[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 160 (Wednesday, December 12, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1913]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUSSLYNN ALI

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CHAKA FATTAH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 12, 2012

  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and thank a 
tireless advocate for all of America's children, Russlynn Ali, 
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, United States Department of 
Education. Ms. Ali has recently transitioned from the Department into a 
new role and I would like to take the opportunity to share with this 
body the impressive accomplishments of the Office for Civil Rights 
under her leadership.
   First and foremost, I would like to thank Ms. Ali for all that she 
has done to see the Equity and Excellence Commission draft a final 
report. I am confident that this document will provide a useful 
framework for policymakers, advocates and families at every level to 
create a more equitable and excellent system of public education that 
draws on the skills and talents of every American child. The 
Commission's success is because of the hard work of Russlynn Ali.
   While revitalizing an underutilized federal office, Ms. Ali has led 
the Office for Civil Rights in an impressive direction, supporting 
states, school districts and schools in providing the equal access to 
education every child deserves. During her tenure, the Office launched 
over 100 compliance reviews many of which addressed first-of-their-kind 
issues and all of which were innovative in their comprehensiveness, 
scope, and approach. They entered into hundreds of robust resolution 
agreements that, with aggressive monitoring, will truly eradicate 
discrimination at its roots. They revamped technical assistance--
conducting an average of 315 activities a year over the last four 
years, up from about 185 in 2008. They released 10 comprehensive Dear 
Colleagues and guidance documents, all dealing with urgent issues, and 
revamped them to include detailed application sections--guidances that 
advocates, superintendents and college presidents have referred to as 
``landmark'' and ``historic.'' The Office for Civil Rights made the 
opportunity gap data come alive with the transformed Civil Rights Data 
Collection. Now the CRDC site gets about 9,900 visits every month.
   I ask this body to join me in thanking Russlynn Ali for all that she 
has done for America's young people and wishing her well on her next 
endeavor.

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