This paper analyzes the history, current practice, and dangers associated with Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). With roots in American progressive education and particularly in the movements for Outcome-Based Education and Self-Esteem, SEL is now pushed onto state and local education systems by the federal government and even international…

Policy statements of the last two decades have directed schools to enter into partnerships with parents to enhance the social, emotional, and academic growth of their children. However, in practice and scholarship, parental involvement has been constructed as attendance to school-based activities and needs. This article draws on data from an…

Legislation leading to the mandating of accountability testing in schools was chronicled between the publication of "A Nation at Risk" (1983) to the conclusion of No Child Left Behind (2016). Involvement in education by the federal government increased throughout the educational legislation during this time period. The Omnibus Trade and…

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…

Policy can be a useful tool for effecting change, but policy analysis, which shapes policy development, has been underused in music education research. This paper demonstrates how Bardach's (2000) Eightfold Path can be used to develop solutions to problems in music education. Some have argued that school music programs do not prepare students to…

The 2013 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 49th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The Digest has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American…

A Nation at Risk, Goals 2000, and No Child Left Behind are examples of external factors that compel educational leaders at local schools and districts to explore reform initiatives in order to meet federally required results. Because of political mandates to improve student learning and instruction, educational leaders are searching for…

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…

In 1989, President George Bush met with the nation's governors and the foundation was laid for the "Goals 2000: Educate America Act" (signed into law March 1994). The act provides funds to underwrite states' development and implementation of content and performance standards and associated assessment methodologies directed toward helping…

Three pieces of education legislation that the federal government enacted in 1994 are interlocking and designed to support a systemic approach to state and local educational improvement. The Goals 2000: Educate America Act, School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA), and Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) offer an opportunity to move from a…

To shed light on how states can use school performance data to support failing schools, the present study examined a subset of underperforming schools in South Carolina in the wake of a series of state-supported interventions. The study, part of a comprehensive evaluation of the South Carolina External Review Team Program, made extensive use of…

The process of instituting standards is well under way, thanks to mathematics teachers' efforts, the Bush Administration and governors' agreements about establishing national educational goals, and President Clinton's 1994 Goals 2000 legislation. There is no danger of a nationally imposed curriculum. States are using the standards process in…

This guidebook is intended as a road map to the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins III) for career-technical education (CTE) practitioners and policymakers in Illinois. The following topics are among those covered: (1) framework for Perkins III (national educational reform, Illinois provisions for quality CTE,…

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act is designed to improve learning and teaching by providing a national framework for education reform. Its goals also are to promote the research, coordination, and changes needed to ensure equitable educational opportunities for all students. The reauthorization of federal education programs and the establishment…