Rod Paige

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige:
Re-creating a 'Miracle'

By Michael Fletcher

Roderick R. Paige earned a reputation as one of the nation's best school superintendents during the nearly seven years he ran Houston's public schools. He brought about impressive gains in student test scores and new confidence in the public school system.

Now as President George W. Bush's education secretary, Paige is the point man for a new federal education plan that proponents call the most sweeping change in education policy in the past 35 years. The plan requires annual testing of students in grades three through eight. Also, for the first time, it ties federal money to how students perform on the standardized tests. Schools that consistently do poorly will risk being turned into charter schools or having their students claim a portion of the schools' federal aid for private tutoring.

It is the same approach that Bush contends led to the "Texas Miracle," the much-touted increase in that state's standardized test scores, particularly among Black and Hispanic students But despite those gains, an increasingly vocal group of researchers says the improved test scores mask deep, continued problems in Houston -- from a plague of dropouts to a curriculum that some analysts contend is geared too closely to preparing students for standardized tests. Many have leveled similar criticism at the new federal education plan, saying it focuses too narrowly on testing. Others, particularly conservatives, predict it will be ineffective largely because it does not include vouchers to allow parents to send their children to private schools.

It is left to Paige, 67, to answer those critics. Born in Mississippi, Paige is the son of educators. He earned his bachelor's degree from Jackson State University (an historically Black school) and a master's and doctorate from Indiana University. He worked for years as a college football coach then as dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University. Later, he was elected to the Houston school board, before being appointed superintendent and, finally, education secretary.

US Black Engineer & Information Technology recently talked to Paige about his new job.

USBE: You and the president have called this education reform plan the biggest, the most sweeping change in federal education policy in 35 years. But many critics say there is less to the plan than meets the eye. Why do you think you are right and they are wrong?

Paige: I think a lot of people are getting political ideology and education reform confused. I am the only one in the bunch who has practiced school choice. Everyone else has bumped his or her lips together. I had a program in Houston operating through an elected board that provided choice. Expanded parental choice to include private schools is a fundamental condition for authentic school reform. That's why we had it in Houston. The strategic intent was to earn so much respect from parents in Houston that we became their K-12 system of choice. But for that to happen, they had to have choice. All this is about improving the public schools....
There are parts of the Republican Party that don't appreciate incrementalism. And because the whole thing is not there, they are essentially blind to what is there. For the vast majority of the detractors, the main sticking point was the choice issue. But look (at) what's there. A parent may, after a certain period of failing, use a pro rata share of their Title I dollars to seek supplemental help. That is unprecedented. We have created a situation that will work. In addition to that, people will have an expanded choice of charter schools.

USBE: What kind of support have you gotten from high-tech firms in the early part of your term?

Paige: It has been a little contentious because of some of the statements made in the early part of the campaign that suggested the e-rate might be part of packaging and combining with other technology money. There was considerable disagreement with that idea. We had a lot of people from technology companies come and talk with us. And, as evidence of the president's listening, the decision was made not to bundle the e-rate.... We are still having some very high-level discussions with computer people who can talk about where this is going in the future. We ask questions like what the wireless thing means to schools. For example, while a lot of people are going around stringing wires in schools, the question might be, "That is a very expensive operation. How far is the 'Wireless Revolution' away from being able to serve this purpose without these wires?"

USBE: What's the answer to that?

Paige: I'd say three to five years. As a matter of fact, there were already in Houston one or two locations with wireless computer networks.

USBE: What is the department doing to manage its technology future?

Paige: We are bringing a person into the department whose total responsibility will be to keep us at the cutting edge of what is going on in technology.... That person will be serving the purpose of "futuring," keeping us looking forward. Also, the assessment system the president is talking about, that is going to generate a lot of numbers, a lot of data. That is going to be of value only to the degree that we can turn that data into effective pedagogical information that can inform teaching and inform resource allocation decisions. You have to be able to handle this data, and the computer offers opportunities to do that. The other thing is going to be the cyberspace schools: virtual schools over the Internet. We had one in operation in middle school in Houston.

USBE: Have we been focused on the wrong things until now? Are we too carefully doing things like counting computers in schools, while losing sight of the big picture?

Paige: I don't want to offend anybody, but there is really only one issue for us: student learning. It is not measured by how many computers you have in the classroom. To the extent the computers in the classroom facilitate student learning, they are very valuable tools. So far, there has been no evaluation that makes this linkage. So there is a lot of unguided expenditure and efforts in this regard. People may ask how can I say that. But here's my evidence: I have walked among them. I have been to schools and seen computers in boxes, just sitting there like trophies. I don't want to be offensive to anybody, because there are pockets of excellence all over the United States. But you can't talk about wanting no child left behind then talk about pockets of excellence. All I am saying is that there is a need to be more efficient in how we deal with this technology issue. Make sure you are contributing to the bottom line: improving learning.

USBE: Do you see a greater role for adult and vocational education in filling the hundreds of thousands of information technology jobs that are available in this country?

Paige: The whole system of adult vocational training needs an educational component that is a little stronger than what is currently out there, at least in most GED programs. We are talking about possibilities of cooperating in ways that involve people out of school (who) can focus on vocational skills while also focusing on getting dropouts a high school diploma.

USBE: Do you see a special role for historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions in your department's efforts to strengthen K-12 math and science programs?

Paige: Absolutely. We are planning to talk to some specific HBCUs to start this kind of program. One is Howard University. The reason we want to do this is that many of these universities have special abilities to address many of the inner-city kids we are talking about, the kids who are having a lot of difficulties. In many big cities, there are HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions we can draw expertise from in order to serve this population.

USBE: How will the high school graduation rate be affected by the testing and accountability plan that went through Congress?

Paige: They will go up. Once you test these kids early enough and find out where their deficits are, teaching can be more specific in pointing toward their deficits. That's efficiency. If we say, "Sally failed math," what does that mean? Does she not know her multiplication? Her division? Can she add? Testing can bore down deep beyond this global statement that she failed and go to the specific. Now the teacher can go directly to what Sally's deficit is.

USBE: Some teachers may say, "Sally failed math because she never listened. Sally is a smart kid, but she never listens."

Paige: Can I put it another way? Sally failed math because we did not get Sally's attention.

USBE: There are people who say that 80 percent of what a child scores on a test is attributable to their socioeconomic condition.

Paige: If that is the decision that is made, we don't need the schools. But the schools can overcome this. We've got schools that teach kids from the most deprived environments, and they learn. That argument cannot hold anymore because of the presence of these schools that do this daily.

USBE: There are rumors going around that you are leaving your post? Is this true?

Paige: I have never even thought it. It has never come anywhere near my lips. It is an example to me how the scarcity of news can create in itself news. Some of the people want to say I'm unhappy with the president's plan, that I'm pissed off with him and want to leave. That's garbage. Not only is it garbage, it has never been a thought. It is something that has been generated from zero.

Michael Fletcher can be reached at MFletcher@ccgmag.com