The following are excerpts of U.S. Rep. George Miller's (D-CA), comments at the National Press Club, Monday, July 30, 2007. Miller is chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
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...Over 40 years ago, President John F. Kennedy had a vision of sending a man to the moon and bringing him home again.
That vision fueled a massive investment by this nation in all levels of education – an investment that drove nearly four decades of discovery, innovation and economic growth, allowing America to have the world’s strongest economy and lead the community of nations for generations.
Sadly, this investment fell off over the years.
With the report A Nation at Risk, America woke up and saw an education system that no longer served all its children and was failing our future.
America had an education system that was operating under a policy of acceptable losses. Where only about half of all minority children could read proficiently. Where black and Hispanic 17-year-olds were being taught math to the same level as white 13-year-olds. Where 40,000 teachers in California were without the credentials necessary to teach in the schools.
Nearly four decades after President Kennedy’s decision, America realized that its education system was threatening the country’s world leadership.
Six years ago we decided to do something bold about it.
We made a decision as a nation to raise our expectations of what America’s schools and schoolchildren could achieve. We made a decision to insist upon high standards.
We said that it was not good enough for a majority of the children in a school district to be learning and performing at grade level if their success was allowed to mask the fact that many other children were falling behind....
...Today, five-and-a-half years after its enactment, the No Child Left Behind Act has brought some positive changes....
...We didn’t get it all right when we enacted the law.
Throughout our schools and communities, the American people have a very strong sense that the No Child Left Behind Act is not fair. That it is not flexible. And that it is not funded.
And they are not wrong.
The question is what we are going to do next....
I can tell you that there are no votes in the U.S. House of Representatives for continuing the No Child Left Behind Act without making serious changes to it.
It is my intention as chairman of the Education and Labor Committee to pass a bill in September, both in Committee and on the floor of the House.
...The legislation I will introduce will contain a growth model that gives credit to states and schools for the progress that their students make over time....
...These growth models will give us fairer, better and more accurate information. The information will be timely and helpful to teachers and principals in developing strategies for improvement and in targeting resources....
...Our legislation will continue to place strong emphasis on reading and math skills. But it will allow states to use more than their reading and math test results to determine how well schools and students are doing.
We will allow the use of additional valid and reliable measures to assess student learning and school performance more fairly, comprehensively, and accurately. One such measure for high schools must be graduation rates....
...The legislation will also drive improvements in the quality and appropriateness of the tests used for accountability. This is especially important for English language learners and students with disabilities who should be given tests that are fair and appropriate, just as they should continue to be included in our accountability system...
...In my bill, we will ask employers and colleges to come together as stakeholders with the states to jointly develop more rigorous standards that meet the demands of both. ...
...This requires that assessments be fully aligned with these new state standards and include multiple measures of success.
These measures can no longer reflect just basic skills and memorization. Rather, they must reflect critical thinking skills and the ability to apply knowledge to new and challenging contexts.
These are the skills that today’s students will need to meet the complex demands of the American economy and society in a globalized world...
...These skills cannot be developed solely by simple multiple choice exams....
...I have heard from so many teachers who feel they are no longer viewed as critical partners in an educational system but merely an instrument to satisfy a minimum attainment goal.
As a nation we are not offering teachers the respect and support they deserve today, and as a result we are facing a very real teacher shortage crisis. Particularly in urban and rural communities, in subjects like math, science, foreign language, and for children with disabilities and children learning English, we must hire, train, and retain excellent teachers.
For these reasons, the legislation I will introduce will provide for performance pay for principals and teachers based on fair and proven models, teacher mentoring, teacher career ladders, and improved working conditions....
...Under current law schools whose students have not made adequate achievement gains are all treated the same under the law today – with the same interventions and sanctions taking place over the same period of time.
We need to distinguish among different schools and the challenges facing them, as well as their needs for addressing those challenges...
...The bill will include comprehensive steps to turn around low-performing middle and high schools. It will include uniform standards for measuring graduation rates that are fair, accurate, reliable, and will do more to keep students in school...
...In the new Congress, the Democratic Leadership has begun this new era of investment – first with the continuing resolution funding, then the appropriations bill, the Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda, and the College Cost Reduction Act.
I expect this legislation to follow suit....
...The legacy of a great American education system for our children and our country cannot be built on the cheap. America deserves better....
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