Goals 2000: Reforming Education to Improve Student Achievement - April 30, 1998

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

Introduction

Goals 2000 is fulfilling its historic mission of helping schools to raise academic standards. Communities in all 50 states are receiving Goals 2000 funds to raise standards in their own way. This is a fundamental change in the very structure of American education, and it is helping to prepare our nation's young people for success in the 21st century. --U. S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley

The Goals 2000: Educate America Act helps states and communities realize the national commitment to improving education and ensuring that all children reach high academic standards. It encourages States and districts to plan strategically for and realize school change. By initiating, supporting, and sustaining coordinated school reform planning and implementation, Goals 2000 focuses improvement efforts on high expectations and achievement results for all students. This results-focused comprehensive effort is known as standards-based education reform. Standards-based reform drives institutional changes toward improved teaching and learning and high student performance by connecting otherwise fragmented systems. Goals 2000, a strong force in the implementation of such aligned reform, supports school improvement efforts designed around three over-arching principles:

Students learn best when they, their teachers, administrators, and the community share clear and common expectations for education. States, districts, and schools need to agree on challenging content and performance standards that define what children should know and be able to do.
Student achievement improves in environments that support learning to high expectations. The instructional system must support fulfillment of those expectations. School improvement efforts need to include broad parent and community involvement, school organization, coordinated resources--including educational technology, teacher preparation and professional development, curriculum and instruction, and assessments--all aligned to agreed upon standards.
Student success stems from concentrating on results. Education systems must be designed to focus and report on progress in meeting the pre-set standards. Education reform needs to be results oriented through reliable and aligned means that answer the critical, bottom-line question; to what extent are students and schools meeting the standards? Continuous improvement requires carefully developed accountability systems for interpreting and responding to results and supporting improved student performance for all children.

The last decade has seen dramatic changes in American schooling, including increased public support for school change. Eighty-five percent of those surveyed support standards-based reform (Immerwahr and Johnson, Incomplete Assignment, America's Views on Standards: An Assessment by Public Agenda, 1996 in The Progress of Education Reform: 1996, p. 8). Seventy-one percent of Americans strongly support reforming the existing public school system (Public Attitudes Toward Public Schools, Phi Delta Kappa Gallup Poll, 1997).

Goals 2000 has been a driving force in education reform. It has helped 36 States establish content standards in the core academic areas while 17 States and Puerto Rico have established performance standards whose process for development has been approved under Title I of ESEA; the remaining States are actively working to complete their standards. In addition, all States are developing aligned assessments and expect to have them completed by 2001; most have some kind of accountability measures; and many are revising their teacher education and professional development efforts.

More importantly, schools and school systems are organizing themselves around teaching and learning to high expectations, and students are beginning to meet these high standards.

Section 312 of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act requires the Secretary to submit to Congress a biennial report of progress. Consistent with the statute and the impact of Goals 2000, this second report to Congress addresses the following: 1) the legislation's history and impact on State planning; 2) the dynamic and diverse manner in which Goals 2000 supports reform at the State and local level--the role and impact of Goals 2000 on districts and schools; 3) implementation of standards-based reform--progress in pursuing aligned principles of reform; and 5) continuation of the effort--how far States and communities have come and what still needs to be done.

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[Executive Summary]

[I. Goals 2000: History]