The
Need to Reauthorize No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
By US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
Few education issues will have as great an impact on the civic and economic
future of our country as the reauthorization of NCLB. We continue to hear
critics of NCLB saying that our focus on reading and math distracts from
learning in other subjects. How will students succeed in history or science
without mastering reading and math? We all know that reading and math are
requisite gateways to learning other subjects, and we are seeing more and more
evidence of that.
The new NAEP data show that young students are making gains in both history and
civics. The report on U.S. History shows increased scores across the board and
a narrowing achievement gap in the 4th grade. Similarly, in the report on
civics, 4th grade students showed improved scores and a narrowing gap between
white and Hispanic students. These reports confirm what common sense tells us:
students with stronger reading skills will be better able to read and comprehend
history and other subjects.
I’ve been working with President Bush on education issues like these for a long
time. Much has changed since our days in Texas, but when it comes to education,
we continue to be guided by the same core principles: first, scientific research
must be used to inform our education practices, policies, and investments. The
Reading First program grew out of twenty years of research and now helps two
million elementary school students make real gains in fluency and
comprehension.
Second, parents know what’s best for their children, especially now that they
are armed with data and information. I’m speaking as the Secretary of Education
and also as the mom of two school-age daughters. Because we believe in the
wisdom of parents and families, we have done more than any previous
Administration to support a robust expansion of school choice options. Thanks
to the first-ever federally funded Opportunity Scholarship program, more than
1,800 Washington DC students from economically disadvantaged families have been
given the chance to attend 58 private schools. We have also supported the
charter movement with significant resources for school start-ups and
facilities. Charters act as laboratories for best practices.
Three, we need standards, and folks at the
State and local level should set them. I am not—repeat, not—trying
to establish Federal standards and neither is NCLB. But we are insisting upon
local standards, for which schools must be accountable.
Four, teachers make the single
biggest difference in getting results for kids [Please see the
centerfold of Education
Update pages 12-13: emphasis added], so we must do everything we can
to get excellent teachers in our schools. We need qualified teachers to deliver
a rigorous curriculum that challenges students. NCLB sets a floor for
achievement, not a ceiling.
The old solution to education challenges was to spend money and cross our
fingers. Now, we can find out what actually works because we are measuring.
It’s become a favorite refrain of mine, “What gets measured, gets done.” I’m
even thinking about getting a tattoo.
The basic premise behind No Child Left Behind is that we expect results for
Federal investments. Once some children were pushed to the margins, but this
legislation set an historic goal to have every child reading and doing math on
grade level by 2014.
We are already seeing progress in the early grades where we have focused our
efforts. Consider the fact that according to the NAEP our younger readers have
made more progress in five years than in the previous 28 years combined. We had
a flat-line, and then, lo and behold, it started to pick up about five years
ago.
Our work is not done. High school students have yet to see the gains that our
young students have shown, and we must focus on the problem of turning around
underperforming schools that have failed to make adequate yearly progress for
several years in a row. But we are in a better place to tackle these challenges
because of NCLB. Now, all 50 states have accountability plans, and we have
learned some lessons that will help guide us.
For example, our reauthorization proposals will increase options to turn around
chronically underperforming schools. We propose to give superintendents and
local officials more authority to make decisions about how their districts are
run and who they’re hiring. This includes changing the rules and incentives to
get the best teachers in these needy schools, regardless of limitations created
by collective bargaining agreements. In addition, our proposals would allow
local officials to reinvent struggling schools as public charters, regardless
of arbitrary state caps.
For students caught in these schools, we want to create more choices, from
enhanced free tutoring to the option of attending another public or private
school through Promise Scholarships.
As part of NCLB reauthorization, we are also focusing on strengthening our high
schools. We must change the fact that half of our Hispanic and African American
students drop out of high school and only 9 percent of low-income students go
on to earn college degrees by age 24. In New York City, there are more than
ninety high schools where graduation is a 50/50 shot.
Our high schools often fail to supply our students with the knowledge they need
to be good citizens and equip them with the tools they need to succeed in
college and in an ever more dynamic workforce. That’s why we propose to emphasize
science, math, and technology, expand access to AP courses, and train more good
teachers to teach them.
We will also do more to link high school courses with college expectations and
employer needs. And we propose to build on the progress of our nation’s
governors in calling for more accurate graduation rates.
If you’re committed to turning around our chronically underperforming schools,
we must renew NCLB this year.
If you’re committed to fixing our high schools—reforming the drop out
factories that threaten the civic and economic future of our country—then
we must renew NCLB this year.
And if you’re committed to preserving the momentum for choice, local control,
and flexibility, then we must renew NCLB this year.
We have a moral responsibility to give every
student the opportunity to achieve. Only a good education can build the skills,
habits of mind, and knowledge for children to grow into productive citizens.
This idea goes back to our founding, and is part of what has always made
America a place of innovation, durable democracy, and big dreams.#
Remarks delivered
at the Manhattan Institute Education Reform Conference in NYC.
