A Nation at Risk

That famous piece of bureaucracy encased in the report, "A Nation at Risk" certainly caused a stir in 1983 and it still, in my view, sadly remains a landmark that continues to bash public education as it set off the cry for accountability, national standards, testing and so very much more. As these particular features of American education still persist to this day it is worth noting that this report was driven during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan along with his Education Secretary William Bennett.

The report essentially said that many of America's teachers were not up to par. Of course, lots of blame was laid at the doorsteps of teacher associations...unions to many.

Though the movement spawned by this report was big on closing the gap between test scores of whites, blacks and others of color, it is worth noting that the report explicitly rejected many of the other civil rights oriented goals of the previous two decades. It's as if the report, and subsequent actions, were blind to many of the realities back then and even today. Yes, scores must improve but by not addressing those still harmed by the lack of civil and economic rights those actions were doomed to fail.

Perhaps the actions which followed in the aftermath of "A Nation at Risk," today's charters, mandated testing and the like did more to jeopardize or harm the nation than they solved. I believe it is worth thinking about!

Dick