Claims that rigorous standards in schools will help children in navigating in the changing economy. Explains that Goals 2000 legislation, passed in 1994, can energize and expand local efforts to strengthen schools and reach high standards. Claims that teachers are the heart of educational improvement, while parents and business partners can…

Controversy surrounds the recently released voluntary national standards for U.S. history and world history. At the center of the debate is the issue of how history should be portrayed. Directions for ordering copies of the history standards and sample passages from the standards guidebooks are provided in sidebars to the article. (MLF)

Discusses the significance of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act for theater and other arts educators. Presents comments of several theater education teachers, leaders, and arts advocates regarding the enactment of Goals 2000. (RS)

Asks whether standards in the arts are necessary. Presents the standards as set forth in the Goals 2000 Act, and provides some commentary on how to achieve them. States that educational reform, national standards, artists and educators working together, teacher education, and teaching leadership are necessary to make the standards work. (PA)

Speculates about how opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards might be defined and used at federal and state levels and, in the process, to better understand why OTL standards have become so controversial. The author discusses OTL within the context of The Goals 2000: Educate America Act and how the standards might be used and what they should…

In this excerpt from her new book, "National Standards in American Education: A Citizen's Guide," Diane Ravitch argues that there are steps local school boards, parents, and communities can take to implement educational reform and high academic standards. (MLF)

Teachers, principals, school systems, parents, and textbook publishers have been blamed for students' failure to meet tougher standards. Instead, expectations for achieving unreasonable state and Goals 2000 standards should be critically examined. Testing state legislators, school board members, administrators, and teachers might illuminate the…

Constant attention by all Americans is needed to preserve what little local control in education remains. Chief among dangerous federal legislation moving the country toward a federal education system is the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. The paper examines Goals 2000 and other federal legislation that seeks to remove parental control, noting…

By setting academic standards, America takes its first critical step toward providing a plan that will create an excellent educational system for the 21st century. It is important for those working on standards and those educating students with disabilities to work together as standards are being developed. Four kinds of standards need to be…

Maintains that the release of the National Geography Standards in October 1994 was not a culmination of reform but the beginning of educational improvement in geography. Discusses geographic concepts and the continued role of educational technology in geographic instruction. (CFR)

Offers 10 academic criteria considered essential for states to adopt when establishing their educational standards. As an aid to standard setters, the article includes a list of titles from the "Defining World-Class Standards" series written by the American Federation of Teachers. Criteria categories are math, science, history and social…

This monograph reviews recent trends in school reform and proposes "learner-based accountability" as a new paradigm for conceptualizing and implementing school reform. The first chapter notes both an economic mandate for school change and a mandate for increased equity. It identifies key findings of the school effectiveness movement and…

This policy paper, by a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Policy and Planning, argues that President Clinton and the previous "education Congress" designed a top-down strategy reminiscent of the Great Society programs in the 1960s to reform America's school systems. The resultant educational legislation has occurred at a…

Argues that, no matter how good and well-intentioned new curriculum and assessment reforms are, they will fail unless there are real-world consequences that motivate students to work hard in school. Educational systems fail because what students want, i.e., college admissions, jobs, and job training, are disconnected from school work. (GLR)

This report provides updated information on major national activities related to the development and assessment of educational outcomes of students with disabilities who are receiving special education services. The report reviews major initiatives in the areas of the national education goals (Goals 2000), standards, and national testing. The…