"" He goes on to note that a similar pattern of deficiency in knowledge achievement is revealed by the NAEP studies of mathematics, history, literature, geography, and civics. Less than 10 percent of 17-year-old students seem to develop both an understanding of key ideas in these core subjects and the ability to apply these ideas to completion to tasks that require high-level cognition (Patrick 3). .
Recognizing that some form of school reform was needed, President George Bush along with a number of state governors proclaimed a set of six (now 8) national education goals in February of 1990. Referred to as Goals 2000, this legislation called upon states to develop reform initiatives for their own systems and bring student achievement up to a par with a set of national goals and standards by the year 2000. The object of these goals was to prompt improvements in schools and raise the level of student achievement. The third goal states: "By the year 2000, American students will leave grades four, eight, and twelve having demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, history, and geography; and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so that they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our society- (Patrick 2).
John J. Patrick, author of "Achievement of Goal Three of the Six National Education Goals,"" an update of his earlier work, "Student Achievement in Core Subjects-, lists several factors associated with higher student achievement in core subjects. He suggested that active leaning was a major factor associated with higher achievement. Students who said their teachers required them to interpret and apply knowledge to the completion of tasks tended to score much higher on assessments than did respondents who reported that their lessons were limited mostly to passive reception of knowledge through lectures and textbooks.