Instructional time for social studies in elementary classrooms has decreased since the passage of Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind, with content contracted to align with reading goals. Consequently, opportunities for preservice teachers to observe and teach social studies lessons have diminished. This qualitative multiple case study examines…

Reviews the status of Goals 2000, and how proposed funding cuts may affect reform efforts. Pleads for arts educators to remind themselves and the public of what their work and education reform are about. (PA)

Examines the testing culture and the assessment culture in the context of calls for large-scale, national tests and from an anthropological model. Depicts the roles, rules, and rituals of each culture. Suggests that the cultural roles, rules, and rituals for the 21st century demand a culture of assessment rather than a culture of testing. (RS)

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…

Goals 2000 was developed in the face of a barrage of criticism of the public schools by people with the best of intentions and with great hopes for the future of American education. The effects of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act cannot match its supporters' intentions and its implementation threatens to escalate conflict over schooling. Goals…

The inequities of schools (for both students and teachers) can only be perpetuated by the imposition of national standards through Goals 2000. Since school culture is embedded in our social structures, we should totally reinvent schools by helping children become caring adults, builders of communities, sharers of learning, lovers of the printed…

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act offers educators the opportunity to develop a plan for moving all students toward higher levels of learning and to create a broad partnership for activating that plan. This publication describes how teachers can participate in developing a school plan that is consistent with the Goals 2000 legislation. Teachers'…

Discusses the importance of parent and family involvement in education, as outlined by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994, which introduced a new national education objective calling for increased family and parent participation. Examines techniques and initiatives used by teachers and schools to foster parent and family involvement. (MDM)

This booklet is designed to help educators plan and implement language and literacy programs and related professional development opportunities for elementary school educators. A primary focus of the document is on the tensions that exist between recent local, state, and national initiatives to improve the quality of schooling and current…

The standards-driven approach to school reform, exemplified by Goals 2000, shows promise for unifying contemporary efforts by affecting change at the classroom, school, and community levels. The special aspects of the rural context, particularly distance and low population density, set it apart from the urban and suburban schools on which most…

Discusses what schools, caregivers/teachers, parents, and communities can do to ensure/enhance children's learning and school readiness in accordance with the theoretical framework and eventual implementation of the 1990 National Education Goal 1. (BB)

Discusses two current educational trends: continuing cuts in educational funding, and expanded educational goals such as Goals 2000. Urges teachers to assume the responsibilities of professionalism, to be proactive, and to work collectively as individuals by lobbying to restrain state and federal legislators from diminishing funding for education.…

Maintains that there are many possibilities to help students make connections between music and other disciplines. Reports on teaching methods and course content used by two music teachers. Includes a teaching example in which student identify ways in which literature and music can create a series of related events. (CFR)

Presents a speech by the president of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), given at the organization's annual meeting. Discusses the national standards movement and contends that the NCSS standards integrate knowledge from the full spectrum of the social sciences and the humanities. (CFR)

This study explored whether classroom teachers were involved in research, what role teachers should play in educational research, and what educational issues teachers think should be addressed in a newly restructured educational research infrastructure. The project included more than 6,000 educators nationwide with the majority in the Midwest.…