Community Update

No. 13
May 1994
Special Issue
GOALS 2000 Overview
U.S. Department of Education

Dear Community Update Reader:

Many of you have been working to improve your schools and reach the National Education Goals. You know, better than anyone, how steep the road is. I want you to know the President Clinton has signed into law legislation to help. It's the GOALS 2000: Educate America Act, the most important new federal education initiative in decades.

But it's more than a piece of legislation. GOALS 2000 is an invitation to do what only communities can do to improve teaching and learning for every child. It's an invitation to reinvent education across America so that all of our children reach standards of learning once expected of only our top students.

The GOALS 2000 challenge to your community -- and to every school -- is straightforward:

Figure out what all children need to know and be able to do so that, as adults, they'll be able to get good jobs and live good lives. Then decide what has to be done to make sure that all children learn those things.

You'll need a plan -- a GOALS 2000 action plan -- that aims to help your schools and community improve everything about education: standards, curriculum, assessments, professional development for teachers, technology, school governance and much more. You'll want to ask: What's working? What's not? What else in needed? Answering these questions -- and acting on the answers -- will take commitment and hard work. But you won't be alone.

GOALS 2000 can help you form strong partnerships within your community, your state, and with the federal government. It offers a framework and support for your state and school district to blend all resources and programs so that all the various "pieces" add up to more that the sum of the parts. We in the federal government know that the success of GOALS 2000 depends on you -- parents and teachers, schools and communities. We hope to hear from you about ways we can help.

Regardless of where you are in the process, I want to extend to you this invitation:

Join us where you are. Start with your strengths. Build on what you have.

I hope you will be part of this movement to help every child reach for a bright future. I hope you will seize this opportunity as if our future depended on it. Because it does.

Dick Riley

WHAT GOALS 2000 MEANS FOR YOU

It passed! On March 31, President Clinton Signed the most sweeping new federal education legislation in decades -- the GOALS 2000: Educate America Act. This Act, or "GOALS 2000," is built on research and lessons learned from more than a decade of trying to improve schooling. It represents a broad consensus on how American education must change if we're to reach the National Education Goals and move every child toward meeting high standards. So it's no surprise that GOALS 2000 was supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and by nearly every major education and business group in the U.S. GOALS 2000 presents a rare opportunity. Let's look at what it means for you.

HIGH STANDARDS FOR ALL STUDENTS

This is the North Star for reform under GOALS 2000 -- high standards for every child. But what do we mean by "high Standards"?

If youngsters are moving toward high standards, they are learning what they'll need to know and be able to do to succeed in today's world. And they are engaged in academically challenging activities. Such activities may include reading and discussing important ideas found in history and literature; using math and scientific knowledge to design complex experiments; drawing on tools and knowledge of geography and the arts to make connections; learning a second language and navigating databases on the Internet to solve problems; and developing the habits of writing, communicating, and thinking clearly.

You may want to ask: Are all children in our community involved in activities like these?

SUPPORT FOR COMPREHENSIVE EFFORTS -- AT ALL LEVELS -- TO HELP EVERY CHILD REACH HIGH STANDARDS

GOALS 2000 offers your state -- and, over time, your school district and school -- "seed money" for developing its own plan and partnership to reach the National Education Goals and to help every child reach high standards.

Participating states will use GOALS 2000 funds to develop their own comprehensive, long-term plans to improve all features of schooling throughout the state. But 60 percent of those state funds in the first year (July 1994-95) and 90 percent in subsequent years will go to school districts -- for developing and pursuing their own comprehensive plans, and for the professional development of teachers and principals.

The lion's share of support under GOALS 2000, though, goes to individual schools' efforts to develop and pursue their own comprehensive, continuous improvement plans to move every child toward high standards.

Congress has appropriated $105 million for GOALS 2000 in 1994. President Clinton has asked Congress for $700 million in 1995.

Not every school and school district will receive GOALS 2000 funding in the first year. But with or without initial funding, your community may want to use GOALS 2000 and its "framework."

A FRAMEWORK FOR YOUR PLAN

Based on years of research and reform, the GOALS 2000 framework can help your schools and community redesign everything -- the curriculum and assessment, instruction and professional development, parent and community involvement, technology and management, and more -- around clear, high standards.

That's no small undertaking. Nor will it happen overnight. But it's necessary if the various "pieces" of education are to add up to more than the sum of the parts and if every child is to reach high levels of learning. What are these pieces, or elements, that your GOALS 2000 plan ought to seek to improve? Below are the 10 GOALS 2000 Elements, plus a few questions about each.

TEACHING AND LEARNING, STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENTS. What are we doing to raise expectations for every child? Are we improving the curriculum, instructional materials, professional development, student assessment, use of technology, and more? Is our state developing high standards in core subjects, and are our improvements in teaching and learning directed at helping all children reach those high standards? Are we creating time for teachers to share ideas?

OPPORTUNITY-TO-LEARN STANDARDS OR STRATEGIES, AND PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY. Are all our students getting quality instruction? Do all our teachers participate in quality professional development? Are all our schools safe, disciplined and drug-free? How do we help low-performing schools?

TECHNOLOGY. How are our teachers and students using technologies? What's our plan for helping them use technologies more powerfully? Does our plan provide for teacher training and technical assistance? Does it include businesses and other partners in the community? Does it aim to extend the power of technology to all children? Is our technology plan integral to, and integrated with, our comprehensive plan to move all children toward high academic standards?

GOVERNANCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS. Does each school have the authority and capacity to make its own decisions about staffing, budgets and other issues? Does each school have strong leadership? Does our school district have a coherent system for attracting, recruiting, preparing and licensing, evaluating, rewarding, retaining, and supporting teachers, administrators, and other school staff? Is this system tied to high academic standards? Do we provide incentives for students, teachers, and schools to work hard and reach high levels of performance? Are we encouraging schools to seek waivers from rules and regulations that stand in the way of excellence?

PARENT AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND INVOLVEMENT. Are we taking steps to help families so that all children enter school ready to learn? Are we improving communication between school and home? Are we creating a "whole community" partnership to improve teaching and learning? Are we enlisting partners throughout the community -- grandparents and senior citizens, employers and volunteer groups, libraries and community colleges, churches and media, social service agencies and law enforcement, and others? Are we reporting regularly to the community about our progress?

MAKING IMPROVEMENTS SYSTEM-WIDE. Are we encouraging innovation -- and making time for planning it -- in every school? Are we providing opportunities for all teachers and school staff to learn and continuously improve instruction? Are there vehicles by which teachers and principals can share ideas and models -- newsletters, computer networks and conferences?

PROMOTING GRASSROOTS EFFORTS. Does our comprehensive plan respond to the needs and experiences of parents, teachers, students, business leaders, and other community members? Have strategies been developed to get broad input on our comprehensive plan? Are we providing discretionary resources for teachers and schools?

DROPOUT STRATEGIES. What are we doing to help all schools become places where learning is meaningful, and where all students feel they belong? Do we reach out to students who have left school, and invite them to earn their diploma through a range of educational options?

CREATING A COORDINATED EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEM. Does our comprehensive plan include programs to help students make the transition from school to work? Are these programs designed to move participating students towards high academic standards, as well as prepare them for careers? Are these programs built around a multi-year sequence of learning at work sites and at school-learning that is connected and coordinated?

MILESTONES AND TIMELINES. Have we developed milestones and timelines for each element we aim to improve? Does everyone know what those milestones are? Do we have a system for reporting on our performance, in relation to those milestones, and for using that information to improve our performance?

A PROCESS FOR BUILDING A BROAD PARTNERSHIP

A plan for changing all those features won't just materialize. It'll take a Herculean effort -- by a group of committed, influential individuals. That's the role of the GOALS 2000 "planning panel": to drive the development of your community or school's GOALS 2000 plan.

This panel probably has a better chance of succeeding if its members, as a whole, reflect the diversity of the community. so your community may want to include at least the following on its leadership panel: teachers and other school staff, parents (including parents of children having special needs), secondary school students, school administrators, business representatives, early childhood educators, representatives of community-based organizations, and others. The panel will want to get input on the plan from the beginning, to build community-wide and school-wide commitment to carrying it out.

To develop that ownership, your community may want to use various forums for communication -- neighborhood and community "town meetings," speaker bureaus and seminars, public surveys and newspaper inserts, toll-free hotlines and computer networks, and others.

ADDITIONAL FEDERAL HELP

Transforming a whole school, or an entire school district, is one of the great challenges we face together in this final decade of the 20th century. We in the U.S. Department of Education know that our success depends on your success, so we will be working to support your efforts.

One change we're struggling to make involves the structure of certain federal education programs. Many of these programs are narrowly focused and rigid. Many encourage piecemeal approaches aimed at minimal standards for children. They discourage the very kinds of comprehensive, long-term efforts required if we're to reach the National Education Goals and help all students reach high standards.

President Clinton's proposal for reauthorizing the $10-billion- a-year Elementary and Secondary Education Act would change that. It would allow federal resources to be harnessed to the state or community's comprehensive effort to help all children reach high standard. His proposal, known as the "Improving America's Schools Act," would allow states to use a singe set of standards and assessments, instead of one set for state requirements and another set for federal requirements. This legislation is scheduled to be approved by Congress this summer.

There are other ways the U.S. Department of Education will be working to help you. Through our Information Resource Center, Community Update newsletter, Satellite Town Meetings, and publications, we will continue to feature pioneering efforts and innovative ideas. We are offering a handbook on how to get started -- "GOALS 2000: An Invitation to Your Community."

We're developing several online services, including a library you may access using the Internet. If you have e-mail access to the Internet, you can get the GOALS 2000: Educate America Act electronically. For directions, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

We're offering more and better services because the hardest, most important work in America depends on you. Only you -- parents and teachers, citizens and students -- can transform education in your school and community.

SO, HOW CAN I GET STARTED?

Many states are participating in GOALS 2000. Is yours? You may want to call your governor or chief state school officer to find out. If your state is participating, ask how you can get involved.

Also, call your local school board and school superintendent. Ask if a long-term, comprehensive plan to help all students reach high standards -- and to reach the National Education Goals -- is being developed. Ask if they are talking with the governor's office, chief state school officer, or other state officials about participating in GOALS 2000.

Call your local school. Ask what you can do to help make sure that every child reaches high standards. Ask if there is a child in your neighborhood who could use some extra help with schoolwork.

For more ideas about how to get started, call the GOALS 2000 information & Resource Center, 1-800-USA-LEARN.

GOALS 2000 ALSO INCLUDES...

NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS -- GOALS 2000 reaffirms the six original Goals and adds two more -- one on parent partnerships and one on professional development for teachers.

NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL -- GOALS 2000 establishes in law the National Education Goals Panel. The Act also directs the Panel to build public support for the Goals, report on the nation's progress toward meeting the Goals, report on the nation's progress toward meeting the Goals, review standards submitted to the National Education Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC), and more.

NATIONAL EDUCATION STANDARDS AND IMPROVEMENT COUNCIL (NESIC) -- GOALS 2000 creates this Council to examine and certify voluntary national standards; state standards for content, student performance, and opportunities to learn; and student assessment systems. The decision about whether or not to submit to NESIC a particular set of standards or an assessment system is up to the state or professional group that developed them. Submission is voluntary.

NATIONAL SKILL STANDARDS BOARD -- GOALS 2000 creates this Board to stimulate the development of a voluntary national system of occupational standards and certification. The Board will identify clusters of major occupations in the U.S. and encourage development of skill standards in each cluster. Skill standards that meet rigorous criteria will be certified by the Board.

WAIVERS -- GOALS 2000 allows state education agencies to apply for waivers of certain federal education program requirements that impede the GOALS 2000 plans of their school districts or schools, or their own state plan. Civil rights laws and other certain statutory requirements may not be waived. Also, GOALS 2000 allows the Secretary of Education to select up to six states for participation in an Education Flexibility demonstration program. Under this program, the Secretary may delegate his waiver authority to those six states.

"FIRST IN THE WORLD IN SCIENCE AND MATH" IS ATTAINABLE WITH HIGH STANDARDS

How can we help our children become "first in the world in math and science?" That was the primary question of the April 19th GOALS 2000 Satellite Town Meeting. Panelists agreed that with high standards and partnerships, schools and communities can move toward this National Education Goal.

Communities across the country joined Education Secretary Richard Riley and Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin to talk about ways that communities might form partnerships to improve math and science teaching and learning. Dozens of cable access stations broadcast the town meeting live.

In Washington, D.C., a studio audience participated in the discussion with the panel, which included Walter Amprey, Superintendent of Schools in Baltimore, Md.; Marie Lopez-Freeman, a teacher from Los Angeles; Ellsworth Brown, President of the Carnegie in Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Steve Hulbert, a businessman from Olympia, Wash. White House Science Advisor Jack Gibbons joined the conversation in a special segment.

Walter Amprey explained that in the Baltimore City schools, "We try to have all of our eighth grade students learning algebra because we recognize the tremendous value associated with learning math and science at very high levels."

Such high expectations are crucial, agreed Amprey and Maria Lopez-Freeman. A teacher of 25 years, Lopez-Freeman is participating in a national effort to develop model science standards. "The standards," she noted, will help us understand "...what it means... to be first in science and math." Math standards have already been developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and are being used in communities across the country.

One way to help students learn math and science is through technology. During the course of the teleconference, four Washington, D.C. area students joined Education Technology Advisor Linda Roberts to discover some of the characteristics of a hurricane and information on rebuilding fisheries, using the Internet.

It is up to communities, not schools alone, to make technology available, agreed Ellsworth brown and steve Hulbert. They stressed the importance of combining resources and making sure that schools are partners with business, museums, libraries and other organizations.

Businessman Steve Hulbert creates these connections every day, as Chairman of the Northwest Watershed Alliance in Washington State. Environmental education, he said, can make math and science relevant to students. "I really believe we need to drop the word `environmental' and show the community problems... and provide that thread of opportunity to bring business and other partners into that school room, as well as out into the community, to form partnerships and opportunities."

In Pittsburgh, The Carnegie -- a unique public trust of museums, libraries and music organizations -- has announced the formation of a "Regional Science Institute" to serve the schools of Western Pennsylvania. Brown asked parents to think beyond the classroom as they teach their children: "Another way to encourage a child is to begin to talk with them within a different environment such as a museum of science, or a zoo, and to deal with projects where there seems to be a purpose to the learning."

The Town Meeting was sponsored by Miles, Inc., Texaco, and the Carolina Biological Supply Company, and produced in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Biznet.

For more information on the guests and their programs, call 1-800-USA-LEARN. Are you on the Community Update mailing list? To receive your monthly copy, 1-800-USA-Learn.

THE TRIANGLE COALITION HELPS BUILD ALLIANCES

Communities seeking partnerships for improving math, science and technology education may find help from the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education. The Triangle Coalition serves as the liaison and clearinghouse for more than 600 local and statewide alliances across the country, providing access to and use of available learning resources.

In Canton, Ohio, The Education Enhancement Partnership, a Triangle Coalition member, has joined numerous community organizations in a math and science initiative called the Volunteers in Partnership. Dr. Jane Hazen, who works with the Stark County School District, says, "Nationally, our link with the Triangle Coalition has enabled us to network with other organizations and increase our knowledge of resources available to our schools. The overall winner of the increased collaboration is our students!"

Many communities already have task forces on math and science education and may look to the Triangle Coalition for advice on forming a more formal alliance. A Guide for Building an Alliance for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education is a how-to manual on alliance building and maintenance developed by a team of alliance leaders. In this guide, alliances nationwide share the secrets of their success including tips, mission statements, goals, and descriptions of individual alliance programs.

Single copies of the Alliance Guide are free upon request. Additional copies are $5.00 each, postage and handling included, with discounts for bulk orders available. For more information write ATTN: ALLIANCE GUIDE, Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education, 5112 Berwyn Road, College Park, MD 20740-4129; (301 220-0886).

THE GOALS 2000 COMMUNITY EXCHANGE

In this monthly feature, we invite you to write us if your community has a specific problem or question that another community might have already solved. Each month we'll choose a question or two and ask our readers to send responses which we'll publish the following month.

We've received a lot of mail about math and science programs. So, here are a few more ideas about the question, "What are communities doing to help improve math and science education in their local schools?" (Asked by a reader from Bridgeport, Conn.)

Suzanne and Bill Duesing write to us about a program they are involved with in Oxford, Conn. Students at the Hallen Community School can be found making herb tea from dried apple mint and peppermint, and potato chips out of potatoes they had harvested from their Hallen School Community garden. The students drink the tea and fry and eat the potatoes. While the potatoes cook, Farmer Bill teaches a math lesson about the price of raw potatoes at the market, contrasted to the price of potatoes in the small bags of chips they frequently eat. The students are amazed that potatoes frequently cost as little as 10 a pound, yet the chips cost between $4 and $6 a pound.

Michelle Miller, from Kanawha County, W. Va., tells us about a joint venture between industry, schools, and West Virginia University's Extension Service. Kanawha County Schools formed the BEAMS (Bold Educational Achievement Through Math and Science) Board of Directors to direct the community's expertise and resources toward curricular restructuring. The new structures go beyond books and classroom walls to integrating hands-on experiences in classrooms and informal education settings. BEAMS accomplishments include creating a support network for middle/junior high science teachers in which area professionals may more easily contribute their expertise to enriching science instruction and the KIDS (Kids Involved in Doing Science) Summer Camp, where through hands-on investigations presented by local scientists and engineers, students experience science in a way not possible inside the classroom.

This month's question: "What types of successful school-to-work programs are schools and communities using, other than tech prep?" (From Dale Parnell in Corvallis, Ore.)

If you have a successful program that addresses this issue, write us and we'll try to include your answer in next month's Community Update. Send your answer or questions for future editions to GOALS 2000 COMMUNITY EXCHANGE, U.S. Department of Education, Room, 4141, 400 Maryland Avenue S.W., Washington, D.C. 20202. Or fax to: 202/205-0676.

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