Rod Paige United States Secretary of Education On January 21, 2001, the United States Senate confirmed Dr. Rod Paige as the 7th U.S. Secretary of Education. For Paige, the son of a principal and a librarian in public schools, that day was the crowning achievement of a long career in education. Born in 1933 in segregated Monticello, Mississippi, Paige's accomplishments speak of his commitment to education. He earned a bachelor's degree from Jackson State University in his home state. He then earned both a master's and a doctoral degree from Indiana University.

Quality Education and the Key Role of Teachers

The purpose of every school system is to ensure that students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in today's world. When all our children are learning and each is reaching his or her own potential, we know we have done our job. Daily, parents and communities around the world trust teachers with this most important of missions. No school can succeed without skilled teachers.

In far too many places, however, access to a quality education is denied to too many because of lack of facilities and materials, or an inadequate number of qualified teachers. These issues frame much of UNESCO’s work with teachers, and are important concerns to address at this 47th session of the International Conference on Education. The United States looks forward to continuing our involvement in UNESCO and with the International Bureau of Education, and I’m pleased to share with you here some of our own strategies for strengthening the work of teachers in the United States.

Just over two years ago, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law, renewing a commitment to quality education for all children, regardless of their skin color, spoken accent or street address. Since that time, state officials, administrators, and teachers have been working hard to keep this commitment, to strengthen schools’ accountability systems, to identify research-based strategies for improving student achievement, and to empower parents with information and offer them options for better education for their children.

Like other countries, the United States has many great teachers, but not enough in certain subjects like math and science. Many teachers – particularly in inner-city schools – are assigned to teach subjects for which they were not trained. Many teacher-training programs are struggling to attract highly skilled students, and in some states, burdensome requirements turn potential teachers away from the field. To address these concerns, we have adopted two key principles to guide our work when it comes to recruiting and preparing future teachers:

• Raising academic standards for teachers
• Lowering barriers that are keeping many talented people out of the teaching profession.

Improving the training and recruitment of teachers is imperative; sharing information on policy and practice in our own countries will only help to make our work more effective. I applaud the staff of the International Bureau of Education for their hard work in convening this conference, and look forward to many further opportunities to participate in UNESCO’s work.