During the past 12 years there was a sudden and unexpected consensus held by U.S. Congressmen and Presidents that students in U.S. public schools were learning less than they should. Moreover, the conservatives and liberals agreed that the proper policy response to this public problem was to raise education standards. Recent years brought five…

A historic change is taking place in American education with the development of voluntary national standards that will identify what all students should know and be able to do in order to live and work in the twenty-first century. Content standards will define what students should know and be able to do, and performance standards will identify the…

Goals 2000: Educate America Act (P.L. 103-227) authorizes a range of initiatives for federal support of education reform. Its basic strategy is that of systemic reform guided by sets of agreed-upon educational goals and standards at each level of governance. An overview and analysis of the Act's basic provisions and authorizations is provided.…

By redefining the relationship of national, state, and local government units, Goals 2000 counteracts the tradition of local school control. The act seeks to get states and local education agencies to reform schools voluntarily by meeting eight national goals by 2000. This article reviews the goals, application process, available information and…

Includes "On the Common Core of Learning" (Kennedy); "Constitutional Implications of National Curriculum Standards" (Arons); "Arguments against National Performance Standards" (Fulk, Mantzicopoulos, Hirth); and "The Painful Lessons of Introducing the National Curriculum in England" (Foster). (SK)

Examines opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards, which define conditions that schools, districts, and states must meet to ensure students an equal education. Offers an explanation of the states' historical inability to influence equal education, and proposes principles for designing new state policies. Includes recommendations to the states for…

This paper argues that education in the United States will be increasingly intertwined with and impacted by federal expectations, requirements, and standards. The paper describes the impacts and effects of national goals and national assessment on K-12 and higher education. A review of state and federal responses to "A Nation at Risk"…

The National Education Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC) was established in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. One of NESIC's duties is to identify areas in which specific educational standards ought to be developed. Several complex issues arise in carrying out this duty, such as: the need for standards in such non-content areas as…