[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 20 (Monday, May 17, 2004)]
[Pages 870-874]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion at the National Institutes of Health in 
Bethesda, Maryland

May 12, 2004

    The President. Thanks, Reid. Thank you all for coming. What he 
forgot to tell you is, I've known Reid for a long time. See, when I was 
the Governor of Texas, I was worried that we weren't using a curriculum, 
a reading curriculum that would work. So I said to Margaret Spellings, 
who is my Domestic Policy Adviser here in Washington, I said, ``Who's 
the best in the country about figuring out how to teach children how to 
read?'' And they said, ``Reid Lyon.'' I said, ``Okay, get him up here,'' 
or ``Get him down here,'' in this case. He was here in Washington. He 
came down, and we've had a great relationship ever since.
    Today we're going to talk about reading and that reading is more of 
a science than people think. And the reason we're here at the National 
Institutes of Health is because this facility uses Federal taxpayers' 
money to research, to figure out how to solve problems. We've got a 
problem in America. And the problem is, not every child can read at 
grade level, so we're here to discuss a strategy to insist that every 
child does read at grade level. To me, it's a national--we have an 
obligation nationally to make sure of this.
    I'll never forget the reading czarina of Houston Independent School 
District--and by the way, Secretary of Education Rod Paige was the 
superintendent of the Houston Independent School District at the time. 
He had hired this lady to help teach every child to read. She said, 
``Governor, I want to tell you, reading is the new civil right.'' That's 
what I think. I think if you cannot read in the 21st century, you don't 
have a chance to succeed. And we believe every child can read.
    Mr. Secretary, thanks for coming. Rod Paige is a fellow who was on 
the frontlines of education there as the superintendent in Harris County 
District. And I asked him to come up and be the Secretary of Education, 
Reid, because he understands the correct attitude about making sure 
public schools work. It's really embodied in the No Child Left Behind 
Act.
    Let me go through real quick what that act says. It says, first of 
all, ``We believe every child can learn.'' In other words, we need to 
raise the bar and raise the standards. It's what I call challenging the 
soft bigotry of low expectations. It means basically that when you walk 
into a classroom full of the so-called hard to educate, you don't quit. 
That's what it means.
    Secondly, it says that in return for increased Federal spending--
which we've increased Federal spending quite a bit here in Washington, 
DC--that we expect results. In other words, the cornerstone of making 
sure every child can learn to read is you've got to measure to determine 
where they are. And if not, if you're finding children can't read at 
early ages, correct it early, before it's too late. And we're going to 
talk about that here.
    Thirdly, it says that there must be consequences for schools that 
won't teach and won't change. In other words, something has to happen 
other than just posting scores to get parental involvement. What we now 
have

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got is a system where, after a period of time, if the schools won't 
teach a child to read, Federal money follows the child so the child can 
get tutoring, for example, or the child can go to a different public 
school.
    Finally, the cornerstone of good education policy is local control 
of schools. We're going to hear from some folks from Alabama and Arizona 
who are great teachers, who understand it is really important for there 
to be the ability for people to make decisions, to align authority and 
response at the local level.
    Governor Ehrlich is with us. I'm sure he's glad to hear that the 
Federal Government isn't going to run the schools in the State of 
Maryland. He's plenty capable of doing it, along with the people he's 
picked to run the schools and be responsible for public policy, like the 
Lieutenant Governor, Mike Steele, and Nancy Grasmick, who's the head of 
the education department in Maryland. I want to thank you all for 
coming, Governor. I appreciate you taking your time for being here.
    I also want to thank Elias Zerhouni, who's in charge of NIH. Elias, 
I'm proud of the job you're doing. You've got a tough job, and I picked 
a good man to do it, and I really appreciate you being here. I'm glad 
Claude Allen is here as well. He's the Deputy Secretary of Health and 
Human Services. You're doing a fine job too, Claude. I'm proud you guys 
are here. Thanks for coming.
    I'm going to turn this over to Reid here in a second. But if the 
goal is to have children reading at grade level by the third grade, 
which is a goal we have set--and by the way, some people have been 
criticizing the No Child Left Behind Act because they say the standards 
are too high. I don't think that's too high a standard, to expect a 
child to read at third grade when they're in the third grade. As a 
matter of fact, you know, I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask 
school districts to at least accomplish that. But to do it, we've got to 
advance a--help advance a strategy. I think it is a proper role for the 
Federal Government to help school districts implement reading strategies 
that work.
    And Reid Lyon has been very much involved in figuring out what 
works. And you'll hear him talk about phonemic awareness and phonics and 
fluency. I'm going to let him describe what all those words mean. But 
really what they mean is there's a way to figure out whether or not the 
curriculum being used at the local level can be effective, that's what 
he's saying.
    And so we put forth a Reading First Initiative across the country. 
And part of it, obviously, requires Federal commitment, Federal dollars. 
We've got $1.8 billion now we're spending on Reading First programs. We 
intend to spend 5 billion over a 5-year period of time.
    So far, we're making good progress. In 2002, all 50 States are 
participating in the grantmaking process. In other words, they've 
developed curriculums screened by people like Reid who say, ``Gosh, this 
will work.'' In other words, we don't want to spend money unless people 
are using curriculum that works. There's no need to throw good money 
into programs that won't work. We've tried that before.
    And so the grant programs seem like they're going well. The 
screening process is going well. There are 1,000 districts that now get 
Reading First grants. There are 3,600 schools getting Reading First 
grants. There's been 73,000 teachers trained in the curriculum that 
works. Part of making sure that a Reading First program works, part of 
making sure that children can read at the grade level by the third grade 
is to make sure you've got teachers who can teach by the third grade--
teachers who can teach curriculum to make sure children can read by the 
third grade. One-point-two million students are being affected.
    By the way, Ralph Regula is with us today as well. I just saw Ralph 
sneak in here. Mr. Chairman, thanks for coming. He's a strong advocate 
of the Reading First program. He's a United States Congressman from the 
State of Ohio. The fact you're here, Mr. Chairman, says a lot about your 
interest. You're probably wondering when I'm going to stop talking. You 
know how we are when we get a mike.
    As well I just want you to know--and we've discussed some of this 
today--we've got a early Reading First program, which really starts in 
the pre-K period as well as--and you're going to hear an interesting 
program called Striving Readers Initiative. This basically says that if 
you don't hold people

[[Page 872]]

to account early in the system, it is likely people are going to get 
shuffled through the schools without being able to read, see. And we're 
beginning to find out that's the truth, and we're finding people in 
junior high and high school who can't read. We need intensive 
intervention programs. At the very minimum, when a kid gets out of high 
school, they ought to be able to read, see. And you'll hear an 
interesting program developed by this good man to my left here, about 
how to be successful.
    What we're talking about is making sure we meet an obligation in our 
country to give people the chance to succeed in this great country, and 
I'm telling you we can do it. I have seen incredible progress. We test 
for a reason, because we want to know, and the reading scores are 
beginning to go up. And I believe it has a lot to do with the research 
that Reid Lyon has done here at the NIH facilities here. I believe that 
when you can figure out the key to reading and convince people to use 
the proper strategy, every child can learn to read. I refuse to accept 
anything less than that. I refuse to lower the bar for kids.
    And so, therefore, my job as your President is to continue to 
challenge and push and insist on high standards. And we're making 
progress. Reid, I'm really proud of the work you do. He's about to tell 
us--what do you do--[laughter]--and how do you do it?

[Dr. G. Reid Lyon, Chief, Child Development and Behavior Branch, 
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. You know, people are going to say, ``Well, that 
sounds good. How do you know it works?'' And as you know, I'm a how-do-
you-know-it-works kind of guy. Reid mentioned there is a debate. 
Governors are very familiar with the reading curriculum debate, and 
there are some very strong opinions about what might work, what might 
not work. I'm the kind of fellow that says, ``You ought to be able to 
figure it out pretty clearly.''
    Why are you so certain that your attitude is the right attitude?

[Dr. Lyon made further remarks.]

    The President. Good. Well, I--anyway. This is based upon science, is 
what I'm telling you, see. And if you've got something that works, then 
it makes sense to spread the news. So that's what we're talking about 
here: How do we make sure the research that has been done here in 
Washington is shared around the country?
    We've got another expert here in reading, the professor and director 
of the Center of Research of Learning at the University of Kansas--Don 
Deshler is with us. I first learned of Don when Laura, who is very much 
involved with reading--she was a school librarian. She loves to read. 
She believes every child can read. She believes every child must read, 
and she also understands that there is some need for some serious 
intervention programs in certain schools. So she met Don in Florida, and 
she came back and she said,``You're not going to believe this guy. He's 
got a fabulous program.'' I said, ``Okay, we'll put him on the stage and 
see if he can explain it.'' [Laughter]
    Tell us what you do.

[Dr. Donald D. Deshler, professor and director of the Center for 
Research on Learning, University of Kansas, made brief remarks.]

    The President. I was going to say, so what do you have to do to get 
the Michigan school to--did you design a curriculum? Did you have 
teacher training? What was it?

[Dr. Deshler made further remarks.]

    The President. Yes, thanks. Gosh, glad you came. [Laughter] Glad 
Laura told me about you. [Laughter] I love your attitude. What he's 
talking about, this initiative, the Intervention Initiative, to make 
sure junior high students and high school students at least have the 
capacity to read, is something I've sent up to Congress, Mr. Chairman. 
We need to get it funded. He's got a program that works. The role of the 
Federal Government is to fund the capacity for districts to take the 
program, implement it, and make it happen.
    I agree with you that because of the reforms that are now in place, 
high schools are going to start seeing a more literate population. The 
problem is, we've got a gap, and we've got to make sure that we do 
everything

[[Page 873]]

we can to intervene and help those kids. If you can't read, it doesn't 
matter. That's just as simple as that. I mean, I know that doesn't sound 
very nuanced or sophisticated, but it's true. It's the absolute truth.
    And we're here talking about making sure everybody can. Governor, I 
want you to pay attention to this program because I bet you there's some 
schools in the State of Maryland that could use a little intervention, 
particularly at the junior high and high school level. This works. And 
this good man here has taken a scientific approach to developing a 
curriculum, which is relatively easy to implement, I would guess. I 
mean, it doesn't----
    Dr. Deshler. Well, I--good teaching, I believe, is a challenge, and 
it requires hard work. But if we follow known principles of instruction, 
the payoff is enormous.
    The President. Yes. The--I'm glad you brought up Michigan, because 
Faith Stevens is with us. She is the Reading First Coordinator for the 
whole State, right? That's a big job. I'm really glad you're here. How's 
it going? Are you implementing the Reading First Initiative?

[Faith Stevens, Reading First coordinator, Michigan Department of 
Education, Lansing, MI, made brief remarks.]

    The President. Great job. Thank you. You know, one of the 
interesting comments I've heard, and I'm confident others who are 
involved with public policy when it comes to education have heard, they 
say, you know, ``All you're doing is teaching the test. Don't test, 
because all you're doing is teaching the test.'' Listen, if you teach a 
child how to read, they will pass a reading test.
    I've heard every excuse in the book why not to measure. But if you 
can't measure, how do you know? And you heard the great deal of 
satisfaction from that teacher as a result of correctly utilizing an 
accountability system to make sure that she was doing the right thing, 
that she was able to impart her love. And the joy as a result of 
teaching a child to read was evident in her statement. As a matter of 
fact, tell her, ``Thanks for teaching.'' Tell her, ``Thanks for being 
also agile enough of mind to be willing to change, if change is 
needed.'' We can't be risk-adverse when it comes to making sure every 
child learns to read.
    Speaking about teachers, we've got Janice Kantor with us. She came 
all the way from Phoenix, Arizona, for which we are grateful. Welcome. 
She is a Reading First literacy coach. It's kind of an interesting 
title, isn't it? When I went to Sam Houston Elementary School in 
Midland, I don't remember any literacy coaches. [Laughter] I remember a 
football coach. [Laughter] But I think it's a really interesting 
evolution that we've got literacy coaches, which should say to people 
that reading is more important than athletics. They're both important, 
but we better make sure they read.
    So what does a literacy coach do?

[Janice Kantor, Reading First literacy coach, Westwind Primary School, 
Phoenix, AZ, made brief remarks.]

    The President. Fabulous. Thanks for coming. Pretty strong spirit, 
isn't it? I really appreciate that. Thank you for being here. You know, 
I think one of the things we have to address is why teacher colleges 
aren't teaching reading teachers how to teach in the first place, so you 
don't need to retrain.
    Maybe that's another project for you, Reid. [Laughter] Maybe it's my 
project. But thank you for retraining teachers. Listen, teachers are a 
really loving people, and they care deeply about their profession and 
their desire to pass on knowledge, and sometimes they just don't have 
the skills to be able to do so. It's got to be frustrating. It wasn't 
frustrating if you didn't measure, because you didn't know. But then 
when you start using the accountability system that all of a sudden 
points out that, oops, maybe I ought to get a--find a new skill so I can 
do my job.
    We've got Cynthia Henderson with us from Montgomery, Alabama. I'm 
really glad you're here. Cynthia is a kindergarten teacher. And she went 
through the Reading First training program, and why don't you tell us 
what that was like. As I understand, it was slightly intimidating to 
begin with. Is that an accurate assessment?

[Cynthia Henderson, kindergarten teacher, Floyd Elementary School, 
Montgomery, AL, made brief remarks.]

[[Page 874]]

    The President. Yes, benchmark means--explain to--benchmark means 
they met expectations.
    Ms. Henderson. They met every expectation for the entire year.
    The President. And so what she's saying is she just kind of sent 
these little fellows and little ladies off to a glorious future because 
they've got the foundations for reading.
    Ms. Henderson. And you know, because I work at a school that, where 
most of the children that are enrolled there are either on poverty level 
or below poverty level, it means so much to me because some of them are 
going to be the first ones in their families to even attend college.
    The President. There you go.
    Ms. Henderson. It is so exciting that they're so excited about 
reading. And I think it's all about changing a school, that changes a 
community, that changes a whole city, that changes a State, that changes 
a whole nation of readers.
    The President. There you go. I agree. One of the things that's very 
important in the measurement system is to do what I call ``disaggregate 
the data.'' Some districts didn't like measuring specific groups of 
people because you could pass the standards if you put every--lumped 
everybody together. But that didn't tell the whole truth about who was 
learning and who wasn't learning.
    And so as part of the new accountability system, the No Child Left 
Behind Act, we break out based upon race. It's really essential we do 
that. It's really important. If you don't do that, you're likely to 
leave people behind. And that's not right. There's a learning--there's 
an achievement gap in America that will be closed. It must be closed, 
and will be closed. It won't be closed unless you're honest about the 
achievement gap, unless you're able to see clearly who needs help and 
who doesn't need help.
    What you've heard here, teachers and coaches and implementers who 
understand that the accountability system must be used as a tool to make 
sure that the curriculum being used, the techniques being used, the 
strategy being used, works. That's what you're hearing.
    If you heard--they said, ``We look at the test results per child.'' 
Inside the classroom, that's good, but schools and districts need to 
look at the test results per child as well and not try to gloss over the 
reality in certain school districts by lumping everybody together. This 
act is called the No Child Left Behind Act because we want to make sure 
no child is left behind, not it's okay that some get left behind. That's 
not the spirit of the law.
    I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have. This is a--again, we 
came here because the discussions we were having were based upon sound 
science, not guesswork. And like you, sir, I am incredibly optimistic 
that we're getting it right here in America. We're getting it right 
because smart people have help. Policymakers understand what works. 
We're getting it right because people are continuing to devise 
strategies to help children who need continued help. We're getting it 
right because we're providing resources to make sure teachers get 
retrained with curriculum that works. We're getting it right because 
we've got fabulous teachers in the classroom--coaches and teachers, I 
might want you to know--whose spirit can lift the room here at the NIH 
with just a few words.
    And listen, we will meet the goal here. We have an obligation to 
meet the goal to make sure every child can read at grade level, starting 
by the third grade. And there's no doubt in my mind this country will do 
it. We're on track, and I want to appreciate those who put us on track 
and who keep us on track for being here today.
    God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 1:27 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Phyllis C. Hunter, former manager, Reading Department, Houston 
Independent School District; and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., and Lt. 
Gov. Michael S. Steele of Maryland.