Duncan and one of his predecessors, Richard Riley, wrote this op ed calling for higher standards:

At the recent Celebration of Teaching & Learning hosted by New York's PBS station WNET, we - the current secretary of education and the longest-serving secretary of education - had the chance to share ideas about the past, present and future of school reform before an audience of some 9,000 educators. Much has changed since one of us (Riley) became education secretary almost 20 years ago, and one of us (Duncan) became CEO of the Chicago city schools almost 10 years ago.

What hasn't changed is two of the most important priorities: setting high standards and rewarding excellence.

It's clear to both of us that, despite its embrace of standards, the No Child Left Behind law unfortunately set up incentives that had exactly the wrong effect. No Child allowed and even encouraged states to lower their expectations for students.

A recent study by the Education Department's independent research institute reported that 31 states set their proficiency standard for fourth-grade reading lower than the standard defined as "basic" on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation's report card.

In contrast, South Carolina, Massachusetts and other states put higher standards in place, and their schools were more likely to face accountability measures under No Child Left Behind because of it.

As one of the high school seniors from New York said during a Celebration panel presentation, "Why does anyone think it helps us to lower the 'pass' score from 65 to 55?" That remark most certainly hit home with the thousands of educators sitting in the audience.

 

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Raising the bar for all kids: Two U.S. secretaries of education lay out Obama's school reform agenda

By Arne Duncan and Richard Riley

Wednesday, April 7th 2010, 4:00 AM