This brief is part of a four-part series examining the past, present, and future of modern school accountability systems. With the dual forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national call to action on racial inequity, the question of how we should measure and hold schools accountable for the impact they have on students is more urgent than ever.…

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…

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…

Congress's role in defining and promoting equality of educational opportunity has evolved over the past 55 years since "Brown v. Board of Education." Most recently, all three branches of the federal government have focused more on equality of educational opportunity for "individual" students rather than for protected classes.…

The call for American students to meet world-class standards in the federal Goals 2000: Education America Act (1994) and No Child Left Behind legislation, as well as state standards and accountability legislation, has been explicitly inclusive: All students must be held to these high standards. Litigation offers the potential to leverage…

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…

This publication describes issues in the policy debate about opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards. OTL standards are designed to represent what schools and teachers should do if the new curriculum and achievement standards, as outlined by National Education Goal 3, are to be met. Goal 3 calls for competency in challenging subject matter for all…

Discusses the standards movement, several standards categories (content, performance, equal-opportunity, and world-class), state and professional standard-setting activities, ongoing controversies, teacher participation opportunities, and need for public support. The New Standards and Equity 2000 projects provide linkages to standards-based reform…

Most U.S. children have opportunity to participate in one year of publicly supported schooling prior to first grade. Children's school-entry age differs by as much as 18 months. Hours of participation varies widely, as do teachers' academic backgrounds. Rarely are teachers assisted by aides or principals with early childhood education training. To…

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…

National standards and assessments (President Clinton's Goals 2000 Act) are being proposed to improve schools. This article reviews the bill and examines equity issues, including disparities in instructional conditions among racial/ethnic groups. Using tests to change teaching and learning reflects overreliance on top-down policy, distrust of…

Suggests that the school reform movement related to the World-Class Schools initiative is not beneficial for selected students. Coupling this initiative with the Goals 2000 standards will only increase the chasm between the have and the have-not students. School-linked student support services will be needed for the have-nots. (SLD)

According to Richard W. Riley, Secretary of Education, the federal government can be a partner to states and communities in improving education. Outlines the Goals 2000 plan to provide schools with greater flexibility in exchange for greater accountability for results. Federal priorities are to provide additional resources to high-poverty…

Briefly describes federal legislation, federally funded programs, and publications supporting the inclusion of limited-English-speaking (LEP) programs in schoolwide programs. Includes a list of regional, state, and national sources of assistance in designing programs for language-minority students. Notes the growing trend toward systemic inclusion…

This pamphlet describes the bases of the educational outcomes and indicators for students (including students with disabilities) developed by the National Center on Educational Outcomes. The importance of developing an outcomes and indicators model with a rationale, wording, and appearance that support a philosophy in which educational outcomes…