"I'm inspired by hard-working teachers who believe every child deserves a quality education. You can feel the high expectations when you walk into their classrooms."

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St. Paul, Minn. — U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings delivered remarks to teachers from Minnesota, 15 neighboring states and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools at the Teacher-to-Teacher Summer Workshop today in St. Paul, Minn. Secretary Spellings thanked and encouraged teachers, and discussed the importance of sharing best practices, so that teachers can better face the challenges of closing the achievement gap and getting students at or above grade level in reading and math by 2014. Following are her prepared remarks:

Thank you, Chauncey Veatch, for that kind introduction.

Before I begin, I want to thank Laysha Ward and Target for sponsoring this luncheon. We partnered with Laysha in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to help get supplies to teachers and schools in need.

And I want to thank Carolyn [Snowbarger] for organizing these workshops. I like to think of Carolyn as the teacher behind the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative because she's been in your shoes. She was a teacher for over two decades in Kansas before coming to the Department. And she's still a teacher at heart. Once a teacher always a teacher!

I had a meeting with Thomas Friedman from The New York Times last week. And he told me the number one skill our children will need to survive in the flat world is learning how to learn. We can make all the right policy moves in Washington, but without great teachers like you instilling a love of learning in our students, nothing else matters.

It's an honor to be here in St. Paul with Alice Seagren, who is the state commissioner of education here in Minnesota. She's been a powerful voice for higher standards and accountability for results for all students.

I also want to thank all of the teachers for being here today and for making this investment in your careers. By the end of this summer, almost 10,000 teachers will have attended these workshops since we started the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative two years ago. And about one million students will have benefited.

Let me give a special thanks to all the presenters for giving up their summer breaks to travel around the country as part of this program. I know how hard you work during the school year. And I'm sure you could've used a long vacation.

It's no secret that teaching is one of the hardest jobs out there. As a mom, I've enjoyed meeting my daughters' teachers through the years. And I appreciate how they've always made time to see me and let me know what's happening in the classroom. I also tried my hand at substitute teaching for a few months after graduating from college. And I can testify that the heavy lifting of educating our students doesn't happen in the superintendent's office or the Department of Education. It happens in real classrooms with real teachers like you.

When we passed the No Child Left Behind Act over four years ago, we knew the hard work of ensuring every child could read and do math at grade level would fall on your shoulders. We also knew you wouldn't want it any other way. When someone says a child can't learn, you see a child who just needs a chance. And thanks to this law, we're learning what you've always known: With a great teacher, every child can and will learn—regardless of race, income, or zip code.

We've seen this especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As you all know, thousands of students started the school year without a place to live or go to school. And we were all touched by how educators around the country came together to help these kids.

In Houston last month, I met a principal who put together a new school in just two weeks to help displaced students living in the Astrodome. Most of the teachers at the school had a year or less of experience, and many of them had also lost their homes in the storm. But they were anxious to get back to work and help children.

When the school opened this fall, only seven percent of students were doing math at grade level. By this spring, that number had increased six fold. That's a tribute to the power of high expectations.

Everywhere I go, I'm inspired by hard-working teachers who believe every child deserves a quality education. You can feel the high expectations when you walk into their classrooms.

Earlier this year, I met a local teacher of the year in Spokane, Washington. She earned that honor after 17 years of teaching elementary school. And she told me she was a better teacher today than she was five years ago because of No Child Left Behind.

That's probably the best compliment this law could get. Because at its heart, it's all about giving teachers the tools to help students achieve their potential.

The problem before No Child Left Behind was we had very little data on how students were doing and no benchmarks for success. Thanks to this law, for the first time ever, teachers can track student progress from year to year and analyze which strategies actually work for them in the classroom.

And if we're going to reach our goal of having all children at grade level by 2014, we must arm teachers with the best practices to get the job done. We would never ask a doctor to learn surgery on the operating table. And teachers shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel every time they walk into the classroom either.

That's why we started the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative. We wanted to give teachers the chance to share best practices and to learn from teachers who are getting great results in the classroom ... teachers like Bob Battinich who is presenting today.

Bob teaches at an urban, low-income junior high school in Sacramento. Most of the students come from tough, crime-ridden neighborhoods, but the school sets high expectations. Bob and his fellow teachers believe all their students can do algebra in 8th grade, and they're using a system of weekly assessments combined with intensive instruction to work toward that goal and help dispel the myth that some children can't do math.

Our children aren't growing up in the same world we grew up in. And math and science are growing more important every day. These skills are the common currency all of our students need to compete in the global economy of the 21st century. And we must ensure every child has them.

We have a lot of work to do. Nearly half of our 17-year-olds don't have the necessary math skills to work as a production associate at a modern auto plant. And our 15-year-olds rank 24th out of 29 developed nations in math literacy and problem solving.

We must improve the way we teach math in school. That's why President Bush asked me to form a new National Math Panel to help us identify the best research on proven strategies to teach math, just like we did for reading with the National Reading Panel. We're looking forward to sharing the panel's findings with teachers all across the country. We owe that to them.

This is urgent work, and there's a lot at stake. But after traveling around the country and meeting so many great educators, I know we can get the job done.

We're heading in the right direction thanks to No Child Left Behind, and we must stick with it. Over the last 5 years, our 9-year-olds have made more progress in reading than in the previous 28 combined. And Minnesota's fourth graders scored among the top ten states in reading and math. That's a credit to the dedication and commitment of teachers like you.

And we must start rewarding teachers who get great results like this, especially in low-income schools, which often have the hardest time getting and keeping experienced and knowledgeable teachers. The President and the Congress recently created a new $100 million Teacher Incentive Fund to encourage more experienced teachers to take jobs in high-poverty schools, where a high-quality teacher can make all the difference in the world. So far, 16 states, including Minnesota, and about 60 districts have already expressed interest in applying, and we plan to make those decisions by October.

We know nothing helps a child learn as much as a great teacher. And if we're going to reach our goal of ensuring that every child can read and do math at grade level by 2014, we must ensure our teachers have the tools to lead the way.

I hope you'll share what you learn here today with your fellow teachers back home. We need to empower teachers like you to be leaders in your profession and mentors and coaches for teachers in your schools. Studies show these mentoring programs work and can have a big impact on teacher retention rates. And in the end, that's the type of teacher-to-teacher learning that matters most and the kind that will help ensure all our children receive the quality education they deserve.

Thanks again for coming today and for all that you do.

For more information on Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative and Summer Workshops, please visit: http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/index.html

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