The "Goals 2000: Educate America Act" emphasizes including all students in education reform considerations and expects all students to achieve world-class educational standards and learn challenging content to a high level of performance. The Act also establishes voluntary opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards. OTL standards are defined as the criteria for, and the basis of, assessing the sufficiency or quality of the resources, practices, and conditions necessary to provide all students with the opportunity to learn material in national or state content standards. Different perspectives view OTL standards as equivalent to school delivery standards, as part of systemic reform, as input conditions, and as a time variable. Issues surrounding OTL standards include: (1) how to define OTL standards, (2) how to measure OTL standards, (3) minimum standards and "dumbing down," (4) when OTL standards can be applied, (5) incorporating standards into existing procedures, and (6) potential for confusing policies and increasing legal issues. Students with disabilities are often excluded from discussions of OTL standards, and in including them, the qualitative nature of education must be considered in addition to the quantitative nature of instruction. Five recommendations are offered. (JDD)