Looks like Secretary of Education Rod Paige is stepping down from his position:
Education Secretary Rod Paige intends to leave his Cabinet position, a Bush administration official told The Associated Press Friday...A Texan like Bush, Paige, 71, rose to prominence as an award-winning superintendent in Houston before becoming the nation's first black education secretary.
He has been an outspoken defender of No Child Left Behind, the education law at the center of Bush's domestic agenda.
Interesting. I'll miss him - rather, I'll miss his outspoken exchanges with the standardized-testing-is-evil crowd. I like how the NCLB Act is described here, too:
Paige has presided over the biggest federal shakeup to education in a generation, a law demanding that schools show improvement among all students, regardless of race or wealth.
Something opponents of NCLB would like you to forget when disadvantaged or minority children show up with poor test scores.
So who's going to step in? It's only speculation at this point, but:
A leading candidate to replace Paige is Margaret Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser who helped shape his school agenda when he was the Texas governor. Spellings has a keen interest in schools and may want the Cabinet-level education job.
She looks younger than I do (although I suppose I can expect that more and more from now on...). Here's her response to a question on NCLB:
Trent, from Orange County, CA writes:
Hello, I am a high school student and I have served on two school boards. I am a big fan of the No Child Left Behind Act but I have a question about it. My question is; how does the No Child Left Behind Act help schools that are not meeting the the national standard in standardized testing? Thank you for your time.
Margaret Spellings
Thanks for your service on your local school boards and for your support of No Child Left Behind! Across the country, we are seeing positive results and student achievement is rising.
First, No Child Left Behind does not set a national standard for schools. Each state develops its own testing and accountability system that best meets their needs, but that ensures that all students will be proficient in reading and math in twelve years. The annual targets that schools must meet are set by each state according to their state assessments.
Each state, as part of its accountability plan, must also develop a system of sanctions and rewards for schools. When schools do not meet their annual targets for two straight years, the school must develop a school improvement plan and allow parents to transfer their child to a higher-performing public school if they so choose. If the school does not meet their targets for a third straight year, it must offer after-school tutoring to struggling students. Each state is also required to set aside 4% of its total Title I allocation (that would be over $500 million of the Federal 2005 education budget) to assist schools that are identified as needing improvement. This funding goes directly to these schools to assist in improving the school, implementing new curricula, hiring reading instructors, or addressing other needs of the school.
President Bush has also provided significant increases in funding for Title I schools across the country--those schools that serve the neediest students. Including the President's 2005 budget, Title I funding has increased 52% since 2001, and overall K-12 funding has increased 49%.
Good answer. Education at the Brink has done a bit more digging about Margaret Spelling - and other potential replacements - so go check him out.
Posted by kswygert at November 14, 2004 02:24 PM