Sargent Shriver Quotes

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

Local school districts should be free to adapt their academic programs in ways appropriate for their community, but we cannot allow mindless budget shortfalls to force wrongheaded changes to our children's education.

We should have high expectations of our children, but politicians should not tell teachers how to meet them.

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 don't think of myself as a policy expert. I think education is the most important thing.

As long as my sixth graders showed an average improvement of five years, the principal and district pretty much left me alone to create my own curriculum and teach whatever I wanted.

The debate about who decides what gets taught is fascinating, albeit excruciating for those who have to defend the schools against bunkum.

Common Core is a big win for education.

Education - much like law or medicine - should be a profession governed by professionals. Unfortunately, too many policies, even those that are well-intentioned, come from the top, leaving out those closest to the classroom, who have the greatest insight into how to provide a high-quality education for all students.

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.

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.

I think we're doing a dreadful job of educating.

The time has come to end social promotion in our schools.

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.

The most important problem that Turkey has is education.

States are free to modify the Common Core State Standards or adopt their own individual standards, because academic standards are the prerogative of the states.

There has been so much recent talk of progress in the areas of curriculum innovation and textbook revision that few people outside the field of teaching understand how bad most of our elementary school materials still are.

At the federal level, we must help, not hinder, local school boards, parents, teachers and administrators as they make decisions about educating our children.

In primary schools, I set two main objectives - to cut infant class sizes and improve literacy and numeracy.

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.

We have to build a better education in this country. We need to step it up.

I think a lot of teachers feel like they're teaching to a test. Our response is you teach to a student, you really teach to the kid.

It's time to declare a cease-fire in the education arms race. We have far more to gain from collaborating to solve our common problems than competing for higher rankings.

We really shouldn't be running education like a supermarket where you compare prices.

We need to reform our educational systems even though the Americans tell us to.