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…

This document is designed to help community-based organizations (CBOs) and civil rights groups get involved as full partners in developing a voluntary, national system of skill standards, assessment, and certification. Section 1 explains the benefits to CBOs and civil rights groups of becoming involved in the skill standards development. Section 2…

This guidebook is intended as a road map to the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins III) for career-technical education (CTE) practitioners and policymakers in Illinois. The following topics are among those covered: (1) framework for Perkins III (national educational reform, Illinois provisions for quality CTE,…