A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

GOALS 2000:
Building on a Decade of Reform

GOALS 2000 is a direct outgrowth of the state-led education reform agenda of the 1980s, which included increasing high school graduation requirements, particularly in math and science, instituting statewide testing programs, offering more Advanced Placement courses, promoting the use of technology in the classroom, and instituting new teacher evaluation programs.

State Reform Results

These education reforms yielded important results: academic performance increased and the performance gap between white and minority students decreased, according to important indicators. For example:

Course-taking patterns

• From 1982 to 1994, the percentage of high school students taking the challenging academic courses recommended in the 1983 A Nation at Risk report increased from 14 to 52 percent.

• Enrollments in Advanced Placement (AP) courses also increased significantly, and the number of students passing AP exams nearly tripled between 1982 and 1995.

National Assessment of Educational Progress scores

• The average performance in mathematics improved substantially on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) between 1978 and 1992. Among 9- and 13-year-olds, the improvement was the equivalent of at least one grade level.

• Performance in science was also higher in 1992 than in 1978 among all age groups, especially in general science knowledge and skills.

• The gap in performance between white and minority students has been narrowing, especially in mathematics.

Insufficient Gains

These gains in academic performance, while significant, are not sufficient. The NAEP results in reading performance remain relatively unchanged. And the narrowed gap in performance between white and minority students remains unacceptably large.

Because of international economic competition, states are competing with other countries, rather than with other states, to attract and retain high-paying jobs. But, by the mid-1980s, a series of studies demonstrated that the academic performance of U.S. students, and therefore their potential competitiveness in the workforce, lagged significantly behind that of students in other countries. By this standard, the United States was losing its ability to compete economically, and the need for education reform was as urgent at the end of the 1980s as it was at the beginning.

The 1989 Charlottesville Education Summit

The 1989 Education Summit convened by President Bush and the nation's governors, led by then-Governor Bill Clinton, further underscored the need for a national response to address education issues. The Charlottesville Summit, as it was called, led to a number of important commitments for sustaining the momentum of education reform. These include:

• The creation of the National Education Goals.

• The recognition that states must focus on raising the achievement levels of all students rather than on simply creating models of success.

• A broad consensus among state and business leaders, parents and the education community that education reform must raise academic standards; measure student and school performance against those standards; provide schools and educators with the tools, skills, and resources needed to prepare students to reach the standards; and hold schools accountable for the results.

• A clear statement of an important and carefully defined federal role in improving education, including financial, research, and dissemination support and greater flexibility in administering programs.

The GOALS 2000 Act

The 1994 GOALS 2000 Act reflects these commitments. The act endorses the national education goals. It provides a broad framework for education reform, easily adaptable to the unique circumstances each state and community faces in educating its children and sustaining its reform efforts. GOALS 2000 provides support to state and local education reforms with exactly the kind of flexibility called for at the Charlottesville Education Summit.

The 1996 National Education Summit

In 1996, governors, President Clinton, and American business leaders attended a National Education Summit (site disabled) which resulted in a renewed commitment to the need for academic standards, assessments, and new tools, such as educational technology, to help ensure that students achieve at higher levels. Acknowledging that some headway had been made in education reform, these leaders urged greater progress and increased effort to ensure that America continues to be competitive in an international economy.

[The GOALS 2000 Partnership]

[How a GOALS 2000 Approach Works]