Remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige
Summit on the 21st Century Workforce, June 20, 2001
MCI Center, Washington, DC

MR. PAIGE: Thank you, Mr. Guteras. Also thank you, Madam Secretary, my friend. Thank you for hosting this conference. It's a wonderful idea. Thank you for allowing me to have the opportunity to participate.

Last month, the House of Representatives passed the most sweeping reform of federal education programs since 1965. And last week, the Senate passed a similar bill, with overwhelming majorities of both parties - 384 to 45 in the House, and 91 to 8 in the Senate. The president and Congress achieved education reform that was not a Republican idea, not a Democratic reform idea, but an American one, for all of us. Both bills, however, contain the president's pillars, the pillars around which his plan is built. And I don't use these words lightly, but I think these pillars will reform the very culture of public education and education in general in our country. Fix it so every child will have an opportunity to learn, and that no child will be left behind.

There are pockets of excellence as far as schooling is concerned, across the United States. There are great schools in specific communities where children who attend these great schools have excellent opportunities to grow. And these great schools are great because of the work of great teachers and great principals and parents and community leaders. Pockets of excellence.

But pockets of excellence won't serve the need of this great country. We need a system, because every child can't attend these pockets. We must fix it so every child will have an opportunity to learn. Given the new realities of our new economy, the new demographics, and the persistent reality that there is a wide and growing achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers. Given these realities, we need to find ways to change.

We need to change the culture, which means moving our system of education from the point where just a system is supported to the point where the children are supported. The needs of the system gives way to the needs of the children. Change in the culture of education means assuring success by measuring success. Measure academic performance. Measuring success by performance, not measuring success by spending.

Most of all, it means providing so no child is left behind. No child left behind is a bold goal. It's not just a statement of pious sentimentality; it is a very bold goal. No society in the history of mankind has ever tried this. In fact, many societies deliberately sought children and say these can and these can't. No society has attempted to educate a hundred percent of the kids. And that's what we're trying to do. Even those that now sometime are described as "hard to teach." A phrase that I hate to hear. One that we must get rid of.

In truth, too many of our children just haven't been taught well. That's why they're hard to teach. Many don't fit in the system because the system has left them out. Too many children don't get to enjoy the simple pleasure of reading because they can't read. And too many children can't do simple calculations because they've never been taught math. Now we need to bring these children back into the system, put them on track to stay in school and to be successful and receive a quality education.

We need to prepare our children for the work force of the 21st century. And if our schools are doing that, we need to support them. And we need to hold them accountable. Accountable means accepting the responsibility for student growth. Accountability means taking it upon yourself to say that we, the school, can cause a difference, notwithstanding the sociological barriers that they bring to us.

Now, the first pillar of such a foundation for change is accountability. We should measure our success by performance, not by spending. Outputs, not by inputs. To know what is working, states will test each child every year in Grades 3 through 8, in math and reading. And evaluate their progress against state standards. Every publicly traded company in this country reports results to its investors every quarter. Is it not asking too much for our schools to report annually on their results?

One reason to identify and reward the schools is so that we can model those schools - use other schools to model after those schools. Excellent teachers and excellent principals can be identified. We need to model our teaching methods and our school operations by the experience of these very successful and best schools. Test results could also give parents information and in giving them information, give them control. Some parents don't know their children are not doing well. They won't know that until they get the report card at the end of the year. That's too late. Some parents don't know if their school is performing well. They won't know that till later, either, till the end of the year, and that's too late.

President Bush supported annual testing in Texas, of which I was a part, and we used our accountability system to elevate the performance of everyone in the system. Such assessments give us objective, reliable information about the performance at all levels. The child, the class, the school, the district, the state - all levels will know how they are performing.

In a corporation, you might look at the balance sheet to make this determination. In a city government, you might deal with response time of ambulances or you might deal with crime rate data. When it comes to schools, however, what should we measure? Should we measure dropout rate? Of course we should. But it's insufficient. It doesn't tell us what we're looking for as far as student learning is concerned. Per pupil spending. Is that important? Obviously, we should measure that. But that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for student growth. And so we need to measure that. To evaluate a school's progress fairly in educating its students to state standards, we must test every student every year, grades three through eight, in math and science - math and reading.

The President's plan has three other pillars - flexibility in local control, allowing the people closer to the problem to make the decisions. Getting rid of as much of this federal bureaucracy as we can. And red tape. And allowing those at the scene to make the decisions. We can trust them to make good decisions. Expand parental choice. Giving parents more options. Nothing is more powerful for changing how schools operate than a motivated parent. Motivated parent, based on good, reliable information. And using what works, not trial and error but using scientifically based systems that have proven to be effective, so that we know that if these systems are carried out right that children will learn. Those are the great pillars of this change.

Now, after the House and Senate has had a chance to confer, and the president signs the final version of this bill, we in the Department of Education will turn our attention to putting the plan into effect, and making sure that the congressional intent is carried out. But, as we do so, we must keep in mind that although we are now ensuring that no other children are left behind, we must keep in mind some have already been left behind. And so we'll have to turn our attention to addressing some of those who've been left behind, because over the past 30 years our system has not performed in a way we wished for them to have performed. Some of these children are now in our work force, who have been left behind. Or are just entering the work force. And others are trying to get into the work force. But all have been held back by skills that they - because they weren't taught and they've been held back by knowledges that they didn't get.

When I talk about putting the president's plan into effect, observers sometimes ask me, "What are you going to do for the people who've already been left behind?" And we tend to answer that question. That's why I'm so delighted to join the Secretary of Labor, the Honorable Elaine Chao, in a joint effort that we're embarking upon today, with an important memorandum of understanding. Today our own departments, the Department of Labor and the Department of Education, will create a partnership to serve the adult - especially young adult - population, who need skill. The memorandum of understanding we sign today will bring the departments together, to give workers better access to better jobs through better education. (Applause)

Thank you. Now, Secretary Chao has graciously allowed me to kind of leak some of the plan, and what is going to happen here. She can come up here and join me as I - okay. This joint effort will consist of three main parts. The first part is an assessment and referral part. An assessment and referral part, we will assess the reading and math needs for local communities and local labor pools, to determine what their actual needs are. With this assessment in place, we will take the next step to be able to refer workers to available resources in that market so that they can have their skills deficits changed.

The second part is to help workers get high school diplomas. We'll work to form a partnership between Job Corps centers and public schools, to - (Applause) Thank you. Good idea. To increase our adult access to high school diplomas, including through charter schools, through distance learning, and through online courses.

And the third part is the technical assistance part. We'll serve as a resource, the Department of Education will serve as a resource for state and local education agencies and work force investment boards. We'll become one-stop career centers, so that adult education and literacy needs can be met. We'll offer technical assistance through curriculum development programs, program development, modification of existing programs, partnerships, and expansion of existing programs. For example, if a state wants to add a program to its high school to address adult needs, we'll be there to help. We'll be able to provide assistance with the teaching, with the curriculum, with the evaluation. If teachers need help finding better ways to teach students who are not performing well, we can be there with existing scientific based methods to assist them, state-of-the-art technical assistance.

But while the task of making no child left behind a reality has just begun in the Department of Education, it's never too late to help every adult catch up, and it's never too late to teach those who've never been taught.

Secretary Chao, thank you for working with me and allowing the Department of Education to join you in this great effort. We admire your commitment to the American worker, and we're here to assist you in any way you see fit. Thank you so much.