Introduction

Thank you for that kind introduction, and thank you all for being here this morning. I am pleased to speak at the 2005 Virtual School Symposium, hosted by the North American Council for Online Learning.

It is also nice to see my former colleague Susan Patrick, who until recently was the director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. Susan has long known that online teaching and learning can transform education. At the Department, she was a primary architect of the 2004 National Education Technology Plan, of which I'm sure you are all very familiar! In my remarks today you will hear echoes from that report, which marked the first time that the federal government asked for students' views on education and included those views in a major policy document. Susan once said, "How can we teach if we don't know the students?" Today I will share with you some statistics about our country's students, and how their education and their future prospects, are changing for the better.

Before I start in on that though, I'd like to say a few words about the important work all of you are doing. Whether you run a school, teach or tutor online, or work on expanding the reach of online education, you are part of the solution to many problems plaguing our schools. As I will describe in a few minutes, we may be the wealthiest nation in the world, and we may invest nearly $500 billion in our schools, but you would not know it if you looked at many of our test scores. A number of the schools that I visit look great on the surface - certainly compared to the schools that I've seen in other countries - but what goes on inside of these schools is less than perfect. There are many reasons why this is the case, but no enterprise of this size and scope can survive the test of time if it doesn't more rapidly adapt to the changes of today's global marketplace. Therefore, what you offer is the vehicle and entrepreneurial spirit that all successful enterprises need in order to adapt and progress.

Federal Program Supporting Online Education

Now as you already know, I head up the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, which houses more than $1 billion in grant programs, many of which support technology in education, as well as online learning.

We like to think of our office as the engine that is, in the words of business writer Jim Collins, helping schools go from Good to Great. But as Susan can attest, it's difficult to do so from Washington, which accounts for a mere 8 percent of total education spending. That said, our investments are leveraging dollars and stimulating change at the state and local levels, and, in the next two years we will publish a booklet that will look at online education through the lens of school district officials. This booklet will tease out lessons for those interested in using online instruction to help close the achievement gap.

Two of the programs that have the greatest impact on online education in my office are the Charter School and Voluntary Public School Choice Programs (VPSC). Our charter program offers roughly $120 million every year to states to start up new charter schools, including online schools. As for our VPSC program, it is a five-year pilot that began in 2002 and offers 13 projects designed to expand public school choice - and of course online education is one way to expand choice.

My office also houses a number of Technology Programs that include the Ready To Teach and Star Schools grants. The Ready to Teach program supports projects that assist elementary and secondary school teachers in preparing all students to achieve at high levels.

Here in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Station sponsors the Help with English Language Proficiency, or HELP project, through Ready To Teach. HELP is an internet-based supplementary curriculum aimed at assisting struggling students to learn math. It is specifically designed for English language learners, with a focus on Hispanic students, and consists of multimedia lessons that break down math terms and concepts so that students can better understand content. In an independent pilot evaluation of HELP lessons across 3 Colorado districts, students in sixth through twelfth grade improved their scores on the standards-aligned post-test by more than 40 percent.

And our Star Schools grants demonstrate exactly how far reaching the distance in "distance learning" can be. Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, or PRELStar, provides 6 hours of educational programming each day to people on remote islands of the Pacific Rim, and has made it possible for schools in Yap and Pohnpei to receive email. These islands have no electricity, but by using radios and computers from the U.S., antennas and solar equipment from Australia, and special modems from Switzerland, the schools finally have real-time communication with the rest of the world!

My office also coordinates the implementation of the supplemental educational services provisions of No Child Left Behind—which helps to advance online education. It used to be that if a student needed extra help, he would have to travel to where an expert was located. Now expertise can come to the student thanks to online tutoring programs that provide just-in-time help whenever the student needs it.

No Child Left Behind and an Expanding World Market

Now that I've shared with you some of the programs that my office supports, let's look at our students' future and how well they are prepared for it. We all know the clichés about how we are living in a global economy and that many information-age jobs can be easily outsourced to other countries, particularly China and India. And it follows that our students need to be better prepared for the competition that lies ahead. As Alan Greenspan has pointed out, "generic capabilities in mathematics and writing are key to the ability to learn and apply new skills and thus earn higher real wages over time."

Unfortunately, according to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, students across racial lines are currently losing interest in subjects such as math and science as they progress through our nation's schools. So, while only 32 percent of our students earn bachelors degrees in science and engineering, in countries like China, 59 percent do, and in Japan 66 percent earn such degrees. These numbers are contained in a new report commissioned by Senators Lamar Alexander and Jeff Bingaman. The report concludes that the scientific and technical building blocks of America's economic leadership "are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength."

We believe it is the responsibility of this country's educational community—including policymakers—to help secure our economic future by ensuring that all of our students are adequately prepared for the 21st century and beyond--which is the spirit behind the No Child Left Behind Act. This law passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support at a time when there was a sense that our investments in education at the federal level were not yielding a high return. The law brought together Democrats like Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative George Miller with Republicans like Representative John Boehner and Senator Judd Gregg to craft a solution that would focus the nation's attention squarely on the needs of the most disadvantaged students.

Since its inception in 2001, the law has laid the groundwork for improving American education by requiring accountability and parental options. Thanks to this law, today, every state has a concrete plan (or contract) with the federal government to improve its schools and raise its student achievement. Schools are being held accountable for all students to make academic gains, beginning with annual assessments and data broken down by student groups. Without annual assessments, there can be no way to measure which students are benefiting from our reforms and which need more help. And without measurement, there can be no accountability for results. Or as Secretary Margaret Spellings likes to say, "In God we trust, all others bring data."

No Child Left Behind also gives families new choices like transferring their children to better-performing schools and enrolling their children in supplemental educational services, or free after-school tutoring. Last year, nearly 250,000 students and families participated in these services, which until recently were only available to those families who could afford them.

And while the law is still in its infancy, the framework on which it is built is proving to be effective: test scores have begun to rise across the country, and the achievement gap is beginning to close. For example, the recent Long Term Trend Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that our nation's students have made more progress in the last five years than in the previous 30 years combined. Nationally, math scores for nine- and thirteen-year-olds have reached all time highs. Hispanic nine-year-olds raised their scores by 17 points over the last five years. And white, Hispanic, and African-American thirteen-year-olds have all made significant gains. More importantly, the gap between white and African-American nine-year-old students in reading is the smallest it has ever been. In fact, since 1999, African-American students have raised their reading scores by 14 points—which is a huge jump.

Additionally, just last week, the 2004 National and State Report Cards in Mathematics and Reading were released. These results further confirm that we are on the right track with NCLB, particularly with younger students—on whom NCLB is focused. For example, since the previous assessment in 2003, fourth graders have scored higher in both reading and math. Furthermore, the gap in achievement between African-American or Hispanic students and their white counterparts has narrowed.

The gloomy situation I outlined earlier is starting to change, but so is the landscape of American education—creating new challenges for teachers, students, school leaders, and lawmakers, who work to improve learning every day. Online learning, while not used widely, can catapult this reform effort into a whole new sphere. NCLB may have consolidated many programs and reduced the emphasis on different categorical technology programs, but it has increased the overall budget for education and given states and districts far greater flexibility than ever before. To realize the vision of the law, educators will need the tools that technology and online learning can offer.

Technology: Changing the Educational Landscape

As you know, many of our students are ahead of their teachers, and other adults, in computer literacy. Six years ago, 97 percent of kindergarteners in this country had access to a computer at school or at home. Today, over 85 percent of young children with home computers use them for educational purposes, typing reports or surfing the Internet to do research. As for teenagers, 94 percent use the Internet for such purposes.

I recently saw a segment on the Today show about the "hottest new gadgets" that are being marketed for the upcoming holiday season. One of these items was a cell phone specifically designed for children ages three to five, equipped with speakerphone and a handy wrist strap! With these little gadgets, parents can pre-program numbers for emergencies. Not surprisingly, recent data even support this "trend." The number of children aged four through 18 who owned at least one wireless device grew from 32 percent in 2002 to 43 percent in 2003. As the mother of an eight-month-old, I, of course, need to be on top of all these things!

Schools across the country are recognizing technology as a viable resource, and are allowing students to use portable electronic devices (PDAs) as learning tools. For example, fourth grade students at Shepard School in Columbia, Missouri use PDAs to read and create electronic books based on their own writing. These eBooks can be downloaded from any computer and distributed among the class. This setup allows students to "publish" their writing projects and presentations at any time, send it to each other or to their teacher, and receive instant feedback. Shepard students use their personal Palm handheld devices, which were purchased through the district's technology funds. Along with the Palm, each student has access to a full-sized keyboard for word processing.

Overview of Online Education

The good news is that more schools like Shepard, and more districts are integrating technology into their academic programs. According to a 2003 report from the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly every public school in the country has access to the Internet. As a result, over the last five years there has been incredible growth in the availability of online instruction and virtual schools.

At least 15 states now provide some form of virtual education that supplements regular classes or provides services to students with special needs. In 2002 through 2003, 36 percent of public school districts had students enrolled in distance education classes. Today, about one-quarter of all K-12 public schools offer eLearning or virtual instruction. I think it's safe to say that in the next decade, every state and nearly all schools will offer these services, or so we hope!

Why Online Education Matters

As all of you know, technology allows educators to gain access to quality instruction and obtain instant assessment data - two things that we need if we are serious about closing the achievement gap. There is a grant in my office that funds a great online instructional resource called ThinkPort. ThinkPort is designed for Maryland educators, communities, and families, and is sponsored by Maryland Public Television and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education. Log on to ThinkPort and you will find links to virtual field trips, professional development opportunities for teachers, standards-based instructional content, and a directory that helps parents find websites for their children's school or class. Content modules from ThinkPort have won a wide array of awards, including a Webby Award this year for the best educational website.

Along with instructional resources, there are technology-driven assessments that deliver information to educators faster than ever before. Software-based assessments can provide teachers and parents with an indication on a weekly or even daily basis of how much material students understand. Teachers also can use software to generate assignments that address the needs of students who have fallen behind.

The reason why your work is so unique and important is that all children are different and learn at different levels. By participating in eLearning on their computers visually impaired students can view content in larger print with a click of a button; English language learners can toggle between Spanish and English versions of a text; and advanced students can link to more challenging exercises.

In general, online education may also represent a long-term, cost-effective solution for many districts and states. With online education there is no need for new school buildings or costly supplies to fill them. Online content can be updated regularly, at a lower cost than purchasing new textbooks. As a matter of fact, many rural schools find that online courses are less expensive than hiring a teacher to teach a class that may consist of just four or five students.

In the wake of the devastation left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many states and districts also are turning to online education to provide schooling to students for whom there are currently no classrooms or teachers. For example, the statewide Mississippi Online Learning Institute is providing online courses to high school students in Mississippi who were affected by the storms. Apex Learning is donating its online course curriculum in math, science, English, social studies, and world languages, as well as providing certified teachers to deliver online instruction. Distance learning is already widely used at the college and graduate levels, and according to Eduventures, a Boston-based research firm, it is a $7 billion business that is quickly growing. After Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, 156 colleges and universities signed on with Sloan Consortium and the Southern Regional Education Board to offer their entire online course catalogs, about 13,000 courses in all, to displaced students, free of charge.

The Future and Barriers to Overcome

Despite these many programs and all the facts and efforts I have outlined, you all know that many, if not most, Americans still view learning as something that needs to happen in a schoolhouse, during certain hours of the day and certain months of the year. You probably also know that this is, in many ways, your biggest obstacle to winning greater acceptance. Changing minds is a long-term undertaking, but the good news is that you start with some built-in advantages. First, your programs can help to raise performance, so as more people become exposed to what you offer, the more successful you will become. Second, traditional education is failing many students throughout the country. For these students, online education offers great promise.

Therefore, I encourage all of you to continue showcasing that your products are not here to compete with the traditional public school system, but to help educate students and bring teachers greater access to curricula and training.

I also encourage you to invest in better research as to how students who participate in online learning are performing. We are big believers in scientifically based research, and online learning is one of those fields that can be studied using a randomized field test. It is expensive, but once more people, especially families, know about the options that are available to them and how these options improve student achievement, they will be "knocking down doors" to virtual schools. People need to know that online courses and virtual schools are not "education-lite," that they are not the "one calorie version" of traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

Many of the barriers and challenges confronting virtual schools are similar to those faced by charters and Education Management Organizations. Because of this, I encourage you to reach out to "like-minded" charter school groups and associations. Like you, charter school leaders are more focused on running their schools and ensuring that their students do well academically—and that's as it should be. But whether you like it or not, you are part of a movement that is being scrutinized and criticized by those who do not want to change the system.

Therefore, just like the charter school community, the online education community must join forces if it wants to push back on the status quo. Pushing back means that you need to think of ways to market your work beyond the community that you serve. You need to help those among you who are struggling and you need to take a firm stance against those bad actors who may be taking advantage of this medium only for profit-making purposes. However rare these instances are, the noise that they make is very loud, and it resonates.

Conclusion

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who wrote the much-loved book, The Little Prince, once said, "As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it." I have shared with you where our nation's students are now, and the tools and programs that are already influencing them. You are in a unique position to help revolutionize education. The work that you do every day is changing lives and proving that our traditional model of schooling is not the only way for students to learn. Indeed, if we wish to develop a 21st century educational system, we can't continue to operate with a 19th century model. We need your help in driving home this message now more than ever before.

Thank you for the great work that you do and for inviting me to address your conference. I look forward to answering your questions.