This letter to the editor by Secretary Margaret Spellings appeared in the Washington Times on March 31, 2007.

Deborah Simmons' agriculture-themed column critical of the No Child Left Behind Act ("Hog-slopping politics," Op-Ed, March 16) deserves a response.

It's important to remember the climate that existed when NCLB was passed. The law found fertile soil in a nation sick and tired of watching schoolchildren shuffled from grade to grade without mastering the basics. Despite our plowing billions of dollars into our public schools, reading scores for young children remained stagnant at best in the 1990s, while achievement gaps between black and Hispanic students and their white classmates grew ever-wider.

The No Child Left Behind Act was our response. The law gives states the freedom and flexibility to set high academic standards and identify what works. In exchange, schools are held accountable for results.

We already have seen the fruits of this approach. Across the country, more reading progress was made by 9-year-olds in five years than in the previous 28 years combined. Math scores are at record highs, and achievement gaps are finally beginning to close. More than 60,000 schools - more than 70 percent overall - are meeting their annual performance goals. We know this because states are setting standards and, more important, measuring their students' performance against them. We cannot opt out of this vital responsibility.

As the No Child Left Behind Act comes up for reauthorization, we are working with members of Congress from both parties to strengthen it and build on results. The president has proposed new Promise Scholarships and Opportunity Scholarships for at-risk students that can be used at public, private or charter schools. We also favor giving parents and community leaders new power to restructure and reform chronically underperforming schools.

In more than two decades in public policy, I have never seen a perfect law. Nevertheless, the No Child Left Behind Act remains our best chance for bringing our children up to grade level so they can compete in the world as adults. We must not weaken or water down this important and effective reform. Let's give every young mind its very best chance to grow.

Margaret Spellings
Secretary of Education