This letter to the editor by the Secretary's Regional Representative Kristine Cohn appeared in the Detroit News on February 2, 2007.

The football analogy used by Michigan Education Association President Iris Salters to describe the No Child Left Behind law in a Dec. 22 column ("Congress must fix faulty education law") was a major fumble.

Prior to Congress' bipartisan passage of the law more than five years ago, poor and minority students were too often shuffled from grade to grade without achieving the basic skills needed to succeed as adults.

No Child was designed to ensure that all students read and do math at their respective grade levels.

To put the law into a pigskin perspective, its goal is for all students to at least have the basic knowledge and skills to play the game. It is not about requiring that "all teams make the state playoffs" and "win the championship," as Salters maintained.

We have already scored some major points under No Child. Nationally, there's been more reading progress by 9-year-olds in the past five years than in the previous 28 years combined, and the achievement gaps between young African-American and Hispanic students and their peers have narrowed to all-time lows in many categories.

In Michigan, the percentage of fourth-graders meeting or exceeding state standards for math has jumped from about 65 percent in 2003 to more than 81 percent in 2006.

Similarly, 83 percent of Michigan's fourth-graders can now read at grade level, up from just over 74 percent in 2003.

There is still much work to be done, both nationally and in Michigan, to truly ensure no child is left behind. But as Pro Football Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton once said, "If football taught me anything ... it is that you win the game one play at a time." Let's not rewrite a winning playbook.

Kristine Cohn
Secretary's Regional Representative, Region V
Chicago