’01-05 secretary of education still backs ‘No Child’

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN MCGEENEY --05-11-2012-- Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Paige will be speaking Saturday at the commencement ceremony for the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN MCGEENEY --05-11-2012-- Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Paige will be speaking Saturday at the commencement ceremony for the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions.

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige still believes in the fundamentals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

“It was one of the most important pieces of legislation I think in the history of our young nation,” Paige said during an interview Friday in Fayetteville. “It was the solution to tons of federal money being expended with very little results.”

Accountability of schools was one of the most important requirements of thelaw, particularly for students of different ethnicities, he said.

The law required states to develop standards governing what students were expected to learn and to measure their progress.

Paige, 78, is scheduled to give the commencement address at 4 p.m. today in Bud Walton Arena for the University of Arkansas’ College of Education and Health Professions.

The Mississippi native served as education secretary during PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s first term, which ended in 2005.

Prior to his appointment, Paige was superintendent of the Houston Independent School District.

Paige again lives in Texas and remains involved in education, he said. He also serves on corporate and charitable boards.

“Education is my life,” he said.

No Child Left Behind is described as an act to close the achievement gap through accountability, flexibility and choice, he said.

As policy makers continue to introduce changes to education, Paige hopes new iterations of the act strengthen the fundamentals of the 2001 law.

Ray Simon, former director of the Arkansas Department of Education, described Paige as a hard worker who cares for children.

Simon worked in the U.S. Department of Education from 2004 through January 2009, first under Paige as assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education for the federal Education Department.

“He was trying to do the very best he could with the ultimate goal of what was best for kids,” said Simon, whose primary obligation under Paige was implementing the No Child Left Behind Act.

In 2004, the law generated lots of opposition, and the potential existed for Congress to make wholesale changes to it, Simon said.

There was a push to eliminate the annual testing requirements, which department officials thought was at the heart of the law.

Others thought some of the provisions were unfair and burdensome, he said.

“It appeared the law was almost going to implode on itself,” Simon said. “We continued to monitor that law to make it work without having its core provisions taken away.”

Paige had been considered a reform-oriented superintendent who challenged the status quo in education, said Gary Ritter, director of UA’s Office of Education Policy.

The reforms in No Child Left Behind included sanctions for school districts and the ability of parents to send their children elsewhere if their district’s schools did not meet the law’s mandates.

One of the problems with the 2001 law is that each state has a different set of standards, Ritter said.

President Barack Obama’s mark on education has been a movement toward a uniform set of voluntary standards known as the Common Core State Standards, because math education should be similar across the country, Ritter said.

Despite some challenges with the No Child Left Behind Act, the law provided many benefits, including a focus on teaching all children to a high level of learning, said Jim Rollins, superintendent of Springdale School District.

Rollins met with Paige several times during theintroduction of the act as part of a group of superintendents.

“He knew the challenges of operating a large school system based on his experience in Texas,” Rollins said. “What we continue to try to define is to make sure our teachers know precisely what they’re to be accountable for.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 05/12/2012

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