Commentary by Rod Paige: Schools can't improve without help of parents

USA Today, August 4, 2002

Just three months ago, President Bush ushered in a new era in education by signing the No Child Left Behind Act into law. The act is the most sweeping change in education policy in three decades. It gives information to parents, new resources to educators, new tools to teachers and new hope to every child.

The law requires proven methods tested by science. It also gives states new flexibility and principals new ways to solve old problems.

Yet, all of this promise could be in danger. The unprecedented moment of bipartisan cooperation could be in vain unless we have the help of parents.

Congress passed a plan with overwhelming bipartisan support that recognizes that every parent needs the information and the options to get involved in their child's education. For schools to improve, parents must let their local schools know that they will support this law, will do their part to assist teachers and will help track their schools' improvement.

That's why parents must understand a few simple aspects of this law and the power it puts in their hands. Today, I will be embarking on a nationwide tour to at least 25 cities to provide parents with that information and to seek their active participation in this process of improving our schools.

As a former superintendent, I have seen both the promise and peril of reforming schools. I have seen how bureaucracy, regulation and special interests can cripple sincere efforts to raise the quality of other school districts.

I have also seen in my home of Houston how a few reforms, pressed forward with moral confidence and parental support, can bring the change and the hope we want for every child.

Parents, speak up

For No Child Left Behind to work, we need the energy, enthusiasm and expectations of parents. We need them to tell their local schools, their state officials and their elected representatives that this law doesn't just increase the resources, it also expects results.

I have heard from some educators at the state level that many of their schools won't meet the standards Congress and the president have set for them.

We will not lower our standards. We will redouble our efforts.

Parents can play an important part in these efforts by reminding their local officials that we are all united for results and that we expect every child to learn.

No Child Left Behind has four basic principles that will strengthen the education system:

* Parents can expect schools to be accountable for the resources they are given and the results they produce.

* They can expect schools to use solid research for instruction. Parents should know that the federal government will fund only lessons, textbooks and curricula that are proven to work by solid scientific research. That means good instruction in your child's classroom.

* Parents should also know their schools and principals have unprecedented flexibility with federal funds. If they have a local problem that has gone unsolved for years, they can work with their local educators to solve it by re-directing federal resources to get help where it is needed most.

Options available

* And parents have the option -- should a school fail to improve after all of these new resources and assistance have been provided -- to get extra help so that their children do not fall behind. Those services range from after-school tutoring and remedial education to even transportation to another public school that is succeeding.

In turn, school officials must realize that parents understand that their schools will be held accountable, so they must improve. Officials need to see informed and interested parents looking at their state's yearly tests of reading and math. They must see that we are all united to improve the schools and look forward to the new era of No Child Left Behind.

If no child is to be left behind, it means every American must take a stand to get involved and change the culture and expectations we have for every school.

And the most important help of all will be parents who care, parents who read with their children and parents who are informed so they can get their child the very best education possible.

Rod Paige is the U.S. secretary of Education.