John F. JenningsWhy National Standards and Tests?
Politics and the Quest for Better Schools
The Need to Improve the Schools
Why Raising Student Achievement through Higher Standards Was First Proposed
Origins of National Standards and Tests
How President Bush, Corporate Leaders and the Governors First Advanced the
Idea of Raising Standards
The 1992 Presidential Campaign and the Transition to a New Administration
How Bush and Clinton Differed on Education, but How Clinton Continued the
Fight for Higher Standards That Bush Began
Goals 2000 in the US House of Representatives
How Liberals Expressed Concerns About the Fairness of Standards, and How
Conservative Opposition to the Idea Grew
Goals 2000 in the Senate and the Conference Committee
How the Concept of Raising Standards Triumphed, but Only after Liberal
Concerns about Equity Lost and Increasingly Strident Conservative
Opposition Was Overcome
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act
How Other Federal Programs Were Refashioned to Raise Standards, and How
This Victory Further Hardened the Opposition of the Political Far-Right
The Conservative Assault on Raising Standards to Improve the Schools
How the Conservative Opposition Tried to Undo Standards-Based Reform and
Failed Because Clinton, the Business Community and Governors Fought Back
The Elections of 1996 and Clinton¿s Second Term
How the Conservatives Were Rebuffed, and Clinton Revived the Idea of
National Standards and Tests
