Archived:Objective 1.1. States develop challenging standards ...

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

FY 1999 Annual Plan - Volume 1. Objective Performance Plans and Data Quality - February 27, 1998

Objective 1.1. States develop challenging standards and assessments for all students in the core academic subjects.

Context: All students must have the opportunity to reach high standards of education excellence and all schools should be held accountable for enabling students to achieve. Helping students reach challenging academic standards will prepare them for responsible citizenship, productive employment, and lifelong learning. The FY 1994 reauthorization of the federal elementary and secondary programs, along with Goals 2000, brought federal program support in line with state and local reform efforts, by linking program performance accountability and improvement to progress on challenging standards and assessments.

Key strategies for FY 1999

Challenging state content and student performance standards. Ensure that states follow a rigorous process in developing challenging content and performance standards that meet the requirements of Title I of the ESEA by peer reviewing evidence submitted to the Department of Education; providing technical assistance through peer consultants and regional labs to states; and raising public awareness of standards and assessment issues. The Department will support strategies that implement high standards in the classroom and hold schools accountable for results.
- Use the $7.8 billion request for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies request to help states meet the statutory requirement that they have assessment systems in place to measure student performance against state standards by 2001.
- Use the $476 million requested for Goals 2000 state grants to support state efforts to implement assessments aligned to curriculum and content standards for at least two core subjects by the year 2000. States distribute 90 percent of their Goals 2000 grants to local educational agencies to fund local standards-based reform efforts.
- Ensure that States include children with disabilities in their accountability systems through appropriate accommodations on assessments. The Department has requested $3.8 billion for the IDEA State grants program to assist in providing children with disabilities access to high quality education that will help them meet challenging standards.
- Assist urban and rural school districts with high concentrations of children from low-income families to implement educational reform strategies linked to challenging standards for all students, accountability for results, expanded public school choice, and interventions in failing schools with the $200 million Education Opportunity Zones initiative.
- The budget includes $15.5 million for the National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment, which, among other efforts to improve student achievement in the core academic subjects, supports the UCLA-based Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. The Center's research-based findings have been delivered to state-level officials through such organizations as the Education Commission of the States.
National assessments in fourth grade reading and eighth grade mathematics. Support the adoption of national tests to enable states, districts, schools, and parents to benchmark their students' performance against a common measure of achievement aligned with challenging standards.

Coordination

National Education Goals Panel. Work with National Education Goals Panel as well as various organizations and associations to promote strategies to implement standards in the classroom.
Department of Defense. Provide opportunities for interagency collaboration on standards issues. The Department of Defense is represented on the Department of Education's Standards and Accountability Team.

Programs supporting this objective

Standards development by states

Goals 2000
Title I
Fund for the Improvement of Education

State Grants

Goals 2000
Title I
School-to-Work Opportunities
IDEA Part B: State Improvement

Professional development

Eisenhower Professional Development
Goals 2000
Title I

Technical Assistance and dissemination

Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers
Eisenhower Regional Consortia
Fund for the Improvement of Education
Regional Educational Laboratories
National Dissemination Activities

Research and demonstration

Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration
National Education Research Institutes Student Achievement Institute)
Statistics and Assessment
IDEA Research and Innovation

Selected performance indicators and charts

State progress for Goals 2000 is measured through annual Goals 2000 state reports and the Department's evaluation of the state implementation of Goals 2000 and ESEA programs. The Department has developed a number of indicators to track improvements in instruction based on these new standards and assessments, including the implementation of research-based approaches in Title I schools and the progress of students, particularly those in high poverty Title I schools, in meeting challenging standards.

The percentage of all students performing at the proficient or advanced levels on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in core academic subjects will increase. (Goals 2000 plan, indicator 1.1)

Indicator background and context. The adoption and implementation of challenging content and student performance standards will help all students reach high levels of achievement.

Data source. NAEP, 1996.

By the end of the 1997-98 school year, all states will have challenging content and student performance standards in place for two or more core subjects. (Goal 1, indicator 8)

Indicator background and context. Almost all states have developed content standards. In 1997, 18 states sufficiently demonstrated that they met the requirement of developing both challenging content and student performance standards in at least reading/language arts and math. In 1998, 20 additional states will complete the development of standards, and by 2001, all states will have challenging content and student performance standards in place.

Data Source. Department of Education review of state standards and assessment development process, fall 1997.

By 2002, increasing percentages of the public and parents will be aware of the importance of challenging academic standards for all children, including at least the majority of parents from low-income families. (Goal 1, indicator 10)

Indicator background and context. The initial challenge for states is to develop high content and student performance standards. For students to reach higher levels of achievement, these standards must be implemented in the classroom; and the public, especially parents, must be made aware of standards. This indicator measures views of teachers about standards in the classroom and parental awareness of goals and standards.

Data source. Public Agenda, 1998

Verification/validation of performance measures: Independent validation of state-reported information on the quality of state standards will be obtained through peer reviews of state-reported processes and information and by reviews of standards by highly respected non-governmental organizations, such as the Council for Basic Education, Achieve, and the American Federation of Teachers. Public awareness and opinions on standards will be obtained through rigorously designed polls that meet acceptable statistical standards. The congressionally mandated Independent Review Panel for the National Assessment of Title I and the Federal Impact on Reform, supported by the Planning and Evaluation Service, will review the methodology of the studies, the findings of the evaluations, and the interpretation of results.

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[Annual Performance on Objectives]

[Objective 1.2]