No Child Left Behind a success, Bush says

President Bush collects letters during a visit to Gen. Philip Kearny School in Philadelphia. Students asked him about his Texas home and the number of bathrooms in the White House.

WASHINGTON - President Bush urged President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic-led Congress not to abandon the No Child Left Behind law, arguing that to do so would "weaken a chance for a child to succeed in America."

"Now is not the time to water down standards or to roll back accountability," Mr. Bush said.

The President marked the seventh anniversary of No Child Left Behind yesterday with remarks at Gen. Philip Kearny School in Philadelphia. It was his final policy address as president.

Beforehand, he and First Lady Laura Bush visited a second-grade classroom where children presented him with a flower bouquet and asked questions about his new home in Texas and about the number of bathrooms in the White House.

No Child Left Behind remains one of Mr. Bush's top domestic achievements, and he considers it vital to his legacy. Approved with strong bipartisan support in 2001, the school accountability law still has support from key Democrats, but it has grown deeply unpopular, and Mr. Obama has pledged to revamp it.

Mr. Bush said those who control its fate should "stay strong in the face of criticism."

"Because in weakening the law, you weaken a chance for a child to succeed in America," he said.

The law prods schools to improve test scores each year, so that every student can read and do math on grade level by the year 2014.

Critics say the law's annual reading and math tests have forced other subjects such as music and art from the classroom and that schools were promised billions of dollars that never showed up.

And they say the law is too punitive toward struggling schools; almost 36 percent of schools failed to meet yearly progress goals in 2008, according to Education Week newspaper.

That means millions of children are a long way from reaching the law's ambitious goals.

Undeterred, Mr. Bush said the country "absolutely" will meet the goals. He spoke most strongly about keeping the law's testing requirements, and he dismissed the idea that teachers are forced to "teach to the test" at the expense of true learning.

His education secretary, Margaret Spellings, issued a report yesterday citing record test scores in several areas and gains across the board.

"No Child Left Behind is working for all kinds of students in all kinds of schools in every part of the country," Mr. Bush declared. "That is a fact."

In fact, students generally have made modest gains in reading and math under the law. And the high school dropout rate, a dismal one in four children, has not budged. However, achievement gains were bigger among lower-achieving students, most of them minority kids.

Mr. Obama has pledged to overhaul the No Child Left Behind, although he has been vague about how far he would go. The testing requirements likely will remain, although Mr. Obama agrees with critics that exams are emphasized at the expense of other subjects and that it is too punitive.

Mr. Obama's nominee for education secretary, Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan, appears for his confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.