Arne Duncan Remarks at the American Society of News Editors Annual Convention

Arne Duncan Remarks at the American Society of News Editors Annual Convention

Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 3:10-3:30 pm ET -- Capital Hilton, Washington, D.C

AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

Thank you, Clark. The work you are doing to help the next generation become more sophisticated in understanding the news is absolutely vital. To have full power over their lives,young people must understand the world they live in. They have to read, they have to follow the news, and they have to vote.All that is such an important part of what it means to be educated. So, thank you.

Traditionally, this event has been an opportunity for federal leaders to talk about touchy subjects. For example, you asked President Kennedy to talk about the Bay of Pigs. So, thanks for having me here to talk about the Common Core State Standards.

Academic standards used to be a subject for after-school department meetings and late-night state board sessions. But now, they’re a topic for dueling newspaper editorials. That’s because a new set of standards – rigorous, high-quality learning standards, developed and led by a group of governors and state education chiefs – are under attack as a federal takeover of the schools.And your role in sorting out truth from nonsenseis really important.

So I’d like to explain how we arrived at this place. I’ll talk about information and misinformation, and ask you to help Americans draw a bright line between the two. I’d like to make the case that these standards have the capacity to change education in the best ways– setting loose the creativity and innovation of educators, raising the bar for students, strengthening our economy and building a clearer path to the middle class. But for these new standards to succeed, Americans will need to be clear on what’s true and what’s false.

You and I wake up every day to similar worries and similar hopes. We just attach different labels to them.

You wonder whether there’s a market for serious news. You wonder whether a generation that grew up on text messages and Twitter will read about interest rates and Iran.

I worry about the one in four young Americans who don’t graduate from high school – and the three out of four high school graduates who are ineligible to serve in the military.I worry about the 90 millionAmerican adults with below-basic or basic reading skills.

If you don’t worry about these things – you will. Because they put your future at risk -- and ours.

For America to prosper – and for journalism to survive– we need a generation that reads, writes and thinks.

You may have heard President Obama say that America was Number 1 in the world in college completion just a generation ago. Today we’re Number 12 among young adults. That’s not good enough.

We’re not going to pave a path to the middleclass with the cheapest labor. We’re not going to reverse the polarization of wealth in this countrythrough unskilled jobs. The only way that we can promise all of our young people agenuine opportunity is through a world-class education.

What our young people need, and deserve, is an education that leaves them not just college-ready but innovation-ready. They need an education that prepares them for the reality of today’s flat world – a world where you invent your own job, change careers, and constantly acquire new skills. The real world demands readers, writers, and critical thinkers. People who can work with others and communicate skillfully. It’s the same thing you demand.

The problem is, a lot of children, in a lot of places in America, haven’t been getting a world-class education. But rather than recognize that, for a long time, our school systems lied to kids, to families, and to communities. They said the kids were all right.

What made those soothing lies possible were low standards for learning. Low standards are like setting up for a track-and-field event with hurdles a foot tall. That’s what happened in education in a lot of places, and everyone came out looking good – educators, administrators andespecially politicians.

The truth was that we had thousands of schools where as few as 10 percent of students were reading or doing math at grade level, and where less than half were graduating.

The truth was that, in a class of 100 low-income kindergartners, 29 could expect to enroll in college, and nine could expect to graduate. Nine.

For those who made it to college, remediation rates were high. Our competitiveness was in danger.

Fortunately, in 2007, a group of governors and state education chiefs decided they were unwilling to perpetuatethiscycle of deception and dysfunction. They set out to develop a set of learning standardsaligned to the demands of the real world – to the kind of deep learning that your children, and mine, will need to thrive.

What happened was far beyond anyone’s expectations: 45 states and DC adopted these new standards. Nobody foresaw that development in 2009. It’s a testament to the courage of these state leaders, and the power of a good idea.

It was powerful for two reasons: because these standards were rigorous enough to prepare students for the real world, and because they would be shared among a number of states. Here’s what that means:

Today, for the first time in American history a child in Mississippi will face the same expectations as a child in Massachusetts.

Today a fourth grade teacher in New Mexico can develop a lesson plan and a fourth grade teacher in New York can use it if she wants to.

Today, the child of a Marine officer who is transferred from Camp Pendleton in California to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina will be able to make that academic transition without a hitch.

When these standards are fully implemented, a student who graduates from a high school in any one of these states – who is performing at standard -- will be ready to attend and succeed in his or her state university without remedial education.

We are no longer lying to kids about whether they are ready.We are finally telling them the truth, telling their parents the truth, and telling their future employers the truth.We are finally holding ourselves accountable to giving our children a true college and career-ready education.

The New York Times has called the Common Core “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to bring our public schools up to levels of our high-performing international competitors.

I believe the Common Core state standards may prove to be the among the most important things to happen to public education in America since Brown versus Board of Education -- andthe federal government had nothing to do with creating them.

The federal government didn’t write them, didn’t approve them and doesn’t mandate them, and we never will.Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or willfully misleading.

Now – I will tell you what we did do.And then you can do your job by confirming it-- and by questioning anyone who says otherwise – because all kinds of people are saying all kinds of things that are simply not true.

When the Obama Administration came into office in 2009, the Common Core standards were in development, and gaining momentum. We set out to support states and districts in changing the conditions that were limiting educational opportunity, and raising standards was a vital part of that.

With governors and state leaders making major progress on standards, we gave them all the support we could, within the bounds of what’s appropriate for the limited federal role in education.

Our big competitive reform fund, Race to the Top, awardedpoints – 40 points out of 500 -- to states that were collaborating to create common college- and career-ready standards and assessments.

It was voluntary -- we didn’t mandate it – but we absolutely encouraged it because it is good for kids and good for the country.

And at the time, no one knew how many groups of states would come together to create their own set of common standards. It turned out to be one big group of 46 – but it could have been several groups of states uniting around different sets of standards. So this notion of our pushing for one set of standards was never correct.

Moreover, there’s a huge difference between creating an incentive, which was absolutely the right thing to do, and mandating particular standards – which we have never done and never will do. The states choose their standards; they were, and remain, free to opt for different ones.

Did the points, and the dollars, matter to the states? Undoubtedly. But it’s not the only reason or even the most importantreason why states adopted the Common Core.

States signed on to the Common Core because it was the right thing to do.They knew that their children were being cheated and they refused to be a part of it – and for that they deserve our deepest praise and gratitude. In fact, dozens of states that didn’t get Race to the Top money still kept those standards – and American education is better because of it.

These standards are under attack now.

It’s important to remember where this all started. Before 2009, No Child Left Behind created pressure for schools and districts to meet standards – and in response, 19 states actually dummied down their standards to make more of their students look proficient.

Here’s how low the bar was. You’ve heard about the NAEP test – the one we refer to as the nation’s report card. Fourth-grade reading standards in 35 states were set below what NAEP considers the bare minimum or “basic.”

In 2007, Tennessee was one of only two states to receive an "F" for its academic standards, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Ninety percent of students there scored “proficient” on state reading and math tests, yet only 26 percent were proficient according to NAEP.Same kids, different tests, wildly different results – all because Tennessee had pathetically low standards.

Those proficiency cut scores on Tennessee’s assessments were dishonest. They corresponded to a student GPA of a D-minus, and concealed huge achievement gaps, especially for disadvantaged students.

Two Tennessee governors – one Democrat and one Republican – Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam-- changed that.They started telling the truth about student learning by raising standards.Measured against these higher standards, test scores looked lower and achievement gaps wider.Proficiency rates dropped by more than half. Achievement gaps more than doubled.

Yet Tennessee stuck by the higher standards -- and, last year, Tennessee’s students made the biggest single-year jump in achievement ever recorded in the state.High standards and high expectations are the first step toward higher performance.

In that effort, the Common Core standards mark a sea-change in education.Not only do they set the bar high,they give teachers the room to go deep, emphasizing problem-solving, analysis, and critical thinking, as well as creativity and teamwork. They give teachers room to innovate.

And teachers have responded. Three out of four say the Common Core standards will help them teach better.

A few weeks ago, I had a group of local teachers to dinner, and I asked them about the Common Core:

• One fourth-grade teacherfrom Maryland said: “I think most teachers love and embrace the idea … that we’re not just teaching them to spit back formulas to us …”
• A middle-school teacher said:“It's giving us a lot more time to get kids into really engaged discussions and deeper thought. … These standards open up all kinds of new directions.”

One teacher – a county teacher of the year – evenbrought in a quote from one of her fifth-graders. Here’s what the student said:

“Sometimes in the past, we knew what the steps were to solve a problem but we could not process it in a way to make sense of the big mathematical idea. Now we start with the big idea and we discover the math within it.”

That’s what a fifth-grader said!

Unfortunately, not everyone shares that enthusiasm. The Common Core has become a rallying cry for fringe groups thatclaimit isa scheme for the federal government to usurp state and local control of what students learn. An op-ed in the New York Times called the Common Core “a radical curriculum.” It is neither radical nor a curriculum.

We should be very clear about terms here.

• Standards – learning standards, academic standards – are the goals, typically set by states, for what students should know by a certain age.
• Curriculum – on the other hand -- is what teachers teach – to help students meet those standards.Curriculum is generally chosen at the district or even the school level – and in many cases individual teachers actually decide on the curriculum and classroom content.

When the critics can’t persuade you that the Common Core is a curriculum, theymake even more outlandish claims.They say that the Common Core calls for federal collection of student data. For the record, it doesn’t, we’re not allowed to, and we won’t. And let’s not even get into the really wacky stuff: mind control, robots, and biometric brain mapping.

The Washington Post laid out the facts in an editorial I will quote:

“Lost in the hysteria being whipped up aboutCommon Core standardsis that the movement to infuse new rigor in schools started at the state level... This sensible and badly needed reform should not be derailed by misguided and misinformed opposition.”

Now, I don’t think the Common Core is going to get derailed. But this misguided, misinformed opposition is making life more difficult in several states, where various forms of anti-Common Core legislation have been introduced. A lot of that legislation is based on false information.

Some of the hostility to Common Core also comes from criticswho conflate standards with curriculum, assessments and accountability.They oppose mandated testing and they oppose using student achievement as one of multiple measures to evaluate principals and teachers.They also oppose intervention in chronically low-performing schools.

It’s convenient for opponents to simply write it all off as federal over-reach – but these are separate and distinct issues – and they should be publicly debated openly and honestly with a common understanding about the facts.

That’s where you come in.

As you know, goodjournalism is more than just claim and counter-claim. It’s investigating what’s true and false, what’s a responsible statement and what’s not. Many of youhave done fine work on that front.

You understand the truth about the role of the federal government with respect to common core standards: We didn’t write them, we don’t mandate them and we don’t regulate them.

That’s why leaders on the left and the right – Randi Weingarten and Mitch Daniels; Dennis van Roekel; andJeb Bush––and so many others – support the common core standards – even if they disagree on other issues.

You also understand that the federal governmenthas nothing to do with curriculum.In fact, we’re prohibited by law from creating or mandating curricula.

So do the reporting. Ask the Common Core critics: Please identify a single lesson planthat the federal government created, or requires of any school, teacher, or district.

Ask if they can identify any textbook that the federal government created, endorsed, or required for any school, teacher, or district in their state.

Ask them to identify any element, phrase, or a single word of the Common Core standards that was developedor required by the federal government.

If they tell you that any of these things are happening ––challenge them to name names. Challenge them to produce evidence – because they won’t find it.It doesn’t exist.

Many responsible conservatives are already speaking the truth and showing real courage.Governor Mike Huckabee recently wrote: “I’ve heard the argument these standards ‘threaten local control’ of what’s being taught in Oklahoma classrooms. Speaking from one conservative to another, let me assure you this simply is not true…They’re not something to be afraid of; indeed they are something to embrace.”

Columnist Michael Gerson wrote recently thatif the Common Core “is a conspiracy against limited government, it has somehow managed to recruit governors Mitch Daniels and Jeb Bush, current governors Bobby Jindal and Chris Christie, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.” Gerson concluded, “A plot this vast is either diabolical or imaginary.”

Imaginary is the right word.

In this change, the state chiefs are in the driver’s seat.I have talked with every governor in America – and visited almost every state. I’ve spent time with every state chief– because I know that when it comes to improving public education –the buck does not stop here in Washington.It stops in Albany, in Lansing, in Tallahassee and in Sacramento.In public education, the buck stops with the states.