U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Raymond Simon today visited Annapolis High School and participated in an education policy roundtable discussion with state Superintendent Nancy Grasmick and local superintendents from across the state. Simon discussed progress toward No Child Left Behind goals in Maryland and challenges for the year ahead. He also discussed the Differentiated Accountability Program pilot, which will allow states—after meeting four specific eligibility requirements—to design a more nuanced system to distinguish between schools in need of dramatic intervention and those that are closer to meeting goals. The new pilot will assist states by helping target resources and interventions to those schools most in need of intensive interventions and significant reform.

"No Child Left Behind changed our national conversation on education forever," Deputy Secretary Simon said. "Instead of questioning whether or not all students can learn, thanks to this law, we're finally beginning to make sure that every child is learning."

At the roundtable, Deputy Secretary Simon discussed a new tool recently released by the U.S. Department of Education, Mapping Maryland's Educational Progress 2008, which provides a comparative look at the state's key No Child Left Behind indicators.

"Maryland's educators and administrators deserve a lot of credit for holding schools accountable for measuring the achievement of every student, and for developing new assessments for students with disabilities," Deputy Secretary Simon said. "In Maryland, the achievement gap in math between white and Hispanic students decreased in almost every grade between 2005 and 2006."

"Now it's time to build on this momentum by addressing the challenges the law has helped to uncover," Deputy Secretary Simon said. "To build on this progress, we must make sure that educators have the best ways to collect data and chart student progress over time, the flexibility to improve struggling schools and highly qualified teachers in every classroom. The Differentiated Accountability Program pilot will help states assist those schools where the need is the greatest. Our goal is to work with the states to help raise achievement, and this new pilot, we feel, does just that."

To view Mapping Maryland's Educational Progress 2008, please visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/md.html.

For Mapping America's Educational Progress 2008, visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/nation.html.

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