This letter to the editor by Assistant Deputy Secretary Nina Rees appeared in the Washington Times on December 8, 2005.

More choices, higher standards, better results. That is the state of education in America four years after passage of the No Child Left Behind Act [NCLB]. But you wouldn't know it from Terence Jeffrey's opinion column ("Left behind audit," Commentary, Nov. 26).

Look at the facts. First, choice. President Bush has done more to promote school choice than any other president. No Child Left Behind is the first law to offer public school choice and private tutoring to families. Last year, about 250,000 students took advantage, and the number is growing. Let's not forget the D.C. Choice Opportunity Scholarship program, the first-ever federally funded voucher program and a model for the future.

Second, higher standards. Under NCLB, states must bring all students up to grade level in reading and math by 2014 – no exceptions. The trail to this goal is blazed by the states themselves, not by the federal government. This is consistent with the principles of federalism.

Today, all 50 states have accountability plans in place governing their schools. Contrary to Mr. Jeffrey's assertion, only states that show progress in raising student achievement will be eligible to use "growth models" to measure it.

Third, results. Across the country, test scores are rising and the achievement gap is closing. According to the Nation's Report Card, fourth- and eighth-grade math scores are at all-time highs, and 9-year-olds have made more progress in reading in the past five years than in the previous three decades. These gains have been driven in part by remarkable improvements among Hispanic and African American students.

With a judge recently dismissing the National Education Association's lawsuit charging that NCLB is an unfunded mandate, it is clear that the law's critics are not winning the day. It all adds up to one thing: the states are leading, and No Child Left Behind is working.

Nina Rees
Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement
U.S. Department of Education