In 1999 Ministers responsible for school education agreed to the new set of "National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century," with the aim of providing high quality schooling in Australia which would secure for students the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and values for a productive and rewarding life. As a consequence, the national council of Ministers (MCEETYA) set in train a process to enable nationally comparable reporting of progress against the "National Goals." This "Measurement Framework for National Key Performance Measures" takes account of all MCEETYA decisions related to measuring performance against the "National Goals." It sets out a basis for reporting progress towards the achievement of the "National Goals" by Australian school students drawing on the agreed definitions of Key Performance Measures. The core of the "Framework" is a schedule setting out Key Performance Measures and an agreed assessment and reporting cycle for the period 2003-2011. With the aim of driving school improvement and enhanced outcomes for students, Ministers responsible for school education have agreed to report on progress towards the achievement of the "National Goals for Schooling" in the following priority areas, comparable by State and Territory, and using Key Performance Measures as the basis for reporting: (1) literacy; (2) numeracy; (3) science; (4) civics and citizenship education; (5) information and communication technology; (6) vocational education and training in schools; and (7) participation and attainment. Ministers also noted the need to investigate the development of indicators of performance in enterprise education but have since agreed that work in this area should cease for the time being. Definitions of student characteristics have been agreed by MCEETYA. Student outcomes will be reported for the student cohorts disaggregated by: (1) sex; (2) Indigenous status; (3) language background; (4) geographic location; and (5) socio-economic background. (Contains 21 footnotes.)