[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[September 3, 1997]
[Pages 1122-1126]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at Oak Bluffs School in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
September 3, 1997

    The President. Thank you very much, Dr. Cash, Mr. Binney, all the 
teachers who are here. I am delighted to have this chance to come by and 
visit with you. I know I'm on vacation, but when school starts, if I 
don't participate in some start-of-school event--[laughter]--I begin to 
have a nervous twitch, and I--[laughter]--and I was delighted to be 
invited to come by and spend a few moments with you.
    Let me begin by saying, as you know, our family has been on vacation 
here now for a little over 2 weeks, and we have until the end of this 
week. This is the longest time we've been away together in a very long 
time, and it's been a wonderful opportunity for us. We love it here. And 
it's especially important this year because this is the last family 
vacation we'll have before our daughter begins her next big educational 
adventure. So it's been great.
    You know, every start of a school year is special because, as you 
well know, teachers come together with a new sense of dedication and 
energy and students show up wide-eyed in anticipation and parents pour 
all their hopes into what they hope will come out of the next year, that 
they're all truly wonderful. And I think they reflect the central 
premise of what you do for a living, and that is that our most important 
common enterprise as a people is clearly education. It's necessary not 
only for young people to grow up and be able to earn a good living but, 
perhaps more importantly, to be good citizens and even beyond that to 
live their own lives to the fullest, with a high degree of self-
awareness and an ability to learn and absorb and grow throughout a 
lifetime. So it's always important.
    But this year I think it's especially important. For one thing, we 
have the largest class of students in America, ever. We finally now have 
a student body, in the whole, in America of over 52 million, bigger than 
the largest years of the baby boom, which is a great burden for all of 
us aging baby boomers to have on our shoulders. [Laughter]
    For another, we have the most diverse student body we have ever had. 
We now have 5 school districts in America that have children from over 
100 different racial and ethnic groups. And within a couple of years, 
we'll have a dozen school districts that have children--but as you know, 
here in Martha's Vineyard, we're also diverse in other ways. We have 
massively huge school districts and we have very, very small school 
districts. And somehow, someway, we expect you, all of you--you and your 
counterparts throughout the country--to work with our children and give 
them a world-class education and give them a shot to make the most of 
their own lives.
    We also know that as we move closer and closer to the turn of the 
century and to the beginning of a whole new millennium, we're super-
attuned to the fact that we're living increasingly in a global society 
as well as a global economy, where children in the smallest school on 
Martha's Vineyard, either now or someday soon, will be able to hook onto 
the Internet

[[Page 1123]]

and do research in libraries in Australia or Asia, or talk to 
schoolchildren in Africa. And that's going to change the way we live and 
our perspective, and we have to be prepared for that.
    It also means, frankly, that educational excellence at world-class 
standards is now more important than ever before. I can see a lot of 
very young teachers out there and then some of you who may be almost as 
old as I am, and those of you who have been teaching for a long time 
know very well that about 15 years ago, with the issuance of the ``A 
Nation At Risk'' report in 1983, our country began a serious national 
effort to reexamine the premises of public education and what needed to 
be done to make education better in our country.
    And it's really been quite a moving thing for me both to observe and 
to participate in, even more when I was Governor than now as President, 
because the States of our country have constitutional responsibility for 
our public schools. But I have seen the recommendations of that report 
back in 1983 slowly but surely and steadily making their way into the 
lives of schools all across America. Our schools are offering broader 
and deeper curricula now; our students are taking more challenging 
courses now; our schools, by and large, are much better run now. There 
tends to be more participation and cooperation between principals and 
teachers. More of our school districts are pushing more and more 
educational decisions down to the school level, and our school districts 
tend to be better run now. And there's a whole different sense I get in 
school districts of all sizes as I go across America, and that's all 
very, very encouraging.
    We also have begun to puncture some myths, and that is that you 
can't get an excellent education in a small school, or if you live in an 
urban setting in a difficult neighborhood, the kids really can't learn. 
We know that's not true either. We have seen all these sort of fears 
that people had about coming to grips with the idea that we could 
establish a real, uniform commitment to excellence in education 
basically evaporate with this school reform movement.
    In 1989 I had the privilege of being one of the Governors to meet 
with then President Bush at the University of Virginia and--when we 
articulated six national education goals--and I was sort of the 
designated hitter for the Democrats, and we stayed up all night long 
drafting these goals which then all of the Governors voted for and the 
President embraced, which basically were a lot like what Dr. Cash said. 
We started with the premise that everybody ought to have an opportunity 
to have a good preschool experience, that we ought to have a very high 
and uniform requirement for a curriculum that encompassed all of the 
things that all children should study, that we ought to achieve 
international excellence in math and science, that everybody ought to 
have a chance to get education beyond high school, and that we ought to 
have a system of lifetime learning, that our schools all ought to be 
made safe and disciplined and drug-free.
    There was another part to the national education goals that was 
often overlooked because it was either inconvenient or in some cases 
outright opposed, and that is there was a long section that I had stayed 
up half the night writing and, therefore, had been a little bit peeved 
to see ignored all these years--[laughter]--which basically said that 
one of the ways that we have to implement these goals is to set up a 
system of uniform national standards, not Federal Government standards 
but national standards, that reading and mathematics and basic science 
is the same in Montana as it is in Martha's Vineyard and that we should 
not pretend otherwise and that we should not be afraid to be held 
accountable.
    For years the Governors tried to do something about that, but the 
effort sort of fizzled out because there were all kinds of people who 
were opposed to it. Now, we fast-forward: The Congress has just passed a 
budget which will bring our budget into balance for the first time since 
1969 but also has the biggest increased investment in education from the 
Federal level since 1965, everything from Head Start to access to 
college. It has the biggest increase in aid to people that go on to get 
a college education, people of all ages, including people that go back 
and get graduate education which could benefit many of you in this room 
today, since the GI bill was passed in 1945. It is an astonishing 
educational document. And that leaves out, therefore, in my view, the 
one major thing that we've been sort of skirting since the national 
education goals were issued in 1989, and that is the whole question of 
national standards in measuring our children by them.
    In the State of the Union Address in January, I challenged all of 
the States to adopt standards that were national and indeed 
international in

[[Page 1124]]

terms of their quality, and then to participate voluntarily in reading 
tests for fourth graders and math tests for eighth graders to measure 
these standards in 1999. The national education goals actually call for 
4th, 8th, and 12th or 11th grade exams at the choice of the schools in a 
whole range of subjects.
    But I thought we ought to begin here. And the response has been 
quite encouraging. I made clear that this was voluntary; nobody was 
going to be required to do it, that the Federal Government would not 
develop or administer the test but would only help to pay for it, and 
that the test should not be misused but neither should we pretend that 
it's not needed. Almost every school in every State has a lot of tests 
that children are given. But some of the State tests really do measure 
national standards, and some don't. A lot of the individual achievement 
tests tell you where you rank on a percentile, but that's really not 
relevant. If we have national standards, 100 percent of the children 
ought to clear the bar. And if nobody clears the bar, the child who made 
the highest grade shouldn't be considered to have done enough. That is 
the difference.
    There are certain basic things that all of our children should know. 
I've been very heartened at--a large number of States, the Defense 
Department schools, which educate a lot of children around the country 
and around the world, and something that would have been unheard of even 
in 1989--15 big-city school districts have come forward and said, ``We 
want our children to be a part of this even if our States don't join,'' 
including the school districts in six of the seven biggest cities in 
America have said, ``We are tired of being told our children can't 
learn. We are tired of being told we can't overcome our obstacles. We 
expect to be held accountable, and our kids, if anything, need a good 
education more than anybody else, not less, and we don't want to make 
any excuses anymore.''
    To me, this has been an overwhelming thing, especially in light of 
the long effort we've had since 1989 in trying to get this off the 
ground. That's the good news. And it is very good news, indeed. But now 
there are some people in Congress and in the country who don't want this 
to happen. They either say we've got enough tests already or the Federal 
Government's making a power grab or they're afraid that the tests won't 
be fair to people who don't do well on it.
    I would just like to reemphasize, number one, these tests are 
voluntary; number two, the results are not to be misused, but it's 
helpful to know whether the children, individually or in a class or in a 
school or in a school district, do or do not perform at acceptable 
levels in reading and mathematics at the very least.
    Today, we have basically two tests that measure us--our kids by 
national and international standards. One is the so-called National 
Assessment of Educational Progress, the NAEP test, which I'm sure a lot 
of you are familiar with; over 40 States participate in that. But only 
representative samples of the students do it, and the scores are given 
by school district, so they don't really address how the children are 
doing.
    The other is the third international math and science tests, the so-
called TIMSS test, which is only given to a few thousand students every 
year. But it should be very encouraging to us. This year for the very 
first time since those tests have been given, our fourth graders scored 
well above the international average in math and science, and the few 
thousand kids who take it are representative by race, by region, by 
income of the American student body, once again demonstrating that if 
you set a high standard and go after it, you can achieve it.
    Now, also, to make full disclosure, our eighth graders are still 
below the international average, but that's, I think, because in large 
measure so many of the worst problems in our society hit kids when they 
reach adolescence. And in bigger school districts, so many of our middle 
schools are still organized around the family and community structures 
that existed in the 1950's and the early sixties, when in fact they 
probably ought to be as small as a lot of grade schools are today to 
really meet the needs and the challenges these kids are facing.
    But the bottom line is, we know from this example that we can make 
it. And I think it would be a terrible mistake for people who are afraid 
our children can't measure up or who have a misguided notion that 
somehow the Federal Government is trying to take over the direction of 
education in America to persuade Members of Congress not to fund the 
tests. And that's basically an issue we're going to be fighting out over 
the next few weeks.
    We have agreed and feel strongly that a nonpartisan board which has 
been established by Congress for over 20 years now should be in charge 
of the development of the exam. All we

[[Page 1125]]

want the Department of Education to do is to have the funds to pay for 
it and to help the States or school districts who need it, to give it. 
And now that we've got all these kids out there whose educators say they 
want to participate, I think we have to do it.
    I said in the State of the Union Address that if there's one place 
politics ought to stop in America, it's at the schoolhouse door. And I 
have been gratified that we've had Republicans and Democrats from all 
over America supporting this effort.
    Just yesterday the Secretary of Education went to Philadelphia, 
which has a remarkable superintendent named David Hornbeck, who used to 
be the superintendent of schools in Maryland, the State of Maryland, and 
he left the job to go to Philadelphia to prove that you could run a big-
city school district and give educational excellence to all kids. And 
they've established a very rigorous standards program, and student 
achievement has risen among all students at all grade levels from all 
backgrounds in the Philadelphia school system. So it's just like 
everything else. Setting a goal means you're more likely to meet it than 
if you don't set it.
    And those who say we shouldn't measure--if I were to say, ``Well, we 
ought to stop testing airline pilots because it might be offensive to 
some people,'' we would be reluctant to fly. If I were to say that we 
should end the rigorous evaluation techniques that the United States 
military has because it might be offensive to some people, you would 
say, ``You must be out of your mind.'' The military is a place where 
more people from more different backgrounds, more different racial and 
ethnic backgrounds, have found a way to achieve excellence than any 
other institution in our life. And besides that, they protect us better 
than anybody else is protected in the world. Why would you stop setting 
high standards in measuring to see if we meet them? That's all that I am 
trying to do.
    So I hope that since Massachusetts is one of the first States to 
agree to voluntarily participate, I hope all of you will support this, 
and I hope that if you have the opportunity, you will encourage the 
Members of Congress and your Senators to support it, because to me, it's 
the last major step. I have done all I could to push more decisions down 
to the school district into the school level. We have dramatically 
reduced paperwork in the Department of Education. We have dramatically 
increased the ability of local school districts to spend Federal money--
and States--according to their own designs, within the general framework 
of the intent of Congress. So I want more decisionmaking done at the 
local level, but I still think we ought to have national standards that 
give our children a chance to do well in the global economy. And I 
believe that they all can do well.
    And I believe that the poorest of our kids, the kids that come from 
the most difficult backgrounds, need it more than others, because they 
look to you, they look to the schools to give them the chances that 
their own parents didn't have. I know it's harder for you, and I know a 
lot of you have to contend with problems that these children bring from 
home that weren't there a generation ago, but every single thing you can 
mention just means that they need it more, not less.
    So I expect this to be one of the major debating issues of the next 
few weeks when I go back home to go back to work. And I came here to 
thank you for what you do, to ask you to continue to support the 
educational excellence, and to send a clear message that you believe 
that excellence and accountability and high aspirations are for all our 
children, because we know they can make it. And we know that for their 
sakes, we have to expect them to do so.
    Thank you, and bless you.

[At this point, Oak Bluffs Selectman Richard Combra presented a gift to 
the President.]

    The President. Let me say, I actually believe I could pass a history 
exam on Oak Bluffs. [Laughter] This is one of the most interesting 
communities that I have ever heard anything about, and its history over 
the last 100 years, particularly, is fascinating to me, and I always 
spend a lot of time here when we come to the Vineyard, and I'm grateful 
for this.
    I also should tell you that someone gave Hillary and Chelsea and me 
that huge 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle--[laughter]--and we did it. So I am 
now prepared for a detailed geography examination on Martha's Vineyard 
in general and Oak Bluffs in particular.
    I also want to say this is a magnificent school, and just before I 
came in here, I was offered the chance by your principal to actually 
decorate one of the tiles. I have no doubt that mine

[[Page 1126]]

will not be nearly as good as the students' or the staff's, but I'll 
give it my best shot.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:53 a.m. in the library. In his remarks, 
he referred to Dr. Kriner Cash, superintendent, Martha's Vineyard 
Schools; and Laury Binney, principal, Oak Bluffs School. The President 
also referred to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study 
(TIMSS).