About 500 people packed into N.C. State University's McKimmon Center to hear Paige speak at the 16th Emerging Issues Forum, "First in America: Charting the Course for Excellent Schools."
Paige highlighted Bush's education philosophy of "No Child Shall Be Left Behind," a philosophy that both Bush and Paige, the former superintendent of the Houston Independent School System, strived to practice in Texas.
Paige said the challenge for himself and Bush will be to make the program just as successful nationwide and to lessen the gap between the United States and other countries' education scores. "It is time for America to accept the challenge of being No. 1," Paige said.
He added that the United States must set high education standards and join hands with others to form a better education system -- requiring higher expectations for students, teachers and school leaders. "We must expect more from our students, more from our teachers and more from our administrators," Paige said. "There are too many failing schools and, more importantly, too many failing students."
Paige also said that the United States can accomplish a better education system by testing every child yearly.
He said the tests will identify the schools and children who are not performing well -- allowing the child to receive help before failing.
Opponents to these tests say teachers will focus on test performance, possibly neglecting subjects that do not appear on the tests and other learning activities.
But Paige said testing is necessary to help students and schools, and there is no other way of catching those who fall behind. "If we don't test, the gap will be invisible," he said. "If the gap is visible, we will have to do something about it, and this gap will only close when it is visible to all of us."
Paige said he planned to do this by providing funding and technology to schools that fall below the average score after the first year of testing and further funding if they continue to lag behind.
