This letter to the editor by Kristine Cohn, Secretary's Regional Representative in Region V, appeared in the State Journal-Register (Springfield) on April 10, 2007.

Staff writer Pete Sherman's March 27 story about our trip to Springfield School District 186 began and ended with negative descriptions of students at Washington Middle School.

Beyond being unfair to the children, this may have led readers to believe that the classroom activity we observed was unimpressive. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Borrowing from radio commentator Paul Harvey, here's "the rest of the story."

Todd Zoellick, our region's deputy representative, and I were invited to visit the district to celebrate its great gains in academic assessment scores. Based on the 2006 Illinois Student Achievement Test results, all of the district's elementary schools met state standards for reading and math for the first time since the No Child Left Behind Act was implemented in 2002.

Why is that a big deal? Founded on the principle that all children can learn, NCLB was created to combat the pervasive achievement gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" of our society. In the past, many poor and minority students were shuffled from grade to grade without regard to whether they had achieved the fundamental skills needed to succeed as adults, whether in college or the global work force. They were victims of the "soft bigotry of low expectations," as President Bush put it.

Springfield's achievement demonstrates great progress toward preparing its students for the bright futures we know they can achieve, regardless of their race, ethnicity, income level or ZIP code. The district's leadership has done an outstanding job of focusing the talent and resources of the entire district on ensuring that students are achieving at high levels. Superintendent Diane Rutledge and the school board have laid out an impressive road map called Focus on Results. Its four principles - involve the whole district, focus on improving teaching and learning, emphasize the "how" as well as the what, and follow up - are achieving the desired results.

One of the schools we visited, Feitshans Academy, is an excellent example. The elementary school, with a student body that is 94 percent economically disadvantaged and 89 percent minority, had not met state standards for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for three years. Its 2003 assessment results for third-graders showed that just one-fourth met grade level standards for reading, while 39 percent met grade level proficiency for math.

Through the district's Focus on Results plan, and armed with federally funded tutoring and after-school programs and the landmark Reading First program, Feitshans boosted the percentage of students achieving reading and math standards to 53 percent and 76 percent, respectively, in the 2006 ISATs, reaching its AYP goals for the first time.

We were inspired by the enthusiasm and innovation that we saw in the district's classrooms. Upon entering Sherry Daniels' sixth-grade language arts class at Washington Middle School, for example, we were immediately impressed by how she creatively engaged her students. During a book-reading, students took on individual characters' parts with gusto, with Daniels serving as the narrator. It's not every day that a television news crew, reporters and administrators barge into class, but the students continued with their reading as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening. When Daniels asked for volunteers, nearly every hand in the room was raised, eager to participate.

Yes, kids will be kids. Students are not expected to be "perfect" under NCLB. The law's vision is for all young students to achieve not perfection but simply basic grade-level standards. This is critical to ensuring that they will have the fundamental, foundational skills to learn more sophisticated material as they get older.

Nationally, we are seeing excellent academic progress in these early grades. According to the Nation's Report Card, more reading progress was made by 9-year-olds in five years (1999-2004) than in the previous 28 years combined. Math scores for 9- and 13-year-olds have reached new heights. However, there is still much work to be done, particularly in the later grades, both in Springfield and throughout the rest of the country.

NCLB was created to ensure that "all students will have a better chance to learn, to excel and to live out their dreams," as the president said. Working together, we can make those dreams a reality. Congratulations to District 186 for achieving an important milestone in that effort.

Kristine Cohn
Secretary's Regional Representative
Region V
U.S. Department of Education