The field of dance arts education in the United States is in an entirely different place today than it was at the turn of the century. Much of this change is due to a convergence of events that involved: federal and state legislation, policy, and funding that supported dance in arts education; a forty-year transition of dance out of departments of…

In the United States, as public demands for quality teachers have escalated, there has been a corresponding increase in national policy efforts to tie the standards of student success to teacher preparation, licensing, and evaluation. This conceptual paper examines how national authorities used specific policy tools to usurp the state's…

In 1990, the National Education Goals were established by the President and the 50 state governors. Great attention has been given to Goal 1, dubbed the "readiness" goal: By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn. The Goal 1 Resource Technical Planning Groups were asked to suggest ways in which Goal 1…

The U.S. National Education Goals were enacted into federal law in 1994 as the "Goals 2000: Educate America Act." The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin is addressing the first of these goals, which states that by the year 2000 all children will enter school ready to learn. This paper…

In 1990, the National Education Goals were established by the President and the 50 state governors. Goal 1 states that by the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn. This booklet is a condensed version of an earlier document intended to further amplify the dimensions of early learning and development used by the…

Support for Teachers Enhancing Performance in Schools (STEPS) is a World Wide Web and CD-ROM electronic performance support system (EPSS) designed for preK-12 and preservice educators to assist in designing and developing lessons, units, or curricula; this tool was developed around school reform and accountability initiatives in Florida. To…

Goals 2000 differs from previous educational legislation because it requires systemic reform and partnerships. The article discusses Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, explains how legislation is developed, and examines Goals 2000's main provisions, content and performance standards, role in professional development, and ties…

Belen Public Schools (New Mexico) received a Goals 2000 grant for teacher education and technology integration. The Belen Goals 2000 professional development project established two three-day teachers-teaching-teachers workshops. The first focused on using an integrated software package and the second focused on using e-mail and the Internet.…

This issue of a monthly serial publication of the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP), which is available only online in PDF Format, examines efforts underway in Colorado, Maryland, and Montgomery County, Maryland to increase student achievement in reading (related to Goal 3 of the NEGP). After an overview, it discusses Colorado's efforts to…

Schools mirror society. Both are struggling with issues that threaten not only the learning process, but human development as well. The underpinnings of all school activities are in large part drawn from the field of psychology. Today, as education reform gains momentum, the scientific knowledge and practice expertise of psychologists are…

Maintains that the effort to develop and implement national standards in the arts is politically correct but not free of psychological or pedagogical viewpoints. Asserts that educators must formulate the right questions and assess objectively the potential outcomes of an arts education program in reformed schools. (CFR)

This 1998 technical report looks at California Early Literacy Learning (CELL), a staff development program designed to help elementary teachers strengthen their teaching of reading and writing. Reading Recovery and other research-based teaching methodologies have been organized into a framework for classroom instruction, and training in the…

For the first year in "what seems like eons," California's school districts will see an influx of new money, a large portion of it earmarked for developing competency in reading for students in kindergarten through grade 3. The expanded funding for reading results from a consensus among policy makers that the achievement of early…

The Michigan English Language Arts Framework (MELAF) offers an illustrative case of top-down and bottom-up confluences in curriculum policymaking. In several distinct ways, state policy met local initiatives to create dynamic partnerships to spread change. State systematic reformers looked to the grass roots for ideas and percolating initiatives.…

Discusses the importance of research to the school-library media specialist. Topics include levels of knowledge that help with informed decision-making; ways to overcome the gap between research and practice, including writing for scholarly journals; the need for publishing research from practitioners; and development of a research agenda for the…