lle, Virginia. At this summit, President Bush
             and the nation s governors, including then-governor Bill Clinton, agreed on six
             broad goals for education to be reached by the year 2000. Two of those goals (3
             and 4) related specifically to academic achievement:
             * Goal 3: By the year 2000, American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12
             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 they may be prepared
             for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our
             * Goal 4: By the year 2000, U.S. students will be first in the world in science
             Soon after the summit, two groups were established to implement the new
             educational goals: the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) and the National
             Council on Education Standards and Testing (NCEST). Together, these two groups
             were charged with addressing unprecedented questions regarding American
             education such as: What is the subject matter to be addressed? What types of
             assessments should be used? What standards of performance should be set?
             The summit and its aftermath engendered a flurry of activity from
             national subject matter organizations to establish standards in their respective
             areas. Many of these groups looked for guidance from the National Council of
             Teachers of Mathematics who publishing the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards
             for School Mathematics in 1989. The NCTM standards "redefined the study of math
             so that topics and concepts would be introduced at an earlier age, and students
             would view math as a relevant problem-solving discipline rather than as a set of
             obscure formulas to be memorized." The National Science Teachers Association
             and the American Association for the Advancement of Science quickly launched
             independent attempts to ...