This op-ed by Secretary Spellings appeared in the Washington Post on June 9, 2007.

A quiet revolution of accountability is sweeping public education. We're measuring students annually, breaking down scores by student group, and insisting that all children be taught to achieve at grade level or better.

A new study by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy, revealing improved student performance and a narrowing achievement gap across most of the country, shows that we're on the right track.

But while test scores are up, has the academic bar been raised? An Education Department report released this week found that state standards for reading and math assessments were generally lower than those of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, also known as the Nation's Report Card). In most cases, the knowledge required to reach the "proficient" level on state tests was comparable to the "basic" level on NAEP. Other studies have echoed these findings.

This may fuel a Beltway-based movement for "national standards" and a national test created and mandated by the federal government. Such a move would be unprecedented and unwise.

National standards are not synonymous with higher standards—in fact, they'd threaten to lower the academic bar. And they would do little to address the persistent achievement gap.

Why do I believe this approach is wrong?

First, it goes against more than two centuries of American educational tradition. Under the Constitution, states and localities have the primary leadership role in public education. They design the curriculum and pay 90 percent of the bills. Neighborhood schools deserve neighborhood leadership, not dictates from bureaucrats thousands of miles away.

The proper role of the Education Department is in helping states, districts and schools collect data to drive good decision making. Information is our stock in trade. President Teddy Roosevelt understood this when he called on the federal government to provide "the fullest, most accurate [and] most helpful information" about the "best educational systems."

States that have shown true leadership, such as Arkansas and Massachusetts, can inspire others to act. Second, the debate over national standards would become an exercise in lowest-common-denominator politics. We've seen it before, most recently during the divisive fight over national history standards in the 1990s.

The landmark 1983 report " A Nation at Risk" called for "standardized tests of achievement... as part of a nationwide (but not federal) system of state and local standardized tests" to stem the rising tide of mediocrity in our schools.

Rather than top-down mandates, we are encouraging a race to the top.

Five years ago, many states did not regularly measure their students' performance against the tough NAEP standards. Today, all 50 do. The president's plan to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act calls on states to post their scores side-by-side with the NAEP results. This would increase transparency and drive up the political will to raise state standards.

We are already seeing heartening signs of change. States are aligning high school coursework with college and employer expectations. Many have adopted a core curriculum of four years of English and three years each of math and science. Recently, nine states announced a common Algebra II assessment, the largest such effort ever undertaken.

In addition, all 50 governors have agreed to adopt a common measure of graduation rates to help solve the dropout crisis. "There is more momentum in the states now than at any time since... the release of 'A Nation at Risk,' " reports Achieve Inc., an alliance of governors and business leaders dedicated to high standards.

Our approach is working for students. According to NAEP, more reading progress was made by 9-year-olds from 1999 to 2004 than in the previous 28 years combined. Math scores have reached record highs across the board. History scores improved in all three grade levels tested—fourth, eighth and 12th. And the number of students taking an Advanced Placement exam in high school has risen 39 percent since 2000.

President Bush wants to build on this progress. His plan would train more teachers to lead advanced math and science classes. It would offer incentives for the best teachers to work in the most challenging environments. It would also provide more choices and options, such as intensive tutoring and scholarships, to help children in underperforming schools—measures opposed by the big teachers unions.

Accountability can light the way forward. But only higher standards can take us there. We've knocked down the blackboard wall that once stood between schools and parents. Now we must work with Congress and the states to share and replicate best practices, not scrap them for an untested system.

Our goal is a public education system that is transparent and responsive to the needs of parents and children—not to the whims of Washington.

The writer is the secretary of education.