FOR RELEASE: October 28, 2008

Speaker sometimes deviates from text.

Thank you, Bill [Boyd], for introducing me. You and others at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce are great advocates on behalf of students. Your Personal Pathways to Success program is a model of how to support kids from kindergarten to college. I'm happy to have one of your graduates here today, Cedrick Brown.

Cedrick, I'm here to talk about how we can help many more young people benefit from the educational opportunities you have enjoyed.

That's the goal of No Child Left Behind. With this law, we are asking schools to bring students to grade level in reading and math by 2014.

In this political season, some people are making it sound as if that's an impossible goal.

But I want my kids on grade level now, let alone by 2014. And that's what your parents wanted for you, Cedrick. Why would we think other families want anything less for their kids?

How will we continue to be the world's innovator if our students can't read on grade level?

NCLB shines a spotlight on schools to compel grown ups to do the right thing by kids. And this approach is working.

Test scores are up. The achievement gap is narrowing. According to the Nation's Report Card, since 2000, more kids are learning reading and math – lots more. Since this law was passed, nearly 1 million more students have learned basic math skills. The children once left behind are making some of the greatest gains.

That's why I've taken a responsive, common sense approach to implementing the law. I've worked with states to credit schools for progress over time. I've partnered with districts to develop more sophisticated ways to help schools in need.

But while flexibility is appropriate, our most important task is to better serve kids. We all hear complaints that it looks bad when schools are labeled as needing improvement. But the strong reactions the law provokes speak to the harsh truths it has revealed.

Sadly, much of the time, our schools stifle talent instead of nurturing it, ignore ineffective teachers but offer few incentives for our best, and deny problems rather than solving them.

To overcome these systemic challenges, we must stay true to the core principles of reform:

• Meaningful accountability. That means standards, annual measurement, a real deadline like 2014, and real consequences when schools fall short of targets.
• Respect for local control. We must hold schools responsible for meeting standards, and policymakers at the state and local level should set those standards. After all, you pay the bills – about 90 percent of funding for schools comes from states and districts.
• Parental involvement. Parents should be armed with information and options to make the right choices for their kids.
• Finally, doing what works. What matters most is not how much we're spending... but how effectively we serve students. We need research to target our policies and resources and maximize results. And we need to measure to know what works.

These principles form the heart of No Child Left Behind, and the heart of the accountability movement. And they are the same principles that have helped early adopters like South Carolina to reap the greatest gains. That's why I urge you to continue standing by them with every decision you make.

Based on these principles, today I'm announcing regulations that will help build on the progress we've made under NCLB, and set the table for Congress to renew the law.

First and foremost, these rules take on the "silent epidemic" of high school dropouts.

Nationwide, half of minority students fail to graduate on time. Think about that. As one economist said recently, "When you look at these results, you ought to tremble."

For too long, we've allowed this crisis to be hidden and obscured.

For example, in one state, only seniors who leave school are counted as dropouts – not freshmen, sophomores, or juniors. In another state, dropouts weren't counted at all until last year.

As far back as 2005, governors from all 50 states agreed to adopt a uniform, more accurate graduation rate. But so far, only 16 states have done so.

A recent report shows that families want more and better information, especially when schools fall short of standards. Parents know that a high school diploma is the least their children need to succeed in today's economy. And parents whose children are in chronically underperforming schools are the most likely to want to get more involved.

They know that information is a powerful motivator for change. I'm going to make sure they get it. Starting in the 2010-11 school year, all states will be required to report the same more accurate formula to calculate graduation rates. And they will have to disaggregate the data to show how students of every race and income level are performing.

This means parents will be able to compare graduation rates in their schools with others across the country. It also means that poor and minority families will have more leverage to get the same quality of education for their children that we provide to others.

After I proposed these rules, some people wrote to say that requiring more accurate measurement would be an "unfair penalty." One teacher commented that letting some kids drop out "may be in the best interest of all concerned." At a time when dropping out means forfeiting a million dollars in lifetime earnings, surely she's kidding.

Charleston School Board member David Engelman, who is here with us today, has said, "I need something I can look to that says this is where we are."

David, that's exactly what you're going to get. State and local leaders like you will set the targets. But where graduation rates are low, we must take aggressive action.

Graduating more students is not an impossible task. Just this morning, I visited Columbia High School, where graduation rates for low-income students have doubled since 2003.

How did they do it? Principal Sean Alford says a first step was to, quote, "empower the faculty... to be more accountable for decision-making, and [to accept] responsibility for progress."

That's the kind of attitude that people in South Carolina have had for years. You were among the first to embrace accountability. And I know that you're now in the middle of some very uncomfortable conversations about how to help more students improve. You deserve credit for taking an unflinching look at your schools and challenging them to aim higher. Ultimately you will reap great rewards for setting high standards – starting with a more capable workforce.

In the meantime, if schools aren't meeting targets year after year, we need to start thinking about how to use time, personnel, and resources in more effective ways.

For example, struggling students may need extra help beyond the regular classroom day. That's why NCLB offers free tutoring for students in chronically underperforming schools.

Some resist the presence of outside organizations. In some places, parents are actually being discouraged from enrolling their kids in tutoring. One letter a district sent out said, and I quote, "While we must clearly offer students the choice of ... receiving [tutoring], we strongly urge parents to consider the benefits of keeping your child and the financial resources in the home school."

Folks, this is not an either/or proposition. I recognize that struggling schools need resources to improve. That's why education funding has increased dramatically under NCLB.

At the same time, many educators know that tutoring can make a big difference for students – and help grown ups meet accountability goals, too. Independent researchers studied these programs in urban districts, and they found that these services were helping students improve. In many cases, the longer students participated, the better they did in school.

Of course, these services can't make a difference if parents don't know they're available. One survey found that in urban districts, only half of parents knew their children were eligible.

So we must do a better job of helping parents understand their options. Today's regulations will require districts to issue more clear and timely notifications that do just that.

Together with NCLB, the policies I'm announcing today will give you the tools and leverage to support further improvement. Now it's up to you to seize these tools and create change. You are the primary shareholders in your schools. And you must decide whether to advance opportunity or ration it.

It's up to you to choose: is it unreasonable to expect all of our students to acquire grade-level skills? Or not?

We know that education is the key to opportunity, prosperity and civic engagement. And it's our most powerful tool in addressing our world's greatest challenges – whether poverty, hunger, energy dependency, or financial instability.

So let's expect more from our kids, our communities, and our country. I can't wait to see what we'll achieve.

Thank you. I'd be happy to answer your questions.

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