Three areas of reform have been under national scrutiny: school reform, community services reform, and health-care reform. Few have discussed how these three areas interface and can be organized toward more effective services for children and youth. Describes organizational and planning methodology that coordinates these three reform areas into a…

As a Teaching Artist (TA) for the past 12 years, the author has visited hundreds of schools in western Pennsylvania. She has had an opportunity to work with many talented and dedicated classroom teachers, arts teachers and administrators who all share an enthusiasm for making the arts central to quality education. The teachers and administrators…

No matter how well intentioned the Goals 2000: Educate America Act may be, it is doomed to failure. The theory of the logic and behavior of the educational system illustrates how powerful systemic forces converge to stabilize the high school attainment rate at about 75%, where it has been since 1965, and where no traditional national policy will…

Discusses the controversy surrounding the National Standards for World History and the National Standards for United States History. Maintains that people are finding out how unjust the criticism of the History Standards is. Includes supportive quotes about the standards from teachers and historians. (CFR)

Discusses the organizational development of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) during the years 1982-1995. Describes the effort to establish national social studies standards in response to the national Goals 2000 movement. Describes the reorganization of the NCSS committee structure and central office staff. (CFR)

Maintains that the effort to develop and implement national standards in the arts is politically correct but not free of psychological or pedagogical viewpoints. Asserts that educators must formulate the right questions and assess objectively the potential outcomes of an arts education program in reformed schools. (CFR)

Discusses two related dilemmas: (1) the tension between the Western view of historical progress and the realities of modern society; and (2) the tension between old and new approaches to teaching and learning about the arts. Argues that the end result of implementing the Goals 2000 program might diminish the teaching of the arts as discrete…