The DAILY REPORT CARD is an update on the six education goals for America in the year 2000, adopted by the president and governors in February 1990.

The goals for the year 2000:

ONE: All children will start school ready to learn.

TWO: The high school graduation rate will be 90%.

THREE: Students will leave grades 4, 8, 12 competent in English, math, science, history, and geography.

FOUR: U.S. students will be first in math and science.

FIVE: Every adult will be literate, with the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy.

SIX: Every school will be free of drugs and violence.

FAMILIES WHO BAN TV: TYRANTS OR SAINTS?

Few American parents follow advice given by the broadcasting industry: "If you don't like what's on television, turn it off," writes the W.S. JOURNAL. (Graham) One father lamented: "I turned on the set in the early morning, and that night realized I'd lost maybe 14 hours watching sports. It hit me between the eyes “ I was the problem, not my kids." children with heavy viewers, "partly because exposure to­free television is so pervasive," according to the paper. The JOURNAL cites one study of an isolated town in the Canadian Rockies. Children's standardized test scores dropped within two years after the arrival of television in the mid­1970s. But competing data comes from a U.S. DoEd­funded study of scientific literature that concluded "TV habits had little effect on children's cognitive development or school performance," writes the paper.

"This medium is here to stay," said John Wright, co­director of the U of Kansas' Center for Research on the Influences of Television on Children. "Kids are going to process information more and more from screens and less from paper. To think you are doing your child a favor b making him cherish the old things to the exclusion of things he'll really need is incomplete parenting."

Chicago's private Waldorf School discourages television viewing by its students, and teachers say they easily can spot heavy TV watchers. "If you see kindergartners playing superheroes and pretending to kill and slice and hurt, it's a dead giveaway," said Joan Ingle, a therapist at the school. She added that TV and video games encourage aggressive behavior, impair a child's memory, attention span and imagination, reports the paper.

The JOURNAL describes the experiences of professional storyteller Odds Bodkin. "Like clockwork, after seven minutes a ripple goes through the crowd," said Bodkin. "Their inner clocks expect a commercial." He uses this cue to accelerate the story's pace, add music, or slip into one of many character voices in order to maintain the childrens' interest.

Pointers Run Elementary School in Clarksville, Md., last year sponsored a TV­free week, which was a difficult sell to many teachers and parents who "fretted about missing favorite shows," writes the paper. But more than 70% of the school's students participated in the program, and many parents now report a lower rate of TV viewing in their household, according to parent Ann Potts.

Experiments like Pointers Run are sprouting up nationwide, writes the paper. And parents report improved homework, better family relations and other positive results, said Marie Winn, author of "The Plug­In Drug," a book about TV addiction in children.

WATCHING VIOLENCE

U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D­Ill) applauds anti­violence measures agreed upon this week by broadcast and cable networks. They call for an outside monitor who would review programming for violent content and issue annual public report cards on its findings. Simon the "most outspoken congressional leader on the issue" said the initiatie marks "a real turn in our culture." (Edwards, WASH. POST, 2/2)

SAY A LITTLE PRAYER ...

...but only if it's "constitutionally protected," says the U.S. Senate. Members voted yesterday 75 to 22 in favor of Sen. Jesse Helms' (R­ NC) school­prayer amendment to the Goals 2000 bill. The amendment calls for Congress to deny federal aid to schools that bar children from engaging in "constitutionally protected" prayer. Liberal senators agreed to the amendment after Sen. Bob Packwood (R­OR) added the constitutional language (Dewar, WASH. POST, 2/4).