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)

Offers historical background on some of the National Communication Association's past involvement in K-12 education. Describes the process used to develop the K-12 standards for speaking, listening, and media literacy. Gives an overview of the present effort to articulate competency statements for each standard. (SR)

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)

The intensive drive to promote national standards and assessments has gathered support from unproven connections between U.S. economic success and the nature of learning in schools. Now that teachers are being challenged to produce a bottom-up sea-change in their own classrooms, Uncle Sam's presence in the back of the room may be a growing problem…

What is striking about the Goals 2000 initiative is its virtual omission of the student, except as passive receptacle. To claim that students will learn more with heightened expectations is misleading. For content to take root, it must connect with students' internal "prepared structures" and become a "comfortable friend." In…

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…

This book focuses on information literacy and facilitating change in schools. Chapters include:" What Is Information Literacy?"; "Why Information Literacy?"; "How Information Literacy Relates to National Curriculum Standards"; "Essential Components of Information Literacy"; "The Necessary Reforms and…

Title II of Goals 2000 created the National Educational Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC), a federally funded agency to devise national content and performance standards in key academic subjects and certify state-submitted standards. Since Republicans have taken over Congress, this council is finished. Any private successor must mount…

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…

Even as Goals 2000 (the latest manifestation of factory-model schooling) is being adopted nationwide, a smaller, but growing counter-movement aimed at decentralizing and democratizing public schools has emerged. Manifestations include magnet and charter schools and the new, smaller, autonomous institutions called in-district charter or pilot…

Highlights of Public Law 103-227 (Goals 2000: Educate America Act) are presented. Contents include: a summary of how this Act will provide a framework for meeting the national education goals for all students, including those with disabilities; selected definitions of terms used in the legislation; and objectives of the eight national education…

This report provides an overview and analysis of the Clinton Administration's school reform proposal, Goals 2000: Educate America Act, submitted to the 103d Congress on April 22, 1993. The proposal, which seeks to create a national structure for supporting school reform, addresses three primary topics: (1) education goals, standards, and…

In response to the critical need for geographical knowledge, educators and concerned stakeholders have built a national consensus regarding content standards in "Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994." The 18 standards for grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12 specify the essential knowledge, skills, and perspectives that students…

Although one national goal proposes that all Americans will have all knowledge necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise citizenship responsibility, others fail to explain how children incarcerated in standards-driven schools will make sense of the world. The microsociety school approach radically recontextualizes in-school learning by…

Discusses the standards described in the U.S. book "National Standards for World History." Summarizes the book's content and gives examples of specific topics for different grade levels. Believes that world history teachers in Canada should read this book even though it excludes information on the South Pacific, Australia, and Canada.…