A BILL
To improve learning and teaching by providing a national
framework for education reform; to promote the research,
consensus building, and systemic changes needed to ensure
equitable educational opportunities and high levels of
educational achievement for all American students; to provide a
framework for reauthorization of all Federal education programs;
to promote the development and adoption of a voluntary national
system of skill standards and certifications; and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this
Act may be cited as the "Goals 2000: Educate America Act".
PURPOSE; DEFINITION
SEC. 2. (a) PURPOSE.
--It is the purpose of this Act to
provide a framework for meeting the National Education Goals
established by title I of this Act by--
- (1) promoting coherent, nationwide, systemic
education reform;
- (2) improving the quality of learning and
teaching in the classroom;
- (3) defining appropriate and coherent Federal,
State, and local roles and responsibilities for education reform;
- (4) establishing valid, reliable, and fair
mechanisms for--
- (A) building a broad national consensus on
America education reform;
- (B) assisting in the development and
certification of high-quality, internationally competitive
content and student performance standards;
- (C) assisting in the development and
certification of opportunity-to-learn standards; and
- (D) assisting in the development and
certification of high-quality assessment measures that reflect
the internationally competitive content and student performance
standards;
- (5) supporting new initiatives at the Federal,
State, local, and school levels to provide equal educational
opportunity for all students to meet high standards;
- (6) providing a framework for the reauthorization
of all Federal education programs by--
- (A) creating a vision of excellence and
equity that will guide all Federal education and related
programs;
- (B) providing for the establishment of high-
quality, internationally competitive content and student
performance standards that all students, including disadvantaged
students, students with diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural
backgrounds, students with disabilities, students with limited
English proficiency, and academically talented students, will be
expected to achieve;
- (C) providing for the establishment of
high quality, internationally competitive opportunity-to-learn
standards that all States, local educational agencies, and
schools should achieve;
- (D) encouraging and enabling all State
educational agencies and local educational agencies to develop
comprehensive improvement plans that will provide a coherent
framework for the implementation of reauthorized Federal
education and related programs in an integrated fashion that
effectively educates all children; and
- (E) providing resources to help individual
schools, including those serving students with high needs,
develop and implement comprehensive improvement plans; and
- (7) stimulating the development and adoption of a
voluntary national system of skill standards and certification to
serve as a cornerstone of the national strategy to enhance
workforce skills.
(b) DEFINITION.
--As used in this Act, the term "all
students" means students from the broad range of backgrounds and
circumstances, including disadvantaged students, students with
diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, students with
disabilities, students with limited English proficiency, and
academically talented students.