This piece by Secretary Rod Paige appears in The New Yorker on September 15, 2003.
Malcolm Gladwell suggests that that the No Child Left Behind Act is flawed because it emulates, for education, the production principles of the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford created a world-class company, a leader in its industry. More important, Ford would not have survived the competition had it not been for an emphasis on results. We must view education the same way. Good schools do operate like a business. They care about outcomes, routinely assess quality, and measure the needs of the children they serve. As I know from running Houston's schools, it takes thousands of decisions to cumulatively create a climate of excellence. But our public education system, for too long, has been a monopoly. Like all monopolies, it has been insulated from the changes that the market brings and hasn't had to respond to the needs of consumers. People are demanding change, for which the act provides a framework. The strength of the accountability movement is that if states lower their standards to propel more students over the bar parents and communities will know it, and they won't allow it. Just as Ford has shareholders to report to, these taxpayers are our stakeholders.
Gladwell describes the sanctions allowed by the act, but when a school is identified as "in need of improvement" it is designated to receive extra support to help it get on track. The testing provisions give parents and teachers information they need to help students who are struggling. Public education has always focused on protecting the system. Now we're protecting communities and students from being forced to accept whatever the system hands them.
Rod Paige U.S. Secretary of Education
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