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Thank you Alton, it's wonderful to be back home in the great state of Texas.

During the last few weeks, I've made several visits to the Gulf Coast due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Of course, I wish it had been under happier circumstances.

We've all witnessed terrible destruction and heart-warming acts of generosity. I am so proud of the communities and schools that are opening their doors—and their hearts—to displaced students, especially my fellow Texans.

Even when faced with your own losses, you reached out to others in need. Texans have welcomed tens of thousands of people into their communities, and over 45,000 students into their schools. Houston Superintendent Abe Saavedra and his local School Board President Dianne Johnson are treating them like they're their own. I also want to thank my friend Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley, Texas Association of School Administrators President Alton Fields, Texas Association of School Boards President Robert Sepulveda, and Jim Crow, Johnny Veselka and the entire Texas education community—especially superintendents and school board members—for bringing great hope to families who are putting their lives back together.

One of my staffers told me about the student ambassadors who greeted her at Mary Hull Elementary School in San Antonio. Each one introduced a buddy from New Orleans. When asked how the newcomers were getting along, John Peace—now that's a great name for a fourth-grade ambassador—smiled and told her, "I've got four new friends and they're all doing great. They're participating in class, and they have a bunch of new friends—including me!" I believe he even said his friends were "well-integrated."

This little boy clearly has a future in public service. He understands that a school routine brings comfort to students in need. And it brings the promise of a brighter future.

That's why the president and I, along with the Congress, are taking steps to help schools that are welcoming these students. As part of this effort, the president has proposed to increase federal resources from the usual 9 percent to 90 percent of the cost of educating these kids this year. We have asked the Congress to provide up to $7,500 per student in federal funds for this school year.

If schools show that the hurricanes caused them to miss Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) next year, severely affected schools may delay moving forward in the school improvement timeline for a year. Schools may also request to count hurricane-displaced students as a separate student subgroup, so their performance can be counted, but not necessarily in the same way as that of other students.

We at the Department of Education have extended reporting and spending deadlines and launched a Web site called "Hurricane Help for Schools," which so far has matched more than 420 schools in need with other schools, organizations and businesses that have resources to offer. We're also providing guidance and support for educators who are helping children deal with this tragedy in their own time and in their own ways.

I've told my staff that by the time this school year is over, we'll all have earned Ph.D.s in hurricane recovery policy. You probably feel like you will too. Our country does not have education laws on the books to undo the damage. But we do have laws on the books that can help and some laws that need to be waived to deal with this extenuating circumstance. I'm asking Congress for the authority to do so. Most importantly, we have a responsibility to make sure that children affected by this disaster still get the quality education they need and deserve this year just as in any other year.

We'll get it done—by focusing on the neediest kids. And measuring progress for each student and each group of students. Sound familiar? As I like to say, "In God we trust; all others, bring data."

I grew up doing education policy in Texas since the early '80s. And not to be a Texas braggadocio, but Texans have long believed in the value of measuring our children's progress every year. My experience is that education down here isn't about politics. It's about standards and accountability for results for all students. And it's been a bipartisan effort for a long time. For more than two decades, southern governors like Jim Hunt of North Carolina, Zell Miller of Georgia, Richard Riley of South Carolina, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee—and of course, George W. Bush of the great Lone Star state—raised the bar. They looked at the data and saw their schools needed improvement. And they knew that with higher standards, schools could do better.

Before education reform, we relied too much on good intentions, abstract philosophies and untested, sometimes harmful, fads. If most children were doing well in school, that was considered good enough. It didn't matter if some children were falling behind. And people were in denial—they didn't think the achievement gap was real or that it mattered.

Accountability, assessment and disaggregated data changed all that. School administrators and board members, along with TASA and TASB, helped implement policy that said every child can—and will—succeed. You get it. You're not in denial, you know what's at stake, and you've been working at it for a very long time.

With No Child Left Behind, President Bush and the Congress, by wide bipartisan margins, made a national commitment to ensure a quality education for every single child.

No Child Left Behind was born in Texas. Some of its most fundamental principles came straight out of what we did well in Texas. And you know what? They're now working across the country. Just like they did and are doing here.

The latest Nation's Report Card, or NAEP, showed encouraging results, particularly with younger students who have benefited from the core principles of annual assessment and disaggregating data. Fourth-graders reached historic highs in math and reading. Hispanic and African-American fourth-graders made significant gains since 2003.

As our student population has become increasingly diverse, the scores have continued to rise. This summer's long-term trend report card found that scores are at all-time highs for African-American and Hispanic students, especially in the early grades. And we've made more overall reading progress in the past five years than in the previous three decades.

That is no accident. It's a tribute to the hard work of classroom teachers, school principals and local policymakers. It's also a tribute to states like Texas. You're the pioneers. You adopted high standards and accountability early on. Today, you're a lighthouse guiding the way for others. Texas has one of the most diverse populations in our country, including many students who haven't learned to speak English yet. And you're making impressive gains.

The Christian Science Monitor recently called the great results we're seeing "vindication" for a generation of Southern leaders. And, as a Texan, let me say it feels good. We were country before country was cool.

The Nation's Report Card showed that Texas fourth-graders earned the highest reading and math scores in the history of the state-by-state report card. Eighth-graders earned the highest-ever math scores. African-American and Hispanic students in both grades reached all-time highs.

I'm as proud as anybody of the progress we're seeing in Texas schools. But we still have a long way to go to ensure every student is prepared for the future—no matter what zip code they live in, what language they speak, or what special needs they have.

For example, in the past, we underestimated what students with disabilities could learn. We held them to lower standards and did not really expect them to demonstrate what they had learned.

We now know that the vast majority of these children can achieve grade-level standards. Research shows special education students can learn if they are given access to the general curriculum, taught by well-qualified teachers and included in well-designed, research-based intervention programs.

We've made encouraging progress. Over the last 15–20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of high school students with disabilities who are taking challenging courses. Today, virtually all take the full range of academic classes, which average 60 percent of their coursework. That includes classes in English, math, social studies, science and more. In fact, about one out of every five of these students is learning a foreign language.

On average nationally, about 90 percent of students with disabilities participate in regular state assessments in elementary school reading. In Texas, only about 34 percent participate, but I am confident that together, we can—and will—serve more students, more effectively.

At the Department of Education, we continue to use our nation's best research to make sure children in special education programs are learning and taking tests that are meaningful to them. New findings suggest that in addition to students with the most significant cognitive disabilities—about 1 percent of the population—an additional 2 percent of the total school-age population, or about 20 percent of students with disabilities, should be measured by modified standards.

We will continue to help states establish alternate, more appropriate assessments for these students. So far, 31 states have signed on to this effort by taking steps to change their accountability plans and committing to develop alternate assessments to more accurately measure their achievement. And I hope that Texas will take advantage of this additional flexibility as well.

We all know that monitoring student progress helps us understand where help is needed before it's too late. Once we know the contours of a problem and who is affected, we can work on the solution. Teachers can adjust lesson plans, administrators can evaluate curricula, the state departments of education and the federal department can provide clear, achievable priorities and deploy resources toward those priorities.

In other words, each of us has a role to play in raising student achievement.

Back when he was governor, President Bush used to say that school boards are responsible for the two things Americans care about the most: their children and their tax dollars. Your constituents look to you to help them realize their hopes and dreams for their children. And you do.

School board members are non-vested advocates. You are not on the payroll, and you're not of the system. You are free to look at the big picture and ask the toughest questions, like how skilled is your community's workforce? How will you restructure struggling schools? What kinds of resources do you want to commit, where do you want to commit them, and how will you garner community support for additional resources?

Our students' futures are too precious to make these decisions casually. That's where the superintendents come in. Your role is to provide data so that school boards can make informed decisions. Parents, educators and policymakers rely on you to offer your best professional advice. By collecting data to evaluate policies and practices, you can show what students and teachers need. And make sure you and your boards are investing in programs that help students succeed. You can make a far more compelling case to your boards and communities with real live results and evidence to support your recommendations.

Federal policymakers must also be held accountable. We have a responsibility to ensure that our nation helps to prepare students to compete in the global economy. We must focus on results and set clear expectations. We must invest our resources—our billions of dollars in federal education aid—around some specific, understandable things, such as closing the achievement gap by 2014.

We all have tough questions to answer, too. Like how can we improve our high schools?

Eighty percent of our fastest-growing jobs require postsecondary education. The more technology levels the playing field, the more critical postsecondary education becomes. In today's world, you need a meaningful high school education and a couple of years of college to succeed as a plumber or mechanic or electrician.

Meanwhile, one million students are dropping out of our high schools every year. Among ninth-graders, five out of 10 minority students fail to finish high school on time—that's half of our minority kids. Overall, three out of 10 don't finish on time. And while we have encouraging long-term results for younger children, we have seen no progress—I repeat no progress—for high school students in 30 years.

The president and I are supporting high school reform that focuses on reading, math and science to help more of our students reach the finish line on time and ready for college or work.

Texas has some great high schools and some great policies for older students. Once again, Texas is a leader and pioneer. You know what works. Annual assessments. Disaggregating data. Focusing on math and science to prepare kids for the jobs of the future. I know I can count on you to continue speaking loudly and clearly about the need for continued reform, especially in our high schools.

We are on the right track, and as I said before, Texas is a lighthouse. Our country is looking to you, and I know you'll show the way with improved results.

Thank you.

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