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

GOALS 2000 Helps States Take Action for Children

Throughout the country, states and communities are using GOALS 2000 funds to improve teaching and learning. The efforts of the eight states represented here are only a small sampling of the hard work being done nationwide to raise and meet challenging standards of learning for all students.

From Maine to Hawaii, states are taking up the challenge to make education better for their students. Finally, after a decade of piecemeal efforts, we have a serious framework in place with GOALS 2000 to improve teaching and learning.
Richard Riley,
U.S. Secretary of Education

1. GOALS 2000 Advances State and Local Reform Efforts

Reform must begin with a plan -- a map and vehicle for reaching national, state, or local education goals. GOALS 2000 funding -- the national effort to rebuild schools around academic standards -- is making a difference in the following states:

Oregon is using GOALS 2000 funds to review and update its overall school improvement efforts, which have been underway since the 1980s. The review will allow Oregon to identify areas that need to be adjusted and improved, thus strengthening and expanding its improvement plan. The review process also strengthens support for education improvement by involving a broad-based group of citizens. Further bolstering Oregon's efforts to enable students to achieve high academic standards, GOALS 2000 funds are being applied to help schools of education develop teacher training programs.

Louisiana saw an opportunity in GOALS 2000 funds and had a vision: it could pool its various state and local resources to strengthen its reform efforts. GOALS 2000 funds allowed Louisiana to review all of its school districts' existing reform activities. This review created collaboration, and education partnerships emerged.

Together, the South Louisiana Economic Council, Nicholls State University, seven local school districts, and a regional service center pooled their resources to develop and start up activities that improve the education of Louisiana's children.

Illinois supports 28 school improvement planning and 9 school improvement implementation subgrants with GOALS 2000 funds. New and experienced teachers are also benefiting from 24 subgrants to develop their skills and knowledge base.

Take Note: Local Illinois school districts requested more than three times the amount of GOALS 2000 funds available: 61 grants totalling $2.4 million were awarded from 160 proposals totalling $7.9 million.

Arlington Heights School District will better provide for the educational needs of its immigrant children with GOALS 2000 funds by speeding up the completion of an English as a Second Language assessment program and multilanguage instructional materials.

Michigan supports the development of 11 local district reform plans, 8 professional development projects, and 5 preservice teacher education programs with GOALS 2000 funds, which are added to state and local resources. Training focuses on: giving teachers tools to help students perform to challenging academic standards; and developing long-term strategies for engaging the total learning community in supporting challenging teaching and learning standards.

Take Note: Local Michigan school districts, like those in many other states, requested significantly more than the available funds: of 108 applications requesting $11 million for school improvement, 24 were funded with $2.1 million.

Pennsylvania requires all school districts to develop a strategic plan for local reform. These plans are being developed in three stages across the state. GOALS 2000 subgrants are used to move each individual district's reform efforts forward, wherever it is in the process. Professional development is a major thrust of the first-year subgrant efforts: teachers are receiving training from consultants in developing content and performance standards; and districts, which are sharing the results of their planning processes, are benefiting from each other's experience with and knowledge about reform.

2. GOALS 2000 Promotes Challenging Academic Standards

The most important task of government is to help our people raise their education and skill levels so they can make the most of their own lives. . . Our children deserve our best efforts to give them a shot at the American dream.
President Bill Clinton

Standards provide students, parents, community leaders, and employers with a clear representation of what students should know as they complete key points in their education. Challenging standards, which call for enriched course content and high-quality professional development for teachers, are the framework for improving students' academic performance, building a stronger, more competitive America.

Kansas' State Board of Education has developed content standards and assessment instruments in mathematics, reading, writing, communication, social studies, and science. GOALS 2000 funds will be used to assist local districts and individual schools in efforts to incorporate the new standards in curricular programs and classroom techniques.

Massachusetts is using a portion of its GOALS 2000 funds to give educators the extra resources needed to link adult education programs to K-12 education. Students will receive the benefit of the continuum of curriculum frameworks for preschool through adult education in math, science, technology, English, health, history, social studies, the arts, and world languages. The frameworks are being developed as a result of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993.

15,000 Massachusetts residents helped develop the education goals for public school children. These goals, known collectively as the Common Core of Learning, are the basis for the curriculum frameworks.

Michigan provides GOALS 2000 subgrants to local schools to adopt challenging core curricula and standards in math, science, history, geography, economics, and American government, a requirement of the state's school reform legislation. Michigan's citizens actively contribute to meeting this challenge.

Oregon's GOALS 2000 funds are supporting Oregon's efforts to make its academic standards a reality for student learning. Each subgrant under GOALS 2000 is being used to implement district plans for helping all students reach high academic standards.

For example, Portland is using its subgrant to raise standards and improve instruction in science and math at Jefferson High School and its two feeder middle schools. Teachers from all three schools are being trained and are working together to

Their plan includes turning Jefferson High School into a magnet school for the city that focuses on science and math, particularly biotechnology. Oregon Health Sciences University is helping the school to tie biotechnology into its program, and Portland State University is integrating the new standards and assessments into its preservice education program.

Requiring public schools and teacher preparation institutions to be accountable for helping students reach challenging academic standards is a major emphasis of Pennsylvania's school reform. Pennsylvania provides local districts and schools with GOALS 2000 funds to develop and implement reform plans based on academic standards.

3. GOALS 2000 Increases Community Participation in Education

State have chosen to participate in GOALS 2000 by investing in teams of parents, teachers, and local and state leaders to improve teaching and learning, safety and discipline, and parent involvement in their schools.
Terrell Bell, U.S. Secretary
of Education, 1981-84.

Community participation in schools is a vital part of local reform efforts. The following actions show what can be done to reach sustainable improvements for children with community support and GOALS 2000 funds.

In Kentucky

Harrison County strengthens parents' involvement in their children's education through homework hotlines; contracts for educational activities among parents, children, and schools; improved student performance reports to parents; and parent participation in classroom scheduling decisions. All of these improvements are made possible with GOALS 2000 funds.
Hardin County uses GOALS 2000 resources for cable television and video programs to reach parents for whom the school would otherwise remain inaccessible due to conflicting work schedules. This technology also makes it easy to spread school district news throughout the community.
Franklin County Public Schools use GOALS 2000 money to train teachers to recruit parents as classroom instructional volunteers.
Lewis County awards schools GOALS 2000 grants for developing school-to-home liaison programs, so that parents can be more involved in their children's education.

Louisiana informed its school districts about GOALS 2000 activities and opportunities for subgrant awards via satellite coverage of a live town hall meeting. The state also recently held a GOALS 2000 conference where invited teams from each district exchanged ideas and information on improvement programs and innovative teaching methods.

Massachusetts uses GOALS 2000 money to inform the public about local school improvement efforts through notices in high visibility places -- from public transit stations to brochures in supermarkets and stores.

Result: 600 parents attended the fall 1994 education reform conference "What's Going On In Massachusetts Schools?"

Michigan's GOALS 2000 money enables the small isolated communities of the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District to design a school improvement program specifically for its 15 local districts.

For example, the combined resources make it possible to engage members of local communities in learning about the need for higher standards: that, in the short term, they connect local students with national and international performance standards; and that, in the long term, they prepare the students to live and work in a global economy.

As part of its improvement efforts, Michigan benchmarks performance in math, science, and reading in the fourth, seventh, and tenth grades. The results of the benchmarking help teachers know what to focus on in preparing students to perform to higher standards. The assessments also serve as a means to make school accreditation determinations.

Oregon uses school-site councils comprising parents, citizens, and school staff to help ensure that GOALS 2000 funds meet the most pressing local priorities.

Pennsylvania is improving its schools through partnerships it funds with GOALS 2000 money. For example:

Cambria County's Ferndale Area, Meyersdale, and Windber School Districts formed a consortium for local reform and professional development. One focus of professional development is on using technology to create electronic student portfolios -- computerized compilations of student work. Teachers will gain an understanding about performance tasks, student portfolios, and how to use them. GOALS 2000 resources will be used to purchase materials, and to provide training to teachers in assessments and performance standards.
Johnstown and Forrest Hills School Districts and Johnstown Area Vocational Technical School partnered with the University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, and Concurrent Technologies Corporation to accomplish four goals: develop a long-term strategic reform plan; train local school strategic planning groups -- comprising educators and business and community members -- to implement the plan; provide inservice training to teachers about the plan; and develop content and performance standards. The Area Vocational School is also working with school districts to develop a distance learning program about the school-to-work transition plan.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education is using GOALS 2000 funds to continue work with a consortium of states, including Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas to produce performance-based assessments for licensing teachers in mathematics, language arts, and elementary education.

4. GOALS 2000 Gives Educators Access to Professional Tools

We have been searching long and hard for how the national interest in having students reach higher achievement levels can be pursued in a way what is both forward looking and respectful of the American tradition in education: local control, state responsibility, and federal help. GOALS 2000 is that vehicle.
Albert Shanker, President,
American Federation of Teachers

To help educate children, America's educators must have access to programs of continuous development in their profession and skills. GOALS 2000 funds preservice teacher education and professional development, and strategies for recruiting and retaining a highly talented workforce.

Kentucky's preservice teachers get hands-on experience in best practices for high achievement at eight teacher-training clinics established with GOALS 2000 money at selected schools.

Massachusetts' teachers are benefitting from GOALS 2000 money to strengthen their content knowledge and teaching skills in core subjects, in particular mathematics and science:

Fitchburg, Leominster, and Lunenburg Public Schools and Fitchburg State College's Professional Development Center collaborate, with GOALS 2000 resources, to develop interdisciplinary math and science teaching techniques.
New Bedford schools will join with MIT's Institute of Learning and Teaching to develop teacher preparation materials and processes for teams of K-12 mathematics and science teachers. School administrators will be part of this GOALS 2000-supported training effort.

Michigan is providing preservice training and staff development with its GOALS 2000 money at several locations:

Bangor Township schools, having developed a preservice training model with faculty at Saginaw Valley State University, can now give new teachers first-hand experience in educating both general and special populations of students.
The Eastern Upper Peninsula Independent School District's preservice teachers in 13 districts are being educated in math, science, and general content areas to help rural students reach high standards. With help from May Mills Community College, Lake Superior University, and GOALS 2000 funds, this school system receives support services traditionally difficult to come by in rural schools: state-of-the-art training and support that advances the constructivist approach to learning math and science. In particular, teachers and students are being trained to use technology to do hands-on science.
Jackson Public School students will increase their learning in math and writing thanks to the preservice training their new teachers will have received with GOALS 2000 money. To develop training in accordance with the statewide goals in the two content areas, the schools collaborated with Spring Arbor College, Consumers Power Company, and Jackson Area Manufacturers Association.
The Saginaw School System and Midland County School District collaborate to pair new teachers with experienced mentors -- teachers, business leaders, and professors -- to ensure effective instruction in standards-based core curricula.
In Battle Creek Public Schools "lead teachers" in math and science work as mentors, subject matter experts, trainers of trainers, and liaisons for best practices in the 14-member school districts served by the Battle Creek Area Mathematics and Science Center.

Oregon awarded 12 GOALS 2000 subgrants to support comprehensive local reform, particularly focusing on educators.

5. GOALS 2000 Encourages Flexible and Responsive Schools

I think GOALS 2000 is an example of the federal government giving the states more authority to be creative, to be innovative.
Senator Mark O. Hatfield,
Oregon

Many states and communities are testing significant alternatives to existing educational structures as a way to stimulate higher levels of student achievement. The Charter School Movement is one example of such alternative approaches to organizing a school program. Charter schools are given more flexibility from state and local rules in how they organize and operate instructional programs in return for greater accountability for the learning performance of students.

Massachusetts used some of its GOALS 2000 funds to help 14 new charter schools develop instructional programs for high achievement.

Pennsylvania's GOALS 2000 money supports the Philadelphia School District in developing community school clusters. This innovative structure allows schools the freedom to consider longer school days for children and extended times for delivering school services to local families.

6. GOALS 2000 Improves the Conditions for Learning

GOALS 2000 provides the impetus for restructuring Louisiana's public schools in ways that better meet the needs of our students. Within the broad parameters of common statewide goals and standards, local communities will be given the flexibility and necessary support to address the issues that are unique to their school districts.
Ian Arnoff, CEO and
President of the First
Commerce Bank of New Orleans

GOALS 2000 support helps schools examine the conditions under which children are expected to learn. Three in particular need immediate attention in the current global and American context: students' opportunity to use modern technology for acquiring and exchanging information and producing new knowledge; students' opportunity to persist in school; and students' opportunity to learn to resolve conflicts and avoid violence. GOALS 2000 funds efforts that improve these necessary conditions for learning which, while they are widely different, often coexist in the same school or district.

With its GOALS 2000 money, Kentucky organizes broadly-based constituent groups along with principals, district and school technology coordinators, and curriculum specialists -- particularly in math and science -- to design activities under its Master Plan for Education Technology. These constituent groups provide input about technology, public service rate regulation and rate structures, and information-sharing policy. Working with a statutory group, the Information Resources Management Commission, which is charged with strategic planning and all technology policy development in the state, Kentucky is building a network of information. This statewide network is being driven by the needs of education reform at the school level.

Massachusetts is using $100,000 of its GOALS funds for grants to school districts to develop educational programs for chronically disruptive students and school dropouts. These initiatives are being developed in collaboration with other social service agencies, business groups, and law enforcement programs. Massachusetts intends to follow up these plans with state money earmarked for reform awards to help implement new alternative educational designs.

Salem Public Schools are using GOALS 2000 funds to combat growing problems with student violence. They work with the Lesson One Foundation to train teachers to build violence prevention skills into classroom activities.

In Michigan

Ann Arbor Public Schools use GOALS 2000 awards to improve instructional programs for economically disadvantaged students by using technology to reform the mathematics and science curriculum. It also supports job mentoring connected to students' studies and teacher training in the knowledge and skills of technology usage.
The Michigan Department of Education uses GOALS funds to help create safe schools for students and to help teachers deal more effectively with school violence. It has awarded GOALS funds to the Muskegon Public Schools to develop a school-community task force to design an action plan, Youth Violence Prevention Program, to reduce youth violence in schools. These funds support training for teachers, parents, and students in conflict resolution skills. Activities designed by the project are being implemented in Muskegon schools during the 1995-96 school year.

Pennsylvania's GOALS 2000 funds allow schools to share information and build workplace skills through technology, and to ensure persistence and safety.

Austin Area School District is helping two Potter County school districts connect with other schools via fiber optic cable systems. The networking allows teachers and students to exchange video, audio, and data through full-motion interactive television.

[A map of States Participating in GOALS (7927 bytes)]

-###-

[Supporting State and Local Reform]

[Misconceptions & Realities]