April 17, 2002
SECRETARY PAIGE TAKES NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND TOUR TO LAS VEGAS
Hispanic families attend town-hall meeting with Paige
LAS VEGAS, NV — America's Promise CEO Peter Gallagher, U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marín, and Jaime Escalante, distinguished educator from East Los Angles, joined U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today on his No Child Left Behind Tour Across America to reach out to Las Vegas parents about the importance of this new law and to ask parents for their help in improving our local schools.
"For No Child Left Behind to work, we need the energy, enthusiasm and expectations of parents, " said Secretary Paige. "There is nothing more forceful, there is nothing more powerful than a parent with the information and the options to make decisions and get involved."
At a town-hall meeting sponsored by the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, Secretary Paige answered questions from families, educators and members of the community about how parents and concerned citizens can help hold schools accountable, ensure every child is able to read at grade level by the third grade, and help improve student achievement across the country.
"We must have the help of parents. Families must be involved," Paige told the audience. "For education to be transformed and schools to improve, parents must expect results from their schools and do their part to help teachers as well as track their schools' improvement."
Las Vegas is the fourth stop on a 25-city No Child Left Behind Tour Across America, which aims to reach out to parents and working families to ask for their active participation in this process of improving America's schools. Additional stops on the tour have included Albuquerque, N.M., Atlanta, Ga. and Washington, D.C. The next stops will be announced later.
The tour offers resources for parents, including a No Child Left Behind toolkit containing an interactive CD and guidebooks titled What to Know and Where to Go to answer questions and provide local information resources. Also launched during this tour is the new Web site www.NoChildLeftBehind.gov, a virtual one-stop shop for parents and families, teachers and principals, local and state officials, and members of the business and civic communities.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which President Bush signed in January, states and school districts will develop strong systems of accountability based upon student performance. The new law also gives states and school districts increased local control and flexibility, removing federal red tape and bureaucracy and putting decision-making in the hands of those at the local and state levels. Parents of children from disadvantaged backgrounds will have options under the new law to participate in public school choice programs or obtain supplemental services such as tutoring. Teachers around the country will be encouraged to use teaching methods based on scientific research that shows they have been proven to work.
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