 Good to be here, good to be here. Let me say first of all, welcome to the NEAA building. It is great to have all of you here. Thank you, Harriet, for that very kind introduction. I'm really excited about this. First of all, just the work of the foundation is so incredible in what the foundation does. But more importantly, I guess it's the work you do. And it's exciting to me that at this time in our history, the kinds of things that are happening through collaboration. What administrators and school board members and unions can come together, I just absolutely believe that when they come together and they reach out to parents in the community, only good things can happen. And really, it's the only way to build really sustainable change. The power of collaboration, of bringing minds together for a common goal of focusing on a student and saying, how do we collectively remove the obstacles that keep this child or any child from succeeding? Over the next two days, you're going to have many opportunities. You're going to share success stories. You're going to talk a lot about topics that are hot for the day. And of course, within that, you'll be talking about equity and the Common Core State Standards. I was honored to be on the Commission for Excellence in Equity. And from the beginning of the work of that commission, I honestly believe that it was needed to be far more focused on equity rather than excellence. We do great work for some kids. But the system doesn't provide that for every child. And so much of what you do and why you're here and what you're doing together is about that equity, about creating a system that no matter who you are, no matter where you live, that you have an opportunity to follow your dream. By the way, how many of you were here last year? Raise your hand. I was afraid that was going to happen. I had a pretty good speech last year, and I was thinking maybe I could use that again. But with that many, I don't think it's possible. I only have one or two good ones, and I try and use them with new audiences. Last night, when I got home, as I often do, I kind of plopped down, and I like mindless entertainment. So I just turn on a TV and watch a movie, more so than regular TV. And it just happened that I turned TV on, and the movie was Mr. Holland's Opus. And I got to see the last 20 minutes of it. And you know, that's a feel-good movie, story of someone who really didn't intend to have a career in teaching, who really didn't understand or really appreciate the power and the influence that he had over so many years. And it just kind of makes you feel good. It was a good way to end the day. But I am a bit of a buff about a movie buff on education movies. I love them. They're so amazing. A Meryl Streep and Strings of the Heart transformed the district. Then Morgan Freeman, lean on me. I mean, he starts out with gangs and violence, and they end up singing together, lean on me. And Michelle Pfeiffer, karate. I always thought about using that in my class. With the movie Dangerous Minds. And then there's Nick Nolte and Teacher. Oh, I love that movie. I mean, they take kernels of truth and just kind of exaggerate. Do you remember Ditto? The history teacher who always passed out Ditto sheets and read a newspaper? He died one day and no one knew. Students filed in, filed out, filed in, filed out. And then there was Jim Belushi and Principal. I liked that one too. He got rid of all the drug dealers and it was amazing. He had a cool motorcycle. And I even liked the movie Won't Back Down. You know, some people were so upset with that. I thought it was really cool how the movie ended before they got to the hard work. They hadn't changed one thing at the school other than who was running it. They hadn't closed the gaps. They hadn't taught anyone to read who didn't know how to read. It was a good time to end that movie. But see, what I like about education movies is they have one thing in common. No matter how bad the situation is, no matter how horrible the circumstances, in about hour and 45 minutes, it's solved. If only life were that way. But see, they are movies and there's a script. And the good guys get to be good guys because that's what the script says. And the bad guys are bad guys because they accepted the role. But in your work, what makes you so powerful, so important, so incredible is that your work is not a movie. It's the real world. There is no script. And what it takes is creativity and passion and commitment and a whole lot of hard work. And that hard work is not gonna end. There's more in front of us. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Common Core State Standards. I believe in these standards. I think it is a game changer for America. And I know that there are many who oppose from many different places. And I think to the people who say they oppose them, I don't think we ought to allow them to get off the hook too easily. Number one, we ought to set a ground floor that says, have you read them? And if you haven't, we don't talk until you do. But once you've covered the ground level, the preparation, then there are three questions I want to address with them. Number one, as you read those standards, is there something in there that if we took it out, then you would support it? Or is there something missing that if we just added that, then you would be supportive? And if that isn't the problem, question three, what do you want as the alternative? Do you want to keep what we have now? Where low standards drive kids into low wage jobs and poverty? Or do you want to change a system so that it says we state as the adults in this system, here's what you have to know and be able to do to succeed in this world? You know, college and career, I like to add a third C, citizenship, about what it means to be in this great democracy of ours. I think that's incredible that we've defined that. And the key is going to be implementation, obviously. But using the common core state standards, I think there are three things that we ought to talk about and there's an order that is very important. See, the first thing, as a nation, as a state or as a local district, first thing is we must define what it is we want for our children. And it can't be what we want for some or for my children and grandchildren. We must define what it is we want for every child in America. The second thing that we must talk about is what we believe we must do to achieve that. So question one, that's where I see the common core standards. It's stating what we believe you must know and be able to do. Your work is the second question, what do we believe collaboratively that we could do together that could make that happen for every child? And the third question is what are the resources needed to make that happen? And see, policymakers want to do that one first. They want to decide how much, in terms of resources they want to give and then we're supposed to design a system that fits it, wrong order. You must decide as a nation, as a state or a local district, what you want for every child, how you plan to achieve it and then policymakers must provide resources to make that happen. I think the implementation is way too important to do it wrong. And as I travel this country, I was in one district in Illinois and I was asked, first of all, it was a very collaborative working district and I said, when did you start working on implementation of common core state standards? I said, 2010. I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if every district I visited had that answer? Some are just kind of dumping it out. By the way, next fall we're doing this or this fall we're doing this. No time to collaborate, no time to plan about what will be different. No time to communicate with parents to say, this is why it is so exciting. This is why it's a game changer that we're saying as the American public education system, we will, we will find a way to bring every child to be able to achieve those standards so that no matter what your dream is, you are ready to follow it. And to deny any child that possibility is just plain wrong. So that's why it's so important we do that. That doesn't mean we stop pushing against ideas that are simply wrong and don't work. What this testing industry has done to student in this country is just horrible. It's narrowed curriculum, it's changed professional practices in schools. It's taken away programs and courses that every child oughta have. We need to push back. And I love what's going on in this country. I see it bubbling up when 85% of the superintendents in Texas say enough is enough. Yeah, you can applaud that. And our Garfield High School in Seattle said, tell me how it makes sense as a professional to take class time to prepare for and administer a test that is not aligned with state standards nor the curriculum you require us to teach. Tell me why that makes sense. And kudos to the school board who said it doesn't and they changed the policy and made it optional. And in Florida, where through a lawsuit that I'm proud that we filed, we pointed out the absurdity for, I'll use one example, Kim Cook, a plaintiff in the case, first grade teacher. We don't have mandated tests in first grade. Year before she was teacher of the year in her building, next last year she was rated unsatisfactory. 50% of her evaluation was based on test scores of fourth and fifth graders from a different elementary school. That is an insult to every single one of us as educators. How dare you demean our work, our profession by thinking you are talking about evaluating my professional practice based on what students I've never seen nor met do. And then in California where they said, we're not giving that test anymore. We're gonna pilot the new and we're gonna learn from that and then we'll move beyond. I love that this is bubbly enough. I think maybe it's time, as Becky Pringle always likes to say, to storm the castle and say enough is enough. What you're doing to our children is wrong and you're ruining an education. We must stop the abuse and misuse of tests that label, punish students, adults, school districts, it's wrong. My grandkids are in elementary school and it's been a long time since I had a child in grade school, but it's very interesting when you listen to them and ask them about testing. And I think every policymaker ought to be required to interview elementary students and ask them about the test. How on one day in three or four hours or whatever the time required is that how you can define what a student has learned for a year, what a teacher has taught for a year and what the partnership between the adults in the school and with parents in the community have accomplished. They ought to interview them and find out what it's really like. Well, I've said enough, I'm not really here to speak to you. I have the honor of doing something else and it really does give me great pleasure because the person that I get to introduce is the former secretary of education, former governor of South Carolina, Richard Riley.