CSBD Project: Millennium Conference: Achieving High Educational Standards for All

The National Research Council (NRC) held a Millennium Conference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, to address issues affecting the educational achievement of minority and disadvantaged students. The conference was on September 21-22, 2000.

At the conference educators and policy makers at the national, state, and local levels heard from, and interacted with, leading experts in the demographics of the school-age population, issues in access and opportunity, learning research, teaching methods, reform efforts in high-poverty urban schools, and effective technical assistance. The Millennium Conference, entitled Achieving High Educational Standards for All, is an outgrowth of the recent NRC Research Conference on Racial Trends in the United States. The goals for the conference were to:

Analyze the progress that has been achieved to date in improving the educational opportunities and achievement of minority and disadvantaged youth.
Help to bridge the gap between research and practice by providing educators and policy makers with credible and reliable information about what works, information that will enable them to make informed decisions about how to use resources effectively to raise educational achievement for minority students.
Build understanding and capacity about how to identify and access high quality technical assistance.

The National Academy Press published the proceedings of the conference, which includes the most useful of the papers commissioned in preparation for the conference and a summary of the discussions.

This activity was preceded by two workshops. The first took place on April 14-15, 2000. Its purpose was to assess the current state of knowledge on the characteristics of technical assistance that make it effective and the circumstances that challenge its effectiveness. Technical assistance combines elements of training evaluation, information, provision, coordination, coaching, and consultation. In addition, the workshop helped with the planning of the technical assistance component of the Millennium Conference by identifying effective practices.

The legal policy workshop took place on June 29-30, 2000. This event, attended by lawyers, educators, and researchers, focused on educational adequacy and "high-stakes" testing.