He said that he did not like to label schools as "failing".
You should encourage schools that do not divide or label, schools that educate all children for their equal worth.
Michigan's superintendent of schools, Thomas D. Watkins Jr., said today that he was encouraged by parts of the letter, in which the Education Department agreed not to label "schools in need of improvement" as failing schools.
As a mother of three and local school board member, I am strongly opposed to President Bush's underfinanced mandate, which labels schools as "failing" and entices students to transfer out.
Melody Schopp, South Dakota's education secretary, followed a week later with a letter saying she, too, would not lift testing targets, because to do so "would inappropriately label schools as failing".
Saltman saw Duncan as a militant privatizer, labelling schools in black communities as failures to justify opening new charters that could skim off the highest-achieving students, thereby widening the gap between winners and losers.
He faced obstacles from the start, including opposition from many Republican lawmakers, who say the law intrudes on states' rights, and from Democrats, who say it labels schools as failing but does too little to help them improve.
"The spirit of No Child Left Behind is good, the intent is great, we just need to look at how it labels schools and how we fund it," Mr. Gonzales said.
Since it was recast into its current form by the second Bush administration — and renamed No Child Left Behind — it has generated frequent, divisive debate, partly because it requires schools to administer far more standardized tests and because it labels schools that fail to make progress fast enough each year as "needing improvement".
Mr. Bush also created the first statewide voucher program allowing students to transfer out of poorly performing schools, but it has engendered criticism from teacher and parent groups that say it unfairly labels schools and puts an emphasis on teaching test-taking skills rather than a core curriculum.
