In response to the Center on Education Policy report on curriculum, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings made the following statement:

While the report is certainly interesting, its scope is too limited to draw broad conclusions and similar studies point toward different findings. In fact, there is much evidence that shows schools are adding time to the school day in order to focus on reading and math, not cutting time from other subjects.

The recommendation to dilute the best tool we have to measure whether schools are giving students a good grounding in their most important subjects would roll back the clock on the great progress we've made for our poor, minority and special education students.

However, a greater emphasis on the subjects that are the most critical to children's success is good news and as this report shows, children's skills in reading and math are growing stronger. We encourage schools to create a broad curriculum that builds their students' critical skills and gives them a well-rounded education. If children can't read, they can't learn history.

Before No Child Left Behind, little was done to hold schools accountable for teaching our children basic, critical skills. Poor, minority and special education students suffered as a result and our achievement gap grew. Now, we are seeing great progress on closing our achievement gap. And in five years, more progress was made on reading by nine-year olds than in the previous 28 years combined. As students strengthen their skills in reading and math, their ability to do well in other subject areas flourishes.

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