Today, President Clinton hosts an Education Town Meeting at the Robert C. Byrd High School in Clarksburg, West Virginia to promote his call for national education standards and tests. In his opening remarks, the President will focus on the need for adopting standards and the bipartisan support for the strategy, including endorsements by West Virginia Governor Underwood and Massachusetts Governor William Weld. In the forum, the President will highlight the types of skills and information students must master to meet national standards by working through some sample 4th grade reading and math test problems.

The audience is comprised of 160 parents, students, teachers, business and community leaders and others interested in education. The discussion is expected to focus on national standards and how we can prepare young people for the future.

In his State of the Union Address, President Clinton called on every state to adopt high national standards and tests in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math in order to make sure that every student masters these basic skills. The new tests will be based on the widely used National Assessment of Education Progress and will measure individual student performance against widely accepted content standards used by NAEP. The tests will be available for use in the Spring of 1999.