americans. The specific goals of the initiative are applicable from early childhood to adulthood. They include:

• Increasing access to, and participation in, early childhood programs that prepare African American children for success in school;

• Driving down the number of unnecessary referrals of black children to special education programs;

• Addressing disproportionate use of suspension and expulsion in schools; and

• Providing African American students with access to rigorous courses and effective teachers that are essential to preparing them for college and careers.

NAACP officials and high-profile civil rights leaders praised the move as a step in the right direction.

“For too long, the experience of far too many African American students in far too many places has been marred by school districts whose ongoing practices have failed our children,” Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in a statement. “If fully implemented, we are convinced the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans will make sure school discipline is fair, special education assignments are based on needs not race, and all of our nation’s most motivated students have fair access to advanced placement classes.”

To read additional support on Obama’s new initiative, read the entire article on EdWeek.