Alumnus Rod Paige leaves post in Bush administration

IU alumnus Rod Paige resigned his post as Secretary of Education Monday. In his resignation letter to the president, Paige said he would vacate his position at the end of President George W. Bush's first term unless a successor is not named.\n"I did not come to Washington as a career move," Paige said in a press release. "I came to help President Bush launch No Child Left Behind and Reading First and to help establish a culture of accountability in American education."\nPaige serves as the seventh Secretary of Education since the inception of the post in 1979. The No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed by President Bush in January 2002, might remain the hallmark of his secretaryship. Though the measure came under scrutiny during the president's first term, Paige stood firmly by it in a press release regarding his resignation.\n"No Child Left Behind is indelibly launched," he said. "A culture of accountability is gripping the American educational landscape. The next report of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will show that reading scores of our young people have catapulted to a record high because of Reading First."\nPaige, born in Mississippi to a principal and a librarian, is the only school superintendent to be named Secretary of Education. \nPaige completed his undergraduate work at Jackson State University. He received his first IU degree, a master's in Physical Education, in 1962. In 1970, he earned a Ph.D. in the same field, according to the IU Office of the Registrar.\nIn Paige's resignation letter to the president, the secretary outlined 10 "important accomplishments" his department has secured since January 2001. Among them, Paige listed the NCLB Act; an enhanced department Web site (www.ed.gov); a narrowed achievement gap between white students and students of other races; and a new "education culture" in the U.S.\n"The national education culture is changing," Paige said in his resignation letter. "All across the nation, the educational dialogue is now about results, and less about inputs."\nThough his term will end before his superior's, Paige said in a press release that he relished the longevity of his job.\n"At the end of the president's first term, I will have served longer than any Republican United States Secretary of Education," he said. "At that time, my work here will be accomplished."\nPaige's press team could not be reached for comment by press time. \n-- Contact senior writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.