Learning First Alliance Goals

The nation’s public schools are the key to our future. They are an essential vehicle for ensuring that young people enter adulthood with the knowledge, skills and moral character to be productive members of our diverse and democratic society. The Learning First Alliance works with and through its member organizations to achieve the following three goals:

To ensure that high academic expectations are held for all students
To ensure a safe and supportive place of learning for all students
To engage parents and other community members in helping students achieve high academic expectations

We commit our 18 organizations to these inter-related goals, which are central to our mission of improving student learning in America's public elementary and secondary schools. The Alliance believes that communities should hold schools accountable for the achievement of these three goals.

Goal 1: the Alliance works to ensure that high academic expectations are held for all students.

States and school districts should hold children to high academic standards. These standards should lay out clearly and specifically what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level or other checkpoints. This specificity will ensure that educators, students, parents, policymakers, school board members, and the public all share an understanding of and commitment to what is expected of students. The standards of local school districts should be consistent with those set by states, but need not be limited to them.

To provide all students with the opportunity to achieve these standards, school and districts must align policies, curriculum, instruction, materials, facilities, technologies, professional development, assessment, and school structures. Students who need extra help should receive timely and intensive interventions, and students should not be promoted to higher levels of schooling without meeting the standards. Student assessments should enhance learning and enable all stakeholders to know whether students are meeting the standards.

Educators must be prepared in the specific subjects they teach. In addition, teachers and other school personnel should be equipped to make judgments about the extent to which students are meeting the standards, to diagnose student needs, and to provide particular interventions so that all students may succeed.

Goal 2: the Alliance works to ensure a safe and supportive place of learning for all students.

Schools should be fair, caring, and effective learning communities that are free from intimidation or fear. All students should be able to attend schools in which they are known and valued, their overall progress is monitored and supported by at least one adult, where they are provided clear and rigorous expectations of behavior and academic performance, and where they feel connected to their school community. Individual schools and school districts should address the ways that students learn best and accommodate children with special needs. Moreover, appropriate and rigorous alternative placements should be available to address the needs of students whose behavior is disruptive to the education of other students.

All adults within schools should work together to create safe and supportive learning communities by modeling behaviors that demonstrate the highest levels of respect, responsibility, character, and civility. Further, school districts and individuals should adopt and enforce clear codes of conduct for all students so that school personnel, students and parents share an understanding of the behavior that is expected of students and the consequences for not meeting those expectations. Teachers and other school personnel should receive training in the knowledge and skills necessary to create safe and supportive learning environments, including effective classroom management practices.

In addition, teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members, and other school leaders should put in place policies that reflect the best research on creating safe and supportive learning environments. Finally, all those involved with the delivery of public education should become advocates on behalf of youth to promote safe, healthy, orderly, and supportive communities beyond the walls of the school.

Goal 3: the Alliance works to engage parents and other community members in helping students achieve high academic expectations.

States and local school districts should maximize the ways that parents and community members can participate in schools. For example, community members and parents should participate in the development of standards, programs, and assessments that affect students' academic performance. Families should be encouraged to participate in all facets of the child's education. Public schools should develop partnerships with businesses, civic organizations, and other community groups to promote adult participation in children's education and to maximize the resources available to support learning. Teachers and other school personnel should be trained in effective practices that support parenting and parent involvement.