    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
    [January 7, 2008]
    [Pages 32-36]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at Horace Greeley Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois
    January 7, 2008

        The President. Thank you all. Please be seated. Thank you very much
    for coming. I am so honored to be at Horace Greeley. People say, ``Why
    would you want to come to Horace Greeley?'' Because it's a center of
    excellence. It's a place for this country to realize what is possible
    when you have a good principal that's supported by the community, when
    you've got teachers who work hard and students willing to learn.
        Coming with me today is the Secretary of Education, Margaret
    Spellings. Madam Secretary, I'm honored
    you're here. She's--she and I share the same philosophy. It starts with
    our refusal to accept school systems that do not teach every child how
    to read and write and add and subtract and our firm belief that local
    folks can figure out the best way to chart a path to excellence.
        I'm proud that Congressman Rahm Emanuel
    is here. Mr. Congressman, thank you. As you know, we're from different
    political parties. [Laughter] But we share a common concern, and that is
    doing what's right for America. We--both of us understand that
    educational excellence is not a partisan issue; it is an issue that is
    important for the future of this country. So, Congressman, I'm proud
    you're here.

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        I'm also proud to be here with His Honor, Mayor Daley. I've come to know the mayor over 7 years of
    being your President. The first thing I learned about him: It's better
    to have him for you than against you when you run for office. [Laughter]
    He loves his city, and he's, in my judgment, one of our Nation's best
    mayors. He also has taken advantage of a reform that gave mayors the
    capability of setting the tone and the pace for education in our big
    cities. Some of the best reforms in America have taken place when the
    mayor has taken the lead, and, Mr. Mayor, you have certainly taken the
    lead.
        And I'm proud of your passion. I can remember visiting with you
    earlier on--about education, before No Child Left Behind came into
    being. And the mayor had this strong sense
    and strong feeling that this country needed to do something differently
    if we wanted to make sure every child got a good education.
        I'm proud to be here with Rufus Williams.
    He's a Chicago Board of Education man. I appreciate you being here,
    Rufus. And I also want to thank Arne Duncan.
    These two men are very much involved in making sure that if something is
    working, it is enhanced, and if something is not working, it is changed
    for the sake of our children. Every good school--every school that
    succeeds--by the way, it's a blue ribbon school. So I asked Margaret--like, I remember coming up; everybody was
    a blue ribbon school. I don't know if you remember those days. It was
    kind of a feel-good era. Just say, okay, you're a blue ribbon school,
    and everybody feels better about education.
        There's less than 300 blue ribbon schools across America this year.
    I think--what did you say, 13----
        Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Two hundred and thirty-nine public schools.
        The President. Two thirty-nine public schools are blue ribbon
    schools and maybe a dozen here in the State of Illinois. This is one of
    the blue ribbon schools. It's a blue ribbon school because it's
    excelling; it's meeting standards. And one of the reasons is, it's got a
    fine principal in Carlos. I'm proud to be
    with you, Carlos. Carlos understands that we have got to set high
    standards for our children and work with the teachers to achieve those
    standards.
        I was honored to go to some of the classes. It was--it's exciting to
    go back to the classroom. One of my messages is to the teachers: America
    can't thank you enough for teaching. It's truly important to--for our
    teachers to be thanked. It's also important for parents to be involved,
    and for those of you who are parents, thank you for being here today.
        Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of the day that I signed the No
    Child Left Behind Act into law. And since that day, we've come a long
    way. Fewer students are falling behind. People are beginning to get used
    to the notion that there's accountability in the public school system.
    Now, look, I recognize some people don't like accountability. In other
    words, accountability says, if you're failing, we're going to expose
    that and expect you to change. Accountability also says that when you're
    succeeding, you'll get plenty of praise.
        I think it's--I know No Child Left Behind has worked. And I believe
    this country needs to build upon the successes. The philosophy behind No
    Child Left Behind was, in return for money, there ought to be results.
    It's pretty commonsensical, it seems like to me. That's what the mayor
    asks when he is running his city. That's what corporations ask: If we're
    going to spend money, are we going to get a return on the money? That's
    what our schools ought to be asking too.
        In other words, in return--and I--you know, I was an old Governor of
    a State. I didn't particularly like it when the Federal Government got
    involved with my business. I felt Texas could pretty well handle it on
    her own. On the other hand, I recognize that if we're spending Federal

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    money, that we ought to be held to account for that money. And there's
    some Federal money involved in education, and it makes sense for those
    of us in Washington to say, ``Sure, we'll spend it, but we want to make
    sure that that money is being spent for a good reason.'' And there's no
    better reason than to teach every single child how to read, write, and
    add and subtract.
        And so we have set standards, expectations. And by the way, I
    believe if you have low expectations, you're going to get lousy results.
    As a matter of fact, I know that's what's going to happen. But if you
    have high expectations, it's amazing what can happen.
        This school, Horace Greeley, set high expectations. It's easy to set
    low expectations, you know. It's easy to consign a whole group of
    students to mediocrity. That's the easy way out. What No Child Left
    Behind says, is that we're going to take the hard way. We're going to
    set high standards, and then we're going to measure to determine whether
    or not those standards are being met. It's really important to measure.
    It's also important to disaggregate results, which is like a fancy word
    for, we want to know whether or not each student is learning. We want to
    make sure that no child is left behind.
        Horace Greeley measures, and they measure for a reason. They want to
    know, first of all, whether or not the curriculum is working, whether or
    not the instruction is working. And they also want to know whether or
    not they can--they need to tailor specific programs to meet the needs of
    specific children. One reason this school is a blue ribbon school: It is
    not afraid of accountability. It views the accountability system as a
    tool to enhance excellence. And so do I.
        Now, the other thing that's important is, is that the accountability
    system allows each school to know where it stands relative to another
    school. You know, from my time as Governor, I can remember parents
    saying: ``Oh, my school is doing just fine. I like my school,
    Governor.'' And then all of a sudden, the test scores came out--
    sometimes a school wasn't doing just fine. Sometimes--not sometimes, all
    the time, accountability lays out the truth. There's nothing better, in
    my judgment, to making sure that we have a educated workforce and
    everybody has a hopeful future than to just lay out some simple truths.
        And one of the simple truths is, can this child read at grade level
    at the appropriate time? That's a simple truth. Another one is, can the
    person add and subtract at the appropriate time? And if so, we'll say
    thank you. And if not, the system ought to say, we better change early,
    before it's too late.
        I found too often that in some schools, like in my State, it was
    just easy to move them through, you know; let's just shuffle people
    through. That's why--I can remember somebody standing up and saying,
    ``No Child Left Behind Act is really one of the civil rights--it's a
    civil rights piece of legislation,'' because this person was sick and
    tired of the day when people were just moved through the school system,
    without wondering whether or not the child could read and write and add
    and subtract.
        Test results are all a part of making sure we achieve a great
    national goal, and that is, every child be at grade level by 2014. The
    other thing it does is, as you measure, it lets us know how we're doing
    as a nation. There's an achievement gap in America that's just not
    acceptable. That means Anglo students are more proficient at reading
    than Latinos or African American students. It's just not acceptable for
    our country. It's an indication to me that there is something wrong, and
    it needs to be addressed now.
        And so--but we measure for that reason. We want to know whether or
    not this Nation is going to be competitive and whether or not it's going
    to be hopeful. And the achievement gap said, here's a problem. But the
    good news is, is that because of high standards and accountability
    throughout this country, the achievement gap is

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    closing. We have what's called a National Report Card. One of
    Margaret's jobs is to herald the
    successes or failures of the National Report Card. Eighth graders set a
    record high for math scores last year. Our fourth graders are--more and
    more fourth graders are learning to read at grade level. Scores for
    minority and poorer students are reaching alltime highs in a number of
    areas, and the achievement gap is closing. If we didn't measure, we
    wouldn't know; we'd be just guessing, and it's not worthwhile to guess
    when a child's future is at stake.
        The other thing that's interesting about measurement is that when
    you find a problem, there will be resources like after-school tutoring
    to help a child address those problems. And it's important to do this
    early, rather than late. People who have been involved in education can
    tell you that a school system that doesn't test and doesn't measure
    oftentimes wakes up at the end of the process and says, we need remedial
    education as the child heads into high school or out of high school.
    That's just not acceptable anymore. The world is too competitive to have
    a lax system in place. And we don't now, with No Child Left Behind.
        And so now is the time for Congress to reauthorize it. I'm sure a
    lot of people look around the country and say, it's impossible for
    Congress and the President to work together. I strongly disagree. We
    worked together to get the bill written in the first place, and I
    believe we can work together to get it reauthorized. If it's not
    reauthorized, then I've instructed our Secretary to move forward on some reforms or to analyze
    reforms that she can do through the administrative process. If Congress
    passes a bill that weakens the accountability system in the No Child
    Left Behind Act, I will strongly oppose it and veto it because the act
    will continue on. In other words, this act isn't expiring, it just needs
    to be reauthorized.
        And what are some of the things we can do? Margaret has been listening to Members of Congress, but
    equally importantly, she's been listening to Governors and local school
    boards. We need to increase the flexibility for our States and
    districts. We don't want the No Child Left Behind Act to be viewed as
    something that hamstrings innovation. There ought to be flexibility in
    the system. We're going to provide help for struggling schools--extra
    help. We want to make sure that a high school degree means something. We
    don't want people getting out of high school and it's not meaning
    something.
        She's been talking with Members of
    Congress to give schools credit for growth and achievement that
    individual students make from year to year--in other words, flexibility
    in the accountability system without undermining the core principle of
    accountability. We're going to implement a more accurate system for
    measuring high school dropout rate and make it easier for our students
    to enroll in the tutoring programs. There's things we can do, and must
    do, by working together.
        I am optimistic about the country because I come to places like
    Horace Greeley Elementary School, a little center of excellence, a place
    where, you know, some might say, ``Well, these kids can't possibly
    achieve such high standards.'' But, in fact, they are. This is a school
    that's got a significant number of Latinos whose families may not speak
    English as a first language. This is a school where there's some newly
    arrived to our country here. This is a school that is exceeding
    expectations because of high standards and using the accountability
    system as a tool to make sure that no child is left behind.
        It is my honor to be with you. Thank you for letting me come and
    share our philosophy about how to achieve educational excellence for
    every student. God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:46 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Carlos G.

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    Azcoitia, principal, Horace Greeley Elementary School; Mayor Richard M.
    Daley of Chicago, IL; Rufus Williams, president, Chicago Board of
    Education; and Arne Duncan, chief executive officer, Chicago Public
    Schools.