This third annual National Education Goals Report continues the work begun at the Charlottesville (Virginia) Education Summit in 1989, when the nation's governors and President Bush agreed on six national goals for education to be achieved by the year 2000. The goals were intended to energize public opinion and ongoing education reform efforts by holding the United States to much higher expectations for all students and for the schools and learning systems that serve them. This volume describes the educational standing of the nation. In this third report, the focus is on the rationale for and potential implications of the movement the effort has come to be most closely associated with: establishing voluntary nationwide education standards. As in the past, the report contains the most up-to-date information available on the nation's current status with regard to meeting the six goals. Overall, the findings continue to reveal how far the nation is from achieving the goals. Modest progress is apparent in some areas, such as mathematics achievement and school safety, but there is stagnation or movement in the wrong direction in others (high school completion and adult literacy). The current rate of progress is wholly inadequate for achievement of the goals by the year 2000. New analyses conducted for the Goals Panel show that nearly one-half of all infants born in the United States begin life with one or more factors considered risky to their long-term educational development. While the incidence of students being victimized at school appears to have declined slightly, the levels are still unacceptably high. About one in five 8th graders report being threatened with a weapon in 1992, while one out of ten report carrying a weapon on school grounds. By documenting without equivocation how much more effort is needed from all Americans, the Panel creates the conditions necessary for a significant renewal in American education. The report is illustrated by 137 exhibits. Three appendixes provide technical notes and sources, descriptions of federal programs, and department and agency titles. (SLD)