The school of spellings: U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings talks about her push for a major overhaul of higher education

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Oct 5, 2006 by Christina Asquith

Tough, passionate and perhaps "terrifying," U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has been described in many ways during her 14 years working in education for former Texas governor and current U.S. President George W. Bush.

Now, higher education officials will learn for themselves what all the talk has been about. In her final two years as Education Secretary, Spellings is shifting her focus from K-12 to colleges and universities. Much like No Child Left Behind's unprecedented scale, Spellings is pushing for a major overhaul of financing, assessment, accessibility and perhaps even coursework in higher education.

In an interview with Diverse's Christina Asquith, Spellings talks about bringing her "business-style accountability" to colleges and universities.

DI: A New York Times article last year called you "terrifying" because of the forcefulness with which you pushed No Child Left Behind. Do you take that as a compliment or an insult?

MS: Moi? (laughs) Oh, it's a compliment. Are you kidding? Absolutely. Well, I went to the "George W. Bush school of public policy management," which says, "when there are too many goals, there are no goals."

We have to have priorities and do a few things and do them well. We are very vigorous and righteous, if I may say so, in this national imperative of educating every person. And now we are paying attention to higher education. It's very critical. It's gone from being a 'nice to have' to an absolute 'must have' if you're going to be employed in this flat world.

DI: You've been U.S. Secretary of Education since January 2005. Where are we now and where are we going with No Child Left Behind?

MS: I've been very clear in what the non-negotiables are in No Child Left Behind: annual assessments, disaggregated data, every kid up to grade level by 2014. But having worked on school boards and for two governors, I understand that this has to work in the real world and we have to acknowledge that this isn't a one-size-fits-all kind of country. I'm all about results over process.

In fact, I was just meeting with 100 Black Men. They're very important leaders, and I want to understand what's working and what isn't. If it makes sense to get tutoring help for kids before they leave, then let's give that a whirl.

DI: No Child Left Behind requires a trained, certified teacher in every classroom, but in recent years, school districts have been given extensions and exceptions in meeting this goal. Is that what you are referring to?

MS: Yes, that sort of thing. What is enhancing student achievement? This whole thing I hear about is people wanting to get credit for progress they're making instead of being held to an absolute standard. And I'm allowing North Carolina and Tennessee to experiment with the value-added approach. But that kind of system only applies to people who have a rich assessment base and have been doing annual measurements and can track cohorts of kids, so we can compare you to yourself in the third, fourth and fifth grade as opposed to a snapshot of the third-graders this year and a snapshot of the third-graders next year. I'm trying to be sensible and reasonable.

DI: Still, here in Washington and elsewhere, there is the sense that inner-city schools are still underserved, under-funded and failing.

MS: Some are, and some are not. It's as simple as that. There are some islands of excellence, but also there are those that are a cause for concern. Half of our minority students don't get out of high school on time. It's shocking. It's outrageous in the United States of America, and I say that as a parent of a high school student. Do I want one of my two children in that high school? Heck no. Some schools do an excellent job, and some have a long way to go and that's why we need to start talking about high schools.

DI: You called No Child Left Behind "Ivory soap--99 percent pure."

MS: Oh, I rue the day I said that! (laughs) But I do believe that. I've been involved in public policy for a long time, and we've never passed a perfect bill yet. This is an organic process. We're learning and improving all the time and have come a long way in five years. In my temporary home state of Virginia, five years ago they tested three times in three grades. I literally walked into an elementary school when I was shopping for public schools and said, "How are your Hispanic kids doing?" And they said, "I have no idea." Well, now they know. We have annual assessment. We disaggregate data. We know how the schools are doing. We've come a long way and learned a lot. We need to do a better job of providing supplemental service options to families. We need to talk about highly effective teachers. How are we allocating our most effective personnel? What's the effect of personnel on student achievement? We've done a lot of work on reading--it's the heart of No Child Left Behind--but we haven't paid enough attention to math. We're learning all the time.

DI: In the summer of 2005, you formed a 19-member Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which made its recommendations last month. Are you planning to take No Child Left Behind into the colleges?