Standards & Accountability Initiative

Opportunities to Learn

To improve standards, students must have every opportunity to learn to these standards. Without improving schools so that all teachers and students can aim high and learn well, standards become lofty, but dusty, documents on a shelf.

Most education groups that have embraced standards as a reform tool have also articulated what they view as necessary conditions for students to perform to standard. Whether they're called opportunity-to-learn standards, OTLs, supports for learning, conditions for learning, policy interventions, or something else, the following are useful starting points as you work in your communities to articulate your own, community-wide expectations for learning.

Learn about an Opportunities-to-Learn Survey developed by a consortium of local education funds in Pennsylvania.

Public Education Network
Public Education Network's policy areas for quality education are:

•	Every child enters school ready to learn.
•	Every child has access to a rich curriculum aligned to standards.
•	Every child has high-quality instruction.
•	Every child is in a school environment conducive to learning.
•	Every child has access to community services that support and enhance learning.

Read the full text of PEN's policy areas for investigation and analysis by the Standards & Accountability sites.

---

Partnership for Fair Chance Schools, Pennsylvania
The Partnership for Fair Chance Schools in Pennsylvania encourages counties to study what their schools need to succeed, and to create solutions that will raise student achievement and ensure accountability for how tax dollars are used. The possible categories for study groups are a useful framework for LEFs as they investigate quality education in their communities. These are: Readiness, Learning, Equity, Teaching, Materials, Facilities, Finances, Information, Resources, and Parents.