Alyn McCauley Quotes

I mean, one thing I know about change is we are not going to close the achievement gap without educators.

For too long, actually, we have either said you`re this or that.

The long and short of it is, we need more rigor in all kinds of programs.

That`s why the Department has pledged $14 million to gather the best practices among the states and to better assess and better measure these kids.

There`s lots of institutions and lots of different cultures, and so that`s the kind of thing that parents need to be able to evaluate, and students themselves, when they make a selection.

Higher education is confronting challenges, like the economy is, about the need for a higher number of more adequately trained, more highly educated citizenry.

Well, one of them is annual assessment in grades 3-8. It`s integral to the implementation of everything.

And I think that`s righteous, I think that`s what parents want to know. They want to know what`s going right in the school, and what needs improvement, and that`s what this law does.

And I think that we in America need to understand that many schools need improvement, and particularly with respect to how they`re serving minority children.

But the other notion is, we also believe that those folks closest on the ground that we`re holding accountable for the results can decide, and ought to evaluate which programs get results.

One of the things we know is that, frequently, it`s a reading deficiency that is keeping kids from being able to do more rigorous coursework.

I think it`d be useful for parents to know kind of what is the culture of an institution.

We want to obviously foster a relationship that we`re a partner with states; that we all share the same goals of closing the achievement gap, just as the Congress does; and that we`re practical and sophisticated enough to understand what they`re talking about.

We at the Department of Education are going to provide technical assistance; I`ve committed $14 million to show states how they might meet this more sophisticated approach.

We know that if we`re going to remain economically competitive in the world, and viable as a civic democracy, that we`re going to have to get more people educated to higher levels.

Well, as I`ve said, there`s nobody who cares more about the credibility of this department and the credibility of No Child Left Behind than me.

We recognize that it`s a little bit more complicated when there are different kinds of course offerings and class structures by state and by district.

In Connecticut, my understanding, although I haven`t seen the actual litigation, is that they want to measure every other year and not provide annual assessment as is required in the statute.

I do think we know that a teacher who knows what he or she is doing, knows their subject matter, and knows how to impart knowledge to kids is a critical piece of closing the achievement gap.

It`s a hard process to navigate... to figure out where your kid ought to go to college.

My understanding is that Kansas, Massachusetts, they`ve been more pioneers on the special education side.

What we know is the workplace is more demanding than ever before.

And I believe that public broadcasting has an important trust with the American people, it`s an intimate medium of television, and that we can do reading and language development for young children without getting into human sexuality.

I think all kinds of parents are different in what they`re seeking.

Again, the truth of the matter is we haven`t paid that much attention to high school accountability.

We have some pioneers, some leaders around the country, in Massachusetts and Kansas to name a couple, that are doing some of the best work.