Contact: Lindsey Kozberg (202) 401-3026
Speaker Frequently Deviates from Prepared Text
It's an honor to be here today with Tom Luce, Ted Sanders, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, and Larry Faulkner to celebrate the National Center for Educational Accountability. I want to thank the entire board of directors for its work on this promising project, especially my predecessor, Dick Riley, who continues to show his longstanding concern for our schools.
Before I came to Washington to succeed Dick, many of you knew me as the superintendent in Houston. In Houston, as a result of data management systems and programs like those offered by the National Center, I had the benefit of annual data that told me which schools were succeeding and which teaching methods worked best.
I can tell you there is no more powerful force for change than families and communities armed with information. President Bush built his No Child Left Behind plan on the commonsense principles that worked in Texas, including state standards, assessments aligned with those standards, and public reporting of test data on student performance. When Congress passes the final education bill, states and communities around the country will get the data they need not just to identify their problems, but to pinpoint the solutions as well.
The National Center for Educational Accountability will help this task in three critical ways. First, it will show states how to develop data management systems so they can make fair comparisons and informed decisions. When used properly, data give us irrefutable information about which students are learning and which need help. The Center will show states how to process and interpret test data, so they can hold their schools accountable for ensuring that every child learns.
Second, it will help us build a culture of no excuses. Right now, schools may be tempted to excuse poor performance by citing demographics, an urban or rural environment, their size, or some other factor beyond their control. I can understand this temptation, because these factors make a difference, but the time for excuses is over. By breaking down data, the National Center will make fair comparisons in each state between schools with the same characteristics, and everyone will know which schools are doing the things that really work. I know from my experience in Houston that when two schools in the same neighborhood produced very different results—one excellent and the other poor—one school was doing something right, and the other one had no more excuses. The good school became a model for improvement for the other. In this case, I am happy to say peer pressure works.
Third, the Center will help promote best practices. Comparisons among similar schools not only show which schools are succeeding, but also which methods work. Researchers are developing better ways of teaching students, and the Center will be able to measure their effectiveness by analyzing data. Schools under pressure to improve will know how to improve because they will know which methods succeed.
By focusing on accountability and doing what works, the No Child Left Behind plan heralds a new era in American education, and the Department of Education's grant to the Education Commission of the States to help start the Center was just one sign of that new era. I would suggest that this time of change is an excellent chance for every school to examine its teaching methods, identify those that don't work, and replace them with better ones. Once accountability systems are in place in states around the country, I think parents and communities will have less patience for underperforming schools. My advice to educators is take advantage of the information and assistance of organizations like the National Center for Educational Accountability.
American children deserve the best education in the world, and the National Center for Educational Accountability will help us to ensure that they get it.
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