Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings delivered the keynote address at the NAACP 7th Biennial Daisy Bates Education Summit in Little Rock, Arkansas on the moral imperative to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act this year and the law's positive results in our classrooms and communities. Following are her prepared remarks:

I appreciate you inviting me to your education summit. I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity. It's another milestone in our "outstanding partnership." I know you believe in our children's potential and ability, and will stand up for them when it counts.

We are in Little Rock today for a very special reason. To anyone who argues that one person can't make a difference, let me suggest that nine can! Fifty years ago, nine brave young men and women walked into a school and into history. They felt it was their moral imperative to act, no matter the consequences. And we are eternally grateful. I'm honored that seven of them are with us today. Let's give them a round of applause.

This Summit is named after Daisy Bates. She advised the Little Rock Nine, protecting them from harm while braving death threats herself.

True story: when Gov. Orval Faubus closed Central High rather than admit black students, he said, "If Daisy Bates would find an honest job and go to work...we could open the Little Rock schools!"

Ironically, and tragically, Daisy and her husband lost their "honest jobs" when segregationists shut down their newspaper.

We honor the actions of the Little Rock Nine by fighting for the new civil right of a quality education for all. The No Child Left Behind Act is up for renewal in Congress this year. I believe it is not just an education law, it's a civil rights law, designed to make America's promise a reality for all its citizens.

Let's start with a little history. The civil rights pioneers fought against a lie called "separate but equal." In post-war America, soldiers who once fought side-by-side in foxholes, were now told that their sons and daughters could not learn side-by-side in classrooms.

African-American children were sent to second-hand schools miles away from their neighborhoods. They lived the cliché, "out of sight, out of mind." To quote Ralph Ellison: "I am invisible, understand, because people refuse to see me."

That lie was challenged in court by the NAACP. Brown vs. Board of Education was the result. The Supreme Court in 1954 rejected the fiction that, as one opposing attorney claimed, children's "happiness, progress and welfare" were "best promoted in segregated schools." It was the beginning of the end for Jim Crow.

Our kids were now given a seat in the classroom. But would they be granted a quality education? Schools were plagued with a lack of resources, materials and quality teachers. This was especially true in poor and minority communities. Sound familiar?

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson led a bipartisan effort to pass a law called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The law did two things. First, it provided leverage to keep Southern schools open and integrated. If they did not, they risked losing their share of increased federal aid. It worked. The number of black children attending integrated schools in the South tripled from 1965-66.

Second, the law put the federal government squarely behind the effort to educate poor and minority children. This moral imperative now became a national priority.

The law was pretty good at providing resources. It was not as good at insisting on results, especially for poor and minority students.

Children were shuffled from grade to grade without mastering the material. Others were misdiagnosed as learning disabled. Minority test scores were hidden by the overall averages, defeating efforts to improve them.

Standards were often set so low that President Bush rightly called it the "soft bigotry of low expectations." Our students remained invisible.

As a result, reading and math scores declined. And achievement gaps grew ever-wider. The 1983 A Nation at Risk report found that test scores for high school students were lower than "when Sputnik was launched." It called for "more rigorous and measurable standards, higher expectations," and standardized tests to measure progress.

Once again, we had a moral imperative to act.

Five years ago, Congress passed the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, reauthorizing and strengthening President Johnson's original law. States would set academic standards. They'd have the flexibility to fund what works, such as proven, effective reading instruction through our Reading First program. Highly qualified teachers would be required in every classroom. And parents would have more choices and options, such as free tutoring or transfer if their school did not meet their child's needs.

Meanwhile, a significant boost in federal spending, 41 percent higher than 2001, including this year's budget, would help make it happen. In exchange, schools would be held accountable for results, not just for individual students but for all student groups.

And by results, I mean every child able to read and do math at grade level or better. Speaking not just as an Education Secretary, but as a mom, I don't think that's too much to ask for! And I think parents would agree.

The law raised expectations, and our students are rising to meet them. Student math scores have reached all-time highs across-the-board, according to the Nation's Report Card. Overall, more reading progress was made by young students in five years than in the previous 28 years combined.

Some of the fastest gains are being made by those once left behind. After falling in the 1990s, reading scores for African-American and Hispanic 4th-graders have risen 10 and 13 points, respectively. Here in Arkansas, economically disadvantaged students saw double-digit gains in math proficiency in just one year (2004-05 to 2005-06) for all grades tested (3-8).

Ladies and gentlemen, the "achievement gap" is finally beginning to close! "Seeing" has led to "achieving."

But NCLB is not just about reading and math. This week the Nation's Report Card released its U.S. History 2006 and Civics 2006 reports.

Good news, scores in history improved in all three grade levels, 4th, 8th and 12th, including for African-American and Hispanic students.

The findings are putting to rest a common myth: that time spent on the basics takes away from other subjects. According to reports, average classroom time for English and math has risen by one hour since the late 1980s. But overall time spent in school has risen by 1.7 hours.

Reading is the key that unlocks all other subjects. And when students can read about our civil rights history, whether it's the Long Shadow of Little Rock, Letter from Birmingham Jail, or Eyes on the Prize, we all benefit.

One happy result of this progress is that people are starting to have more confidence in public schools. In turn, schools are starting to expect more from their students. I see it all the time in my travels.

Recently I visited M. Hall Stanton Elementary School in Philadelphia. The student body is 99 percent African-American and 99 percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. When she started in 2002, Principal Barbara Adderley called it the worst school she had ever seen, plagued with truancy and discipline problems. But she had a secret weapon: her belief that "all children can learn at high levels."

The number of 5th-graders performing at grade level jumped from 13 to 70 percent in reading and from 20 to 83 percent in math, in just three years! Said one parent, "The kids can't wait to get to school now."

Schools like Stanton Elementary are taking on the biggest myth of all: that poor parents don't care about education. Poverty is no match for a mom or dad or teacher who believes their child can overcome it. And it's no excuse for inaction from our schools or politicians.

Great educators like Barbara Adderley make a huge difference in academic performance. Unfortunately, as Reg Weaver told the U.S. Senate, "Too many of our neediest students are taught by uncertified and under-prepared teachers." This is especially true for math and science, critical to know in the global economy.

We simply must attract good teachers to high-poverty schools. The No Child Left Behind Act is up for renewal this year. As part of our renewal plan, the President has proposed incentives for the best teachers to serve in these challenging schools and communities. And we are working to attract qualified professionals from the math and science fields to serve as adjunct teachers.

We must also work to make coursework more rigorous so students are prepared for college. Nearly 40 percent of our nation's high schools, many in inner cities, do not offer Advanced Placement courses, the ones that universities look at when considering applicants. Two-thirds of our seniors graduate high school unprepared for college-level math and science.

The President's proposal would promote rigorous coursework in middle and high schools. It would also strengthen math through teacher training in proven instructional methods.

Our new Academic Competitiveness Grants and National SMART grants are already helping math and science majors turn good grades into tuition help. It's a good start.

Of course, far too many students drop out before graduation. They've given up the right you fought so hard for. The numbers are staggering.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy decried the fact that four out of ten 5th-graders would not finish high school. Today, the high school dropout rate for African-American, Hispanic, and Native American students is nearly 50 percent.

Many fell behind academically; others weren't challenged enough. One thing is certain: as adults they'll be more likely to be in poverty, in prison, or unemployed. The U.S. has the greatest earnings difference between graduates and dropouts in the world.

We know where the problem lies. Fifteen percent of our schools produce half of our dropouts. Can you believe it? These dropout factories have missed their accountability goals every year since No Child Left Behind was passed.

The President's plan would give teachers, parents and community leaders the tools they need to turn these schools around. It would also increase Title I spending for high schools serving low-income students by more than a billion dollars.

Finally, by 2012 we would require all states to separate graduation data by student group, so we can clearly see who is dropping out and why.

In the debate over NCLB, we've been willing to provide flexibilities, for instance, allowing the use of growth models in Arkansas and other states. But we must remain constant on the bright line principles of the law.

We need your voices in support. Some folks in Washington want to radically change the law. They want states to "opt out" of annual assessments.

I disagree. We cannot opt out of our responsibility to help disadvantaged and minority students reach their full potential, any more than we could 50 years ago.

Listen to the words of Congressman George Miller: "If NCLB is gone, America's poor kids will again be forgotten." Instead, we must continue seeing, believing and achieving.

Some in this room had to fight for the most basic of rights. A seat on the bus. Or at the lunch counter. Or in the classroom.

Today, it's hard to imagine what you went through. A schoolteacher hearing an explosion of thunder, and wondering if it was a bomb. A student hearing cries of "Lynch her!" simply for walking to school.

But you prevailed. Seeing the tanks and the soldiers sent in by President Eisenhower to escort her, young Minnijean Brown said, "For the first time in my life, I feel like an American citizen."

Our nation is honored to have produced the outstanding American citizens in this room. I thank you all for continuing the fight. And I ask you to help us ensure that future generations enjoy every opportunity that a quality education affords.

Thank you.

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