U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings visited Cary Academy on Friday as part of a national tour leading up to the expected reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act later this year. Here are excerpts of her interview with staff writer Marti Maguire. To hear more, go online to www.newsobserver.com.

Q: What made you choose to come here, a private school?

A: [Cary Academy] is a true laboratory of innovation, particularly in the use of technology. They feel part of their mission is to help develop practices that can be shared and used not only here but in the public sector as well. ... These divisions between private and public schools are really blurring.

Q: You spoke today with school officials about the importance of math, science, technology and engineering education. But North Carolina schools are facing a severe shortage of qualified math and science teachers, particularly in more rural areas. What can be done about that?

A: We can use technology, of course, to expand and broaden the flow of expertise so that a teacher here at Cary Academy might be partnering with a rural school district and, through technology, getting additional teaching help more broadly expanded. The other thing we can do is to start to use resources in our communities beyond just the traditional teaching core. You have many fine universities in this state. Why don't we find ways for those folks to come into our public schools?

Q: North Carolina students have shown essentially no improvement on state tests since the first year No Child Left Behind act went into effect. How can NCLB deliver on its promise of closing the achievement gap?

A: One of the things that's been so important about NCLB is that we have brought real data to bear about the status of our schools. Who's being left behind? Who isn't? Where are the schools that are challenging what the president calls the "soft bigotry of low expectations"? Going back to the ostrich approach of burying our heads in the sand, putting the money out and hoping for the best is the wrong direction. Obviously, we need to pick up the pace. We need to confront those facts. But when I look at the North Carolina data, in some very key ways, we are really making progress. We're making progress in the white-black achievement gap in reading in grades three and four and six and seven. North Carolina is one of the leaders on Advanced Placement, really double the national average on the opportunity that kids have to take rigorous coursework.

Q: I saw you on "Jeopardy!" when you lost to Michael McKean, the actor who played Lenny on "Laverne and Shirley."

A: That was his third time on the show, not to be bitter. And it's all about the buzzer.