Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

With the enactment of the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, we have taken an important step toward achieving federal education policies that will allow students to learn and achieve at the highest possible level.

No Child Left Behind's fourth-grade gains aren't learning gains, they're testing gains. That's why they don't last. The law is a distraction from things that really count.

We can pay teachers a hundred thousand dollars a year, and we'll do nothing to improve our schools as long as we keep the A, B, C, D, F grading system.

Investing in better-quality education outcomes - especially in maths and science - more than pays for itself.

For decades, the public school system failed too many children, so we passed the No Child Left Behind Act and demanded schools show results in return for money.

If there's one thing that 'No Child Left Behind' has proven, it's that more academics don't make for smarter children - or even higher test scores. And yet we somehow refuse to accept this reality.

Hillary Clinton wants to leave behind No Child Left Behind.

I am very proud of the quality of public education in Nebraska, but I believe we have an obligation to continually assess whether our system is meeting 21st Century education needs.

I'm clear that we do need to improve what's happening in our schools.

We at the Department of Education are going to provide technical assistance; I've committed $14 million to show states how they might meet this more sophisticated approach.

In the education debate, people are so passionate about their ideas that we often end up expending more energy shouting at each other than we do pushing for the fundamentals to success in all schools.

For many years we have spent a great deal of effort and money on school reform. Yet where are we today?

Competitive programs such as Race to the Top provide incentives for communities to develop new solutions for old problems. Because of Race to the Top, states have raised their standards and committed to fixing schools that have persistently failed students.

As Governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public schools, and I have met those standards.

We need to drive down requirements for the schools. In the 19th century, we increased the quality of the schools by higher education saying, 'You can't come in unless you have these skills, unless you've taken these courses.' We did that in Wisconsin when I was there, it helped to transform the secondary school system.

When you introduce competition into the public school system, most studies show that schools start to do better when they are competing for students.

Nor, in our own country, must we fail to take notice of the establishment of School Boards.

Enacted under President George W. Bush's administration with the promise to focus on individual student achievement and overall school performance, No Child Left Behind was heralded as groundbreaking. And in some ways, it was.

If we’re going to be the world’s leader, we have to pick up the pace of American education, especially in math and science.

They [educators] don't want to hear my views on education. They just want the [federal] money.

This nation suffers from three deficits—a trade deficit, a budget deficit, and an education deficit. I submit, that the trade and budget deficits will not be resolved until we overcome the education deficit.

It is time to end social promotion in America’ s schools.

I'm a little bit tired of people getting credit for improving education by doing the cheapest thing they can do, which is to call for the manipulation of test scores or to create new standards.

The only way communities will have great schools is if the people demand it.

You know there's a problem [with the education system] when you realize that out of the three R’s, only one begins with an R.