A Farewell Amid Optimism.

My term as president of AASA soon will be over. I would like to reflect, therefore, on what's happened to public education, AASA and me.

This is a period of remarkable support for public schools. People still expect us to be better, but they are confident we will transform education to meet their expectations.

This support was evident at the Education Summit last September in Palisades, N.J. Governors and major business leaders who had met twice before without school leaders realized they need us to improve public schools and that just setting high standards for students and putting assessment mechanisms in place are not enough. The key challenge is implementing programs that will enable all children to meet high standards, and the summit participants left the meeting committed to doing that.

The support also is evident in major increases in federal funding for public schools and in the centrality that public education commands as an issue in the presidential campaign. Almost all public officials are competing with each other to be champions of better public schools.

Within this context, AASA has achieved three major objectives:

* We have enacted a strategic plan that calls for the implementation of new initiatives and the replacement of programs that no longer are needed.

* We are collaborating with the other national organizations that represent administrators to improve the programs that prepare school administrators and to raise the standards for certification as school administrators.

* We held a National Conference on Education that was a tremendous success. The programs as a whole were the best in a while and the spirit of the participants made what began as a celebration become a "happening."

For these reasons and many others, this year has been wonderful for me. Everywhere I went, I met highly competent people who could be getting rich working at something else but who are absolutely committed to the well being of young people and happy to be serving children in our public schools.

Some but certainly not all of the people who deserve my gratitude are Paul Houston, Bruce Hunter, Joe Schneider and the rest of the AASA staff; the officers and members of the Executive Committee of AASA; the educators, board members and others with whom I visited in schools and other places in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya; the executive directors and officers of our state affiliates; the superintendents who, like Jane Hammond in Jefferson County, Colo., have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in extremely difficult circumstances; the leaders of the other national education organizations who keep before our country the unfinished business of the public schools; and the AASA members themselves, who work tirelessly for the children of America.

I leave the AASA presidency more confident than ever that we will meet the expectations of the American people, that we will reach the point where all children learn to high standards, acquire a sense of civic virtue, realize how special they are and how special everyone else is as well.

I also am confident we will use technology to transform our schools, that our schools will be places where nobody is less important because of his or her race, religion, gender or sexual orientation and that we will break the chains that prevent poor children from learning as much as children who are not poor.

At its core, my confidence is rooted in my experience with you. We will meet the expectations that have been set because of who you are.

It is a pleasure to know you. It has been a privilege and a great honor to represent you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.