The aim of this essay is to advance understandings of current efforts to democratize disciplined approaches to educational innovation and improvement in the US and other countries, with a specific focus on the macro-level policy contexts of improvement research in education. In the US, earlier analyses examined these policy contexts from a…

Raising academic standards and eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are America's prime national educational goals. Current federal and state policies, however, largely ignore the fact that the childhood poverty rate in the United States is 21%, the highest in the industrialized world, and that poverty…

Speculates about how opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards might be defined and used at federal and state levels and, in the process, to better understand why OTL standards have become so controversial. The author discusses OTL within the context of The Goals 2000: Educate America Act and how the standards might be used and what they should…

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'…

Offers 10 academic criteria considered essential for states to adopt when establishing their educational standards. As an aid to standard setters, the article includes a list of titles from the "Defining World-Class Standards" series written by the American Federation of Teachers. Criteria categories are math, science, history and social…

Argues that, no matter how good and well-intentioned new curriculum and assessment reforms are, they will fail unless there are real-world consequences that motivate students to work hard in school. Educational systems fail because what students want, i.e., college admissions, jobs, and job training, are disconnected from school work. (GLR)

Discusses the role of the courts in educational policymaking and educational quality improvement. It examines the courts' success in using state constitutions to mandate educational policy, the influence of the Goals 2000 initiative in school financing, the factors attributed to the state's increased legal exposure, and the court's impact in…

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act seeks to improve student achievement through high expectations for all; increase parent and community involvement in education; make schools safe, drug-free, and disciplined; upgrade teacher training and professional development; bring technology into the schools; support long-term and systemwide efforts; and…

Maintains that the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) achieved an important symbolic victory by being a primary developer of the National Standards for Arts Education. Presents and discusses five issues related to the Goals 2000 program in general and the standards related to music education in particular. (CFR)

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…

This book on the results of education for students with disabilities considers a number of issues, including what outcomes should be expected and how they should be measured and reported, school reform, the possible role of Goals 2000/Educate America Act, and alternative views on identifying outcomes and setting standards such as those of the…

The collection of articles from publications of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) offers a theoretical basis for construction of effective English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs. Articles address issues of national policy, content and design of academic programs, and the context for ESL learning. They are:…