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

Achieving the Goals: Goal 1--All Children in America Will Start School Ready to Learn

Introduction

In 1989, the nation's governors came to the conclusion that unless the nation established clear goals in education, and they and the nation's citizens worked cooperatively to achieve them, the United States would enter the 21st century unprepared for its challenges. This decision led to the adoption of six goals, and with the enactment of the "Goals 2000" legislation, two more were added, making a total of eight National Education Goals. The Department of Education is not the only federal agency that is taking part in this national initiative. Federal agencies such as the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Energy, and Defense, have been making important contributions to the National Education Goals. We estimate that at least 28 Departments and agencies are now funding programs that support one or more of the goals.

"Reaching the Goals" is a series of eight books designed to inform people involved in education reform (or people who want to get involved) of the myriad of programs and resources that are available from the federal government to support each of the National Education Goals. The effectiveness of local efforts can be strengthened if reformers are informed of the funding and technical resources that are available.

This first book is dedicated to Goal 1, "All children in America will start school ready to learn." The book provides program definitions and descriptions for more than fifty programs that are designed for preschool children. Such programs encompass nutrition, learning, health, and parenting skills. Drawn from an array of federal agencies, these program descriptions should provide reformers with ideas for initiating or perhaps expanding the scope of preschool services at the community level.

This book is being produced by the Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, responsible for promoting interagency collaboration at the federal level. Through making the information in this book available to administrators, teachers, business leaders, and the general public, it is the hope that interagency collaboration will expand at the local level. As a matter of fact, there are scores of collaborative efforts that are working in communities across the nation today. They draw funds from multiple sources to provide services to children and their families. Some of these programs are described in Achieving the Goals to provide specific examples of how interagency collaborations are working today.

Each book will provide an outline of each agency's role and activities in the Goals effort, including program descriptions, contact names, and an appendix listing resources such as state and local offices, research institutes, technical assistance centers, and clearinghouses.

At HHS, the Head Start program is helping children get ready for school, (Goal 1) and at Labor, job training programs are helping adults gain the skills necessary to compete in the global economy, (Goal 5), and the Department of Energy's Laboratories and NASA's field centers are helping students across the country be the first in the world in science and mathematics (goal 3). These and other federal programs are helping students achieve the National Education Goals.

It is our hope that this series of books will encourage collaborative efforts among state and local organizers who are working on systemic reform.
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[Goal One Update]