Secretary of Education statement on 2008-09 APR

Secretary of Education Glen Thomas today issued the following release regarding the 2008-09 Accountability Progress Report:

"I am pleased to see that California's students continue to make marked academic gains, which is a testament to the good work being done by our state's students, teachers and schools.  However, it's critically important that we work together to ensure that more schools can reach their federal Adequate Yearly Progress targets by replicating effective teaching practices that help students make progress toward proficiency and by taking bolder action to turn around our state's persistently lowest-performing schools.  Besides making California eligible and highly competitive for the Race to the Top, Governor Schwarzenegger's education reform package includes a growth assessment model that will also help us better track student and school progress from year to year.  This proposal, along with his other education reform measures, will help ensure that California can make continual improvements to our education system so that all our students can reach our state's high academic expectations."