This letter to the editor by Secretary Margaret Spellings appeared in the Chicago Tribune on December 5, 2005.

This is in response to "Some schools to get leeway over reforms; 10 states could shift how they measure student progress" (News, Nov. 19). The article missed the mark. The new growth model pilot I recently announced holds schools to the same high standards and fits perfectly with the bright-line principles of No Child Left Behind — annually assessing students, reporting data by student groups and closing the achievement gap by 2014.

When we passed No Child Left Behind, we made a commitment to ensure all children-regardless of their race, income or zip code-are on or above grade level by 2014. Growth models can help states measure the progress schools make from year to year and whether students are improving fast enough to meet the 2014 goal.

A growth model is not a way around higher standards. It is a way for states that are already on the right track to strengthen accountability. In fact, the only states eligible for the pilot are ones that are already raising achievement through following the bright lines of the law. These states are proving that we can leave no child behind.

And we must not — and will not — back away from this important goal.

Margaret Spellings
U.S. Secretary of Education