[Time For Teachers]
You've probably heard about GOALS 2000 and wondered, "What does it mean for me, as a teacher? What does it mean for my school and my students?"
Think of it as an opportunity to build support for what you try to do every day in your classroom: inspire students to put their best into learning.
Every day you run into roadblocks. You struggle through all the distractions and problems that walk into class with students, from family difficulties to academic weaknesses, substance abuse to car payments -- and the apathy of many students who are just marking time, going through the motions of learning.
You know, better than anyone, what it's going to take to turn the tide. You know that if all children are to learn the academic knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that will serve them well for a lifetime, learning must take center stage in every family and community in the United States.
Teachers can't make that happen alone. Neither can parents. In the words of an African proverb, "It takes an entire village to educate one child."
The GOALS 2000: Educate America Act offers an opportunity to build that "entire village" commitment. It's a chance for your school, your community, and your state to build that commitment by doing two things: developing a plan for moving all students toward high levels of learning and creating a broad partnership for turning that plan into action.
Your state is probably developing a GOALS 2000 plan and a partnership. Your community and school district may be doing so, too. Those plans and partnerships are aimed at helping your school do what only you, other teachers, parents, students, and citizens can do together: chart your own course to excellence.
Excellence cannot be remote controlled, and the leaders in your school, community, and state know it. High performance must be home grown, with support from the community, school district, and state. That's why the lion's share of funding from GOALS 2000 goes to individual schools -- to assist teachers, parents, students, and citizens in building their own comprehensive plan and partnership.
Maybe your school beefed up math instruction or added an after school program last year. Maybe over the past few years, a dozen improvements have been launched in your school. But are they working together as part of a comprehensive, dynamic, long-term effort, so that all the pieces add up to more than the sum of the parts?
GOALS 2000 offers a chance to step back and ask that question, and then to assemble the pieces into a whole that makes sense -- a comprehensive plan for action.
What ought to be part of any comprehensive plan to improve education? Ten elements seem essential. Drawn from more than a decade of research and practice, these 10 essentials include, but are not limited to:
- Teaching and learning, standards and assessments -- including professional development for teachers and other school staff.
- Strategies to make sure that all children have adequate learning opportunities.
- Use of technology.
- Management, governance, and accountability.
- Parent and community support and involvement.
- Making improvements systemwide.
- Promoting grassroots efforts.
- Dropout prevention strategies.
- Coordination with school-to-work programs.
- Milestones and timelines.
It goes without saying that, no matter how good your school plan is, you won't see improvements overnight. Success will take years. Your school will want to take the long view, aiming for continuous improvement year after year.
No school, no teacher, or anyone else can do it alone. It will take partners throughout the community stepping forward to help in all kinds of ways.
This booklet offers a few questions and concrete steps for opening doors, recruiting new partners, and starting a discussion among your faculty, parents and students, and the community. It's designed to assist you and your school in getting:
These partners won't just materialize. They'll need to be invited.
President Clinton asked Congress for $750 million for GOALS 2000 in fiscal year 1996. Forty-four states and 5 territories have applied for and received funding under GOALS 2000, for which Congress appropriated $105 million in 1994 and $403 million in 1995. Most of the money -- 90 percent in 1995, 1996, and subsequent years -- goes to school districts, to support their comprehensive plans. And most of each school district's funding -- 85 percent in 1995, 1996, and subsequent years -- goes to individual schools, for their own GOALS 2000 plans. A considerable portion of the funding will underwrite training and professional development for teachers and principals with assistance from colleges and universities.
GOALS 2000 offers an opportunity to invite partners throughout your community to join your effort to figure out, "How can we move all our children toward high standards?" It's also a chance to be part of a growing network of other schools and communities wrestling with the same question.
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